And the media has in its own way become one of those special interests, with its own corporate priorities that often put the public interest last. It takes a writer like E.L. Doctorow to get at what eludes most journalism. Somewhere along the line political office-holding became a profession. To keep working, politicians have regularly to come like buskers into the street, sing their song and dance their jig and hold out their hats. In the best of them, this ritual has to induce a degree of self-hatred.
Television is the major reason campaigning is so monstrously expensive.
Yet this issue is conspicuous in its absence. Jesse Jackson didn't go into it. The Kennedy's ignored it. And the labor unions don't mention it. They want to get into the media, not transform it.