But even if big donors vanished from campaign financing, we'd still be left with the crying need for media finance reform. Free and open discourse is essential to democracy. But no one on the Senate floor has demanded the taming of the nation's media giants. Amid all the talk about the sanctity of the First Amendment, we don't hear politicians or mainstream pundits insisting that multibillion-dollar conglomerates be pushed off its windpipe. As a practical matter, the top guarantee in the Bill of Rights is gasping for breath.
Free speech is of limited value when freedom to be heard requires big bucks.
Norman Solomon's latest book, The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media , won the 1999 George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language, presented by the National Council of Teachers of English. MediaBeat appears every Friday. Discuss MediaBeat in altcity , our electronic community.