Letter to the Editor

CBS- News880 Radio

Chrys Quimby

July 2, 2004

 Thanks for your response- below is a letter to the editor that will be published in the Journal News. I have paid attention to politics and public policy since I was in my teens. Over the past 40 years I have been in more political campaigns than I care to remember. I wish to reiterate that your on-air remarks smacked of “monster media” arrogance. Whether one agrees with George Bush, current American policy, the direction we are going as a society, our leadership of the western (free) world, or a myriad of other issues, one must understand that we have become a terribly divided and polarized nation. What so irks me, and so many others, is the fact that much of the airwaves are dominated by previously marginalized one-issue endomorphs.  It seems that the “mainstream” media constantly seems to bend over backwards to be fair to these individuals, especially the ones on the right. I regard myself as a “centrist” who clearly understands the dynamics of what motivates the many different aspects and angles of opinion in America. But for sure, Moore's film has, in the vernacular, exposed the sordid underbelly of international business regarding the Bush family's relationship with the House of Saud. In the main, though, we as a society must confront the fact that lower middle class Americans are doing most of the fighting and dying for our continued American economic hegemony. I have nothing against our hegemony, and I support our dynamic capitalistic system. But we need “fairness” and the current rift in the American body politic is a reflection of that 'great divide” that continues to widen between rich and poor. Essentially the mainstream media is “rich” and must be careful to not exacerbate that continuing fissure. Michael Moore has exposed that growing chasm more than once. He has taken on the corporate greed resulting in the degradation of Flint, Michigan. He has taken on the NRA and the fact that we have over 11,000 firearm deaths in America, probably more than the whole outside civilized world has had in decades, and now has taken on the “war for oil.” There is no doubt that we need oil and it is the lifeblood and mother's milk of our industrialized world. But let us recognize that fact and spell it out. Moore's “documentary” is no less dramatic than Murrow's “Harvest of Shame” or his exposure of Senator Joe McCarthy and his tactic of political character assassination. We must recognize that Moore has made an important and dramatic contribution to this ongoing argument as to who “rules” America, the people or Wall Street?

RJ Garfunkel