Start rant:

Have you ever just wanted to at the television or radio during a press conference or an interview with political officeholders or operatives? Stomping up and down I often yell, “Why didn’t you ask [X]?” Well, the press “why” is the same “why” we don’t have single-payer health care: profit-motive.

Yearning for the almighty dollar has trumped the overall good that Our Founders sought from a Free Press.



It’s a simple, sickening tautology: 1. The press needs/wants to make money. 2. To make money, the press must have access. 3. To have access they must (and here’s the real problem) cover the powerful favorably. 4. With access (through favorable coverage) they get access. 5. Through access they get the story, thus money.

The reverse: unfavorable coverage gets access denied. So if a person in the press asks the questions that we often scream at whatever news delivering mosheen we are tuned to, they get no access, thus no money.

So what questions might you ask? Here are a few that have come to mind of late.

Bush on “Energy Independence”:



But, it was touted by the Governor of Alaska that 80% of Alaska’s energy production is exported. Granted, they have voluntarily stopped exporting crude oil – but there is no prohibition (as there was until 2001). And we could probably (call me crazy) use those other forms of energy domestically in that we are in an “energy crisis” not just an oil crisis. The question:



I’d bet not. The Republicans won’t even restrict oil speculation via an increase in margins from 5% to 50%. Free trade, ya know…



Uh, hello? Please, ask the question:


Other than politically motivated semantics, of course…



Question to President Bush:



Of course, McCain did nothing; other than support a competing bill, try to kill the bill the President signed and chastise the now enacted bill as unpatriotic.

But if one were to ask such a question, they might just get this type of response from Bush:



I guess McCain learned from his now mentor, George W.

Control the press via access, thereby control the message and win the war, using a press more concerned with profits than getting information to the voters.



I bet there are a lot of other questions out there that you all would like to be asked.

Please feel free to share!