RE: First Amendemnt

[Denise Hood <hoodsx3@aol.com>]

>From Kevin's Message:
"If candidates do not have avenues to disseminate their messages, will media giants such as: AOL Time-Warner, Disney, Fox, and Westinghouse have tremendous influence over what messages we receive?"

Kevin, haven't you observed, from the example of this most recent campaign year, that the media does NOT present a fair and level playing field to both candidates? Just in the case of the presidential election, don't you feel that the media's focus and bias was and continues to be WAY too transparent? There are those who maintain that we suffer from a "liberal media bias," although this is laughable and nothing could be farther from the truth. The way the 2 presidential candidates were presented, the focus of scrutiny and criticism being constantly levelled at the one, distorting his record, misquoting him, fabricating little mini-scandals, etc. while at he same time choosing to ignore legitimate concerns about the other's background, and refusing to investigate or report anything negative on that candidate...it added up to a deliberate effort on the part of the media to shape public opinion, which would translate into votes at the polls. So to sum it up, the mainstream media, in my opinion, was a major factor, if not THE major factor in shaping the outcome of this election.

If we did not rely so heavily on the media to shape our opinions of candidates, and/or and the media was forced to accept a major role in providing an EQUAL amount of time for debates and town-hall forums where we can see the candidates up close and personal, without the media acting as a sort of "prism" that distorts our perception of the candidates, this might go a long way toward freeing our candidates and public opinion form the undue influence of the so-called "Fourth Estate."