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Internet and Cable TV Shake Up Democracy
Very rarely are we given the opportunity as citizens to participate in a revolution. The citizens that founded our republic participated in a revolution that has affected every corner of the earth for more than 200 years now. Our grandfathers and fathers participated in a revolution during World War II when we successfully ridded the world of Adolph Hitler and his technology of death that was sweeping civilization.
Finally we all participated in a quiet revolution when Communism fell to its knees a little more than a decade ago, and went out with a WHIMPER. It didn’t have to be that way. Millions could have died in Eastern Europe and in the USSR itself. Very quietly, this brutal totalitarian dictatorship that sought to enslave the planet quietly disappeared, and more remarkably, they all became capitalists. What a wild world we live in.
I submit to you that we are on the eve of a new American Revolution, perhaps as powerful as the birth of our democracy in the 1700’s. What has happened is that the power in this country is in the process of being re-distributed to the people themselves who are the voters. We were born as a Republic, remember the words, “And to the Republic, for which it stands,” in the Pledge of Allegiance. We are fast becoming a Democracy based on the information dispersion created by the Internet and cable television as a tool in everybody’s home.
Granted there is tremendous noise on the Internet, meaning that there is an abundance of useless information, but in the universe there are many gems, and they are on the Internet as well. Think about what has happened in just a few short years? It wasn’t so long ago, that mainstream media had a 100% liberal bias. Clearly, an objective look at ABC, NBC, and CBS would reveal their liberal orientation. From their origins to their story topics, the media always played it to the left of center. Richard Nixon would NEVER have had to resign from office if the either the Senate or the House was Republican and the media was neutral.
Today, with the Internet and Cable television, the tide has certainly evened up, and maybe swung to the other side. Dan Rather of CBS broadcast a disparaging story on George Bush and the National Guard which may have been correct, but Rather knew he couldn’t prove it. In an attempt to influence the election two weeks before the election, he broadcasted it anyway. The Internet blows up his 40 year career and forced his resignation. The bloggers were relentless in attacking Rather and it resulted in the disgraceful behind the scenes, to date never revealed story of the firing of Dan Rather. Without the Internet and Cable television, Dan Rather would still be representing his liberal bias on prime time television every night.
Traditional media and print journalism can’t stand what has happened with the Internet and cable revolution we are participating in. When Republican Congressman Foley committed political suicide by writing inappropriate sexual e-mails to young pages, you and I were able to get on the Internet and read the e-mails for ourselves to determine the guilt of innocence of this man. We didn’t need anybody with a POLITICAL AGENGA filtering it for us, and therein lies the REVOLUTION.
We are able to filter stories for ourselves. No longer do I have to listen to Dan Rather tell me what’s right or wrong. I can listen to Rather, read the NY Times, and go to the Internet and Cable TV to get additional information that the liberals refuse to divulge to me.
The following will amaze you. A month before we invaded Iraq there was a former weapons inspector on television giving an interview in which he spoke in an explosive voice. He was ranting and raving that “There are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and we aren’t going to find any.” I thought he was crazy, but I also said to myself, this is former weapons inspector who was THERE. He’s not a recently released patient from an insane asylum.
Now the reality is that he was right, and the President was wrong, the CIA was wrong, the military was wrong. How was this guy right, and knew he was right, and a 300 billion dollar a year war machine couldn’t get it right? I have never seen or heard from this individual again. Has he been hushed up, why no interview, articles, or books? After all, he got it right, and we all got it wrong.
The Internet is leveling the playing field. If you want to know why John Kerry lost the national election, look to the Internet. The guy was being defined by the Internet before he could define himself. I know Governor Pataki was making a joke when he said that “John Kerry has to Google himself every morning to see where he stands on the issues,” but he wasn’t so far off the truth in retrospect.
If I could have one prayer answered in politics, and I believe it’s going to be answerd, this would be it. I would like to see every candidate, liberal or conservative raise 100% of their financial backing from the Internet and be free from these Special Interests and Lobbyists that are DESTROYING the democratic basis of our country. I don’t want the drug companies to dictate pricing to Medicare for drugs for senior citizens. I also don’t want teacher’s lobbies dictating education in this country.
Did you know from kindergarten through senior year of high school, our education system ranks 16th in the world? On a college level, we rank number one and there is no one even close. Why you ask? It’s because the college system is private, and the public system is not. Even on a college level when you have public colleges like the University of California system or State University of New York system, they are world class only because they have to compete against a private system. Our public school system doesn’t compete, and therefore it is allowed to remain mediocre in the face of 15 superior systems throughout the world.
It is time for the Revolution to continue. By 2012, we will not recognize the political system in the United States as the dispersion of information shifts unfiltered to the people through the Internet’s power. We should all welcome it, and thank God for it. What a wonderful thing that we will be alive to see it.
Goodbye and Good Luck
Richard Stoyeck
November 3, 2006
About the Author: Richard Stoyeck’s background includes being a limited partner at Bear Stearns, Senior VP at Lehman Brothers, Kuhn Loeb, Arthur Andersen, and KPMG. Educated at Pace University, NYU, and Harvard University, today he runs Rockefeller Capital Partners and StocksAtBottom.com
http://www.stocksatbottom.com
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