WGN joins the blackout

A local TV station in Chicago, WGN, which is broadcast throughout the US, has taken to using the phrase "a three candidate race" for the GOP primary. This is the latest, but every single day someone tells me of the latest saga in the Ron Paul blackout.

I think after Tuesday, I will, based on principle, boycott all local news that does not give Ron Paul fair coverage and boycott their advertisers as well.

Something that worries me, however, is that doing so will distance me from the omissions in a way that will not permit me to reference them in my conversations with others. Referencing them and recording them are important in order to credibly portray the blackout to others, and in return strengthen Ron Paul as a legitimate candidate despite the fact that he is virtually unknown.

The media has done a genuine disservice to the American people by not reporting on a candidate who opposes the war, opposes our foreign occupation, and seeks to bring our soldiers home in order to defend our own soil and fund programs like Social Security. I know that this disservice happens because several times a day it is clear to me that the person I am talking to is longing for a candidate saying the things Ron Paul is saying. Just today, I spoke at a retirement home and two members of the twenty member audience came to me and told me essentially that. Others, from the nods, from their comments, found sense in his words. I want Ron Paul to be president, but we NEED for Ron Paul's ideas to become a legitimate part of public dialog.

Yesterday, a buddy of mine who was not aware of Ron Paul just a few months ago, wrote a letter on this topic to a well respected local anchor. I might place that letter and her response here in the future, with his permission. These personal letters to respected journalists and to advertisers, pointing out specific omissions of Ron Paul must become commonplace. The loss of respect that we have for the journalists that we've always respected must be told to them. They must hear how disappointed we are in them, in the hopes that it inspires better behavior in them. And if that doesn't work, we will definitely get the word to them via their advertisers (who don't expect reduced sales from their expensive advertising budgets).

Local election boards decide who the candidates are, not journalists or media moguls.

Allan
(writing from the South Loop HQ in Chicago, IL)