I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that Washington Post lefty E.J. Dionne would be whining about the death of McCain-Feingold, but I still thought this was quite amusing:
Think of this rather persuasive moment in a chat between a corporate lobbyist and a senator: “Are you going to block that taxpayer bailout we want? Well, I'm really sorry, but we're going to have to run $2 million worth of really vicious ads against you.” The same exchange might take place on tax breaks, consumer protections, environmental rules and worker safeguards.
I alluded to this just the other day, but where does he think those ads are going to run? The only power and influence the corporations have vis-a-vis advertising is the power that the media outlets give them. If the media don't want the corporations to have that power, all they have to do is not sell them ads. All they have to do is not buy what those eeeevil corporations are trying to sell them. Hey, E.J. and all the rest of you Old Media hacks whining about this: Put your money where your damn mouth is. Go to your advertising departments and let them know when those corporations' ad reps come calling during election time to buy column-inches or airtime, that they are to tell those reps to put their money back in their pockets and hit the door. Honestly, is it really that hard to figure out? I guess it is, if you're an "Authorized Journalist."
On another note, I have noted before how appalling I think it is when said journalists use their First Amendment rights to take a dump on the Second. I thought there was nothing more despicable than that, but then I never thought I'd see anyone who'd call himself or herself a journalist use his or her own First Amendment rights to shit on OTHER people's 1A rights. But ultimately I'd guess it's more sour grapes than anything else. I remember this comment from The Bayou blog post mentioned the other day, and I'd have to say it's about right:
...you are part of a huge corporation who has had unfettered political access for the last 63 years. The only difference between your big corporation and most others is that you a goddamned failure. It pisses you off that corporations that actually pay their talent big bucks to do their thing have now leveled the playing field with your idiot business model.
Yep. Damn journalists can piss and moan about greed and money fueling the process all day long, but I bet you deep down most of them would love to make more of that money, no matter how well they're compensated, too. And I bet you most of them know deep down that it's those eeevil corporations that help keep food in their mouths and roofs over their heads. Which is the most likely explanation of why you see them keeping their asses in their seats instead of going to the ad departments and telling the ad salespeople to stand up for principle, because deep down they know they'd be laughed out of the room for the monosynaptic mouth-breathing morons they are.
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