ABC Dismisses Third-Parties as too "Radical" for Serious Consideration

This story from ABC News ("Here Comes the Green Party: More Jobs, Pot, No 'Servants to Wall Street'," 6/06/2012) is emblematic of the type of snide, condescending news coverage the Green Party, and other third-party candidates routinely receive (that is, when the mainstream media can be bothered to offer any coverage at all).

Not even a pretense of journalistic objectivity here. Reporter Matt Negrin even acknowledges third-parties like the Greens, "don't get much respect from the political establishment." (Or, for that matter, the corporate news networks.) He then goes on to justify this lack of respect as "probably because third-party ideas tend to be a bit radical."

I'm sorry, but which specific part of Green candidate, Jill Stein's platform does Negrin find "radical"? The part about creating 25 million jobs? The notion of legalizing marijuana may have been considered radical 30 years ago, but even Maine has at least two medical marijuana dispensaries, now. And even President Obama has argued for shrinking the size of the military budget--even if he has actually increased it.

Meanwhile, truly radical policies like the Patriot Act, the NDAA, permanent tax-cuts for the wealthy and the abolition of workers' collective-bargaining rights are regularly presented by news organizations like ABC as reasonable, thoughtful and "moderate."

Kind of illustrates who the real radicals are.

For an intelligent, substantive article on Stein and her platform that was not written by a petulant 13-year-old, click here.