Crashing the Party, by Ralph Nader: on Technology
Ross Perot:
1992: 30-minute TV spots shook establishment; banned in 1996
In 1992, Ross Perot came on the scene, and his wealth and widespread polling support led to his being allowed to join the debates. His polls went up, too. He received 19 million votes, shaking the political establishment with his Reform Party and his
paid televised lectures. Never again, vowed the two parties. Fully 92 million Americans saw the debate among Perot, Clinton and Bush, more than double the average of the three 2000 debates. Too destabilizing for the duopoly. Perot was barred in 1996 by a
series of vague criteria based on interviews with columnists, pollsters, and consultants who concurred that he could not win. He was also barred by the national television networks from buying the same kind of 30-minute time slots that brought his
message of deficit reduction and political reform into the living rooms of millions of households.Speaking with him after the election, I said, "Ross, at least you've proved that the big boys can keep even a megabillionaire off the air."
Source: Crashing the Party, by Ralph Nader, p.159
Oct 14, 2002
Ralph Nader:
Media coverage moving from sound bites to sound barks
I went to find NBC for an invited interview by Maria Shriver on the premises of the Republican National Convention. The area was like a military encampment: security personnel, multiple checkpoints, and trailers with security equipment were omnipresent.
Demonstrators were not allowed within the fenced encirclements.Inside, I was driven in a golf cart to the NBC installation. I asked the driver where the interview was to take place, and he pointed skyward. At the top of a 40-foot scaffold were
perilously perched Ms. Shriver and her camera crew. I asked why--why this Tower of Pisa? She pointed to the view of the Convention Center bathed in a spotlight as the one and only reason. A quick three-minute interview followed, allowing only for short
answers to complex questions.
I climbed down the narrow staircase, wondering how reporters like Shriver can take year after year of what they believe are shallow formats with ever shorter sound bites heading, it seems, for a future of sound barks.
Source: Crashing the Party, by Ralph Nader, Chapter One
Oct 9, 2002
Ralph Nader:
Internet encourages small donations but not voter turnout
All the presidential and vice presidential candidates used the Internet with elaborate, heavily worked Web sites. They enthusiastically counted the millions of hits. They poured out notices and messages and got replies back.
Millions of voters purportedly got more engaged in watching, reacting and commenting on these campaigns.
The Internet age, a hundred pundits predicted, would greatly change political campaigning and fund-raising. Well, it proved to be a very cheap fund-raising medium that encouraged small givers.
But for increasing voter turnout--another frequent prediction--it was disappointing.
Source: Crashing the Party, by Ralph Nader, p.128-129
Jan 17, 2002
Ralph Nader:
TV news is sparse, abbreviated, and very repetitious
The newspapers take elections more seriously than the broadcast media. TV and radio have many ready-made excuses for their shrinking coverage. A 22-minute national television news program, excluding advertising time, is not sprung from holy writ. The
format of the local television news, with its 9 minutes of ads, with several leadoff accounts from the police crime blotter, 4 minutes of sports, 4 minutes of weather, 1 minute of chitchat, and the prescribed animal and medical journal health story, is
not carved in stone. Apart from public radio and the few nonprofit community radio stations, commercial radio and TV devote about 90% of airtime around the clock to entertainment and advertisements. News is sparse, abbreviated, and very repetitious.
When radio is not singing or selling, it is traffic, weather, and sports with headline news spots. The number of reporters and editors has been cut to the bone. No more are there FCC requirements for ascertaining the news needs of the community.
Source: Crashing the Party, by Ralph Nader, p.161
Jan 17, 2002
Ralph Nader:
FCC gave away $70B of spectrum but blocked non-profits
No more are there FCC requirements for ascertaining the news needs of the community. Gone are the Fairness Doctrine and the Right of Reply. In 1996 there was near silence on the tube regarding the congressional fight to block the giveaway of $70 billion
worth of the new spectrum to the television stations--a giveaway opposed even by the GOP candidate that year, Robert Dole. The notorious Telecommunications Act of 1996 received the cold shoulder, notwithstanding its paving the way for a massive binge
of mergers and further concentration of media power. In 2000 the FCC, under its chairman, William Kennard, started granting community radio licenses to nonprofit neighborhood associations. The formidable media lobby, led by the national Association of
Broadcasters, descended on Congress. They pummeled into line a majority of Congress to pass legislation, which Clinton reluctantly signed, that blocked the FCC from licensing these little stations, which could accept no paid advertising.
Source: Crashing the Party, by Ralph Nader, p.161
Jan 17, 2002
Page last updated: Jul 04, 2012