John Nichols & Robert McChesney: Dollarocracy: The Money and Media Election Complex

KPFA Radio presents:

An Evening with John Nichols & Robert McChesney
“DOLLAROCRACY: How the MONEY and MEDIA ELECTION COMPLEX is DESTROYING AMERICA
Hosted by KRIS WELCH

$12 advance tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/461977 :: 800-838-3006 or Pegasus Books
(3 locations), Marcus Books, Mrs. Dalloway’s, Moe’s, Walden Pond, DIESEL a Bookstore, and Modern Times ($15 door)
KPFA benefit Information: http://www.kpfa.org/events
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“… no two people are more dedicated to the transformative, democratizing
power of journalism not as it is, but as it should be.”—Naomi Klein

In their new book, Dollarocracy: How the Money and Media Election Complex is Destroying America, Nichols and McChesney - two leading media experts – examine the forces that have sapped elections of their meaning and stolen America’s democratic potential. The 2012 election was a quantum leap: it was America’s first $10 billion election campaign. While U.S. elections have never been perfect, the country is now hurtling toward a point where the electoral process itself ceases to function as a means for citizens to effectively control leaders and to guide government policies.

Nichols and McChesney make a powerful case for amending the constitution to address the wildly undue influence corporate money is having on our elections.
They describe pay-to-play billionaires and the crass politicians who do their bidding, corporations that have been free to buy elections and activist judges who merely advance their agenda, and the media conglomerates that blow off journalism while raking in billions airing intellectually repugnant, morally reprehensible political advertising. This poses a terrifying challenge to the DNA
of American democracy itself.

John Nichols is the Nation magazine’s Washington, D.C. correspondent. A pioneering political blogger, he has written the magazine’s “Online Beat” column since 1999. A contributing writer for The Progressive and In These Times he is also the associate editor of The Capital Times, the daily newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin. He is a frequent commentator on radio and television shows. Gore Vidal said, “Of all the giant slayers now afoot in the great American desert, John Nichols’ sword is the sharpest.”

Robert McChesney is the Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Dept of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne, and the author or editor of 23 books. His work has been translated into 30 languages. He is the co-founder of Free Press, a national media reform organization. Utne Reader listed him as among their “50 visionaries who are changing the world.”