You might think that the voters of Georgia would get to choose their political representatives, but in a little known fact, it is actually powerful individuals in the media and business who choose who will represent us. That is why we always seem to get the short end of the stick on things like healthcare, education, and, heck, just being able to pay the bills! You can see this in the one hand feeds the other system of the media, where powerful media figures effectively control who will be elected to public office.
Case in point, the race for Georgia’s 6th Congressional District, where the Atlanta Journal Constitution (aka the Sandy Springs Journal Constitution after they pulled out of their downtown headquarters to try and retain ultra-right readers) have done a series of puff pieces for a guy named Bobby Kaple, whose only qualification for running for Congress is that, hey, he’s one of the boys! Seems like standing in front of a teleprompter and reading the news is suddenly a qualification for one of the most important jobs in the land.
No matter that Kaple has no government experience whatsoever- hey, that didn’t stop the orange looking dude, did it? Nor does he have any leadership experience. If standing in front of a camera and talking off the top of your head was good enough for our current clown-in-chief, why should it be any different for Kaple?
It’s well known that the Georgia media system does not operate on a system of ethical and principled approaches to journalism where a lack of bias and independent unbiased reporting are the sought after goals. Rather it is a tit-for-tat system where you give me a lead and I’ll pay you back later with a juicy headline or some other nutritious morsel.
Which is why it is all the more compelling when one of their own runs for office. I mean, what better way to store up credits for future scoops than to do a puff piece on your buddy newscaster, who you’ve probably bonded with in the past over a few brews scattered with political gossip.
Which is why our local media wasd only too glad to pour on the praise and publicity for their fellow media comrade, don’t mind the lack of experience. To whit our local political reporter for the AJC, Greg Bluestein.
Word is to get coverage in the AJC it’s a kind of scratch my back I’ll scratch your’s kind of thing. Doesn’t sound much like a free press supporting democracy, does it? Oh well, I guess they just kinda got tired.
Bluestein wrote a breathless full page article on this exciting entry into Georgia’s 6th Congressional District race. This was followed by this article and this article.
Positively inspiring, isn’t it?
But was he the only one running? Apparently not, according to this tired tweet from Bluestein’s twitter account (@bluestein) about Kevin Abel where he says “Another day another democratic candidate for Georgia’s 6th district.” Doesn’t seem he’s as excited as for his pal Kaple, is he?
There are actually three people running in this race. Kaple, Kevin Abel, and Richard Keatley. Bluestein gave a one line mention for Keatley stating he “got 0.1% of the electoral vote in the last election.” Well the other guys had $20-30M, kinda hard to beat that, duh. Unlike Kaple, who has done nothing except talk to the TV, Keatley was a naval officer with 42 sailors under his command, which speaks to a track record of leadership. But I guess talking to the TV “Trumps” all that.
Which makes you wonder, who’s running this country, anyway?
