Well, now that Christmas is “officially” over, and the mad rush has begun as retailers try to salvage what’s left of the season, the 2008 race will shift gears and go into overdrive. A lot of us (except for those of us who are political junkies, and even then…) have already overdosed on Presidential politics, especially people in tiny, homogenous states that start with “N” and “I.” Since I’m not officially registered with either party, I’ve been spared most mailings, but I’ve received my fair share of mass e-mails and the like from various candidates.

Now there’s a job I should have tried for: campaign blogger, or helping to send out political e-ads and e-mailings– definitely up my alley, and doesn’t require hearing.

So far I’ve been fairly unimpressed with the motley crew attempting to seize the nominations of their parties. I still haven’t settled on a candidate (more on that later), but what I’m seeing in the papers and online isn’t too impressive. Most of the news coverage thus far has been biographical accounts, occasional coverage of the debates and the like, and puff pieces designed by reporters, editors, and corporate bosses to manufacture fake conflicts and issues that have nothing to do with the suitability of a candidate for office. Things like $400 haircuts, whether a candidate is too “cold” or “angry” or “artificial” doesn’t tell me whether they can come in and do a halfway decent job of cleaning up the mess that Smirk will leave us with come January 20, 2009.

In this country, we supposedly have three branches of government. But I think in reality, we have five, and right now at this point in the political process, we really only have one, maybe one-and-a-half. Here’s the five, by my personal reckoning: the executive, the legislative, the judiciary, the press, and the people. The executive, as is obvious to those of us with at least half a brain, was seized in a bloodless coup d’etat in November of 2000, and has been firmly in the control of soulless political operatives, neocons, and theocons since. The legislative branch was DOA about the same time, and has either been in control of the same folks who run the executive branch, or run by a bunch of empty suits who owe their professional lives to the military-industrial complex, the medical-industrial complex, and the heads of global corporations, to the detriment of the people who actually live in this nation. The judiciary is in the process of being subverted, but there are still some independent judges out there. The press is, unfortunately, in bed with the gummint, and has been for some time. The people, for the most part, are brain-dead and unwilling to look beyond their wallets to realize that they’ve been hoodwinked by the preceding four aspects of the nation into a world that is completely different from the one they’d been taught about in school.

However, “we the people” possess quite a bit of power when we use it properly. The key to being able to do so is to have a press that acts independently of government, and assumes its dual role: first, to disseminate news, and second, to act as a watchdog of sorts against institutions in this country. So to my mind, one of the biggest problems that needs to be solved is reforming our media. To do so, first we have to understand the situation itself.

This blog post from last month illustrates perfectly what we’re up against. James Clay Fuller, a retired newsman, has pretty much nailed where the press has gone wrong. As he states, in part:

 …almost all large news peddlers now are in the hands of six large conglomerates and, to a very large extent, serve the purposes of their hugely rich and right wing owners rather than the needs of the public.

He goes on to outline exactly what’s wrong with the media, and I think he’s dead-on in his criticisms. He ends by stating that we as consumers have a responsibility to speak out and ensure our media does the job it’s supposed to.

 Part of that responsibility is to understand what’s gone wrong, and reading Fuller’s thoughts is a step in the right direction. The next move is to absorb that information, and then develop some kind of strategy to save the press from itself. It’ll be difficult, especially in the face of the recent FCC decision to loosen controls on media ownership in local markets, but it has to be done if there’s any chance of saving the nation from itself.

It’s too late for the 2008 election, unfortunately, but perhaps enough people will pay attention and we can start having a national dialogue and try to work on reforms for 2010; if that can be done, these changes could form a blueprint for 2012.

If we don’t reform the media though, I’m not sure if there’s any hope for reforms in government, politics, and the electoral system. Like it or not, information systems make a huge difference in how people learn about their government, about their society, and retain knowledge about how the world works. Whether you get your news from traditional media such as the radio, television, or newspapers, or from the web, the citizenry has the responsibility to help keep our media honest.