I watched the local news at noon the day John

Kerry came to town. The top story was the arrest of a murderer, then coverage moved to Kerry. Kerry was shown standing around the airport

waiting for something to happen. No on-the-scene sound was included, just a voice-over reading his schedule.

After Kerry’s two

minutes, coverage shifted to Duhbya. Bush was shown, as he always is, in front of a crowd, giving a speech. We heard him speak: ”a

certain senator who has been around a while. He’s been around so long he has taken about both sides of every issue.” Re-read that

stunningly inarticulate dig (after so many opportunities to rehearse it). This same clip appeared on a later local broadcast on a

different station.

The TV programmers will insist they fairly showed equal time for both candidates. One was silenced — the other

delivered precisely the message he wants us to beLIEve, however ineptly.

”The Press” we used to count on has long be replaced by

”The Media,” which exists to fatten its shareholders. The duty to inform has been replaced by the desire to sell. We have given

away the public airwaves (which used to belong to the People) and now our airwaves and our money are being used to steal our freedom to

choose wisely. We are being sold the product that benefits the shareholders the most. Forget about what’s good for America. mjh

”Blow up your TV.” — John Prine.