Dollarocracy

April 22, 2013
Nichols and McChesney (coauthors of The Death and Life of American Journalism and cofounders of Free Press, a media reform group) are both despairing and hopeful in this incisive account of what they see as corporate America’s hijacking of the election process. While the $10 billion spent in the 2012 presidential election was unprecedented, America’s plutocrats have long been determined to make their vote count. Though contesting this trend is a deeply rooted American tradition, it’s troubling to read about dismantled restrictions against corporate dominance, beginning with Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell who, in 1978, laid the groundwork for the problematic 2011 Citizens United decision. As the authors note, unchecked out-of-state donations ensure that elected officials hold no loyalty to their constituents. Their examination of media involvement proves less precise. It remains unclear whether they are positing that media conglomerates collude with business by narrowing coverage in order to rake in billions in political advertising, allow advertising to drive the story, or roll over and play dead. The hopefulness here is in the authors’ prescription: encouraging the growing movement to amend the Constitution to overturn Citizens United; a call for more robust public broadcasting; and an appeal to make voting a Constitutional guarantee. They conclude with a fervent call to all citizens to “refuse to be ridden by a booted, and spurred favored few.” Agent: Sandra Dijkstra, the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency.

May 15, 2013
Collaborating once more (The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that Will Begin the World Again, 2010), Nichols, the Nation's Washington, D.C., correspondent, and academic McChesney (Communications/Univ. of Illinois) decry the pernicious influence of Big Money on our elections. Mining the $10 billion 2012 campaign for supporting data and illustrative anecdotes, the authors explain how the plutocrats have seized control of our electoral process, to the detriment of everyday Americans. It's a conspiracy, they write, among the major parties, their big money donors, lobbyists, consultants, super PACs and giant media corporations, all benefiting from the status quo. The unobstructed flow of Big Money washing through the system has been aided, they argue, by a series of Supreme Court decisions that beat back any attempt at reform--Citizens United is singled out for special opprobrium--and abetted by a supine journalistic establishment too obsessed with the horse race and too beholden to the financial windfall accompanying each election cycle to advocate for change. Though Nichols and McChesney take an occasional swipe at the "too friendly to business" ethos that infected the Democrats under Clinton and the Obama campaign's dangerous, digital incursions on our privacy, they reserve most of their fire for Republicans, for their wealthy backers--the Koch brothers, Richard Mellon Scaife, Sheldon Adelson--their supportive media--Fox News, Rush Limbaugh--political masterminds--Karl Rove, Lee Atwater--and judicial "architects" of the dollarocracy--Burger, Powell, Roberts--who've helped ensure a corrupt system. The authors reject contentions that the Internet will permit voters to break through the barriers erected by the moneyed interests and, instead, propose a radical reform agenda that includes a constitutional amendment to dispose of Citizens United, the abolition of the Electoral College, free airtime for candidates and the establishment of a nonpartisan Election Commission. An alarming, not-incorrect diagnosis, but an argument too one-sided and a solution so lofty as to be of little use.

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