ELVEDERETIBURON LIBRARY 3 1111 02151 0712 Senator Mike Gravel DAVID EISENBACH, PhD and H A €#< pyfoL / Y fT V]| f ^1 ^^B*»^ ! \ l WITHUS wm k *0WKSHT tU .4 The KINGMAKERS How the Media Threatens Our Security and Our Democracy U.S. hy does the media always blow the big stories? From 9/11 to Iraq's WMDs, from Iran's nuclear program to the "inevitable" — Hillary Clinton the divide between reality and the so-called "news" has never been more dramatic or dangerous. In The Kingmakers Senator Mike Gravel and Dr. David Eisenbach argue that the media's failure to present the public with an accurate view of the world poses a greater threat to American lives than terrorism. They also show how the greatest threat to our democracy is not money. It's the media. Long before the majority of voters pay attention to presidential elections, the media Kingmakers filter the presidential field and anoint the "leading candidates." Gravel and Eisenbach propose a powerful antidote tothe Kingmakers' poisonous influence on American politics: participatory journalism. Blogs, chat rooms, virtual worlds and Internet contributions have empowered ordinary citizens to change the course of American history and inaugurate a new wave of democratization that America hasn't seen since the Jacksonian era. The KINGMAKERS How the Media Threatens Our Security and Our Democracy Senator Mike Gravel DAVID EISENBACH, PhD and Copyright© 2008Mike Gravel, DavidEisenbach &PhoenixBooks, Inc. All rightsreserved. Written permission mustbesecuredfrom the publisher touse orreproduce anypartofthisbook, exceptbriefquotationsin critical reviewsandarticles. Theopinionsexpressedin thisbookare thoseofthe authorofthisbookand do notnecessarilyreflecttheviewsofthepublisheroritsaffiliates. ISBN-10: 1-59777-586-X ISBN-13: 978-1-59777-586-1 LibraryofCongressCataloging-In-Publication DataAvailable BookDesign by: CarolynWendt CoverPhotography: Keith Olberman, Paul Drinkwater/NBCNewsWirevia APImages; Bill O'Reilly,APImages/JeffChristensen: Brian Williams,AP Images/ ReedSaxon; ChrisMatthews,APImages/MarkJ.Terrill; Katie Couric,AP [mages/ LucasJackson;Tim Russert,APImages/Jim Cole;Anderson Cooper,AP Images/ Diane Bondareff; Wolf Blitzer,AP Images/Jae C. Hong Printed in the United StatesofAmerica PhoenixBooks, Inc. 9465Wilshire Boulevard, Suite840 BeverlyHills, CA90212 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Dedicated to Whitney Gravel and Stephanie Gangi Digitized by the Internet Archive 2012 in http://archive.org/details/kingmakershowmedOOgrav CONTENTS Introduction 7 Chapter One The Real 9/11 Cover-up 11 Chapter Two War Drums Pounding in the Echo Chamber 45 Chapter Three Lipstick on a Pig: The Iraq War Coverage 87 Chapter Four Ahmadinejad: America's Next Top Boogeyman 115 Chapter Five The "Likeability" Election 137 Chapter Six Maverick in the Echo Chamber 163 Conclusion America's Wise Fools 183 Notes 195