Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Major Networks Not Airing Obama's Immigration Speech

Despite the great significance of Barack Obama's planned executive action on immigration reform, the four major television broadcast networks are not planning to cover the president's Thursday night address where he is expected to announce his plan.

ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX have all indicated they won't break their planned programming to cover Obama's 8 p.m. ET speech. CNN's Brian Stelter first reportedthat ABC, NBC and CBS were opting out, and an official with FOX confirmed the same with The Hill.
CNN, MSNBC, FOX News and other cable news networks were expected to air the speech, as was PBS.
But the networks that cater to an audience who will be very interested in what the president has to say cleared the time for the address, CNN reported. The vice president of Univision, the nation's leading Spanish-language network, announcedplans to interrupt its airing of the Latin Grammy Awards for the president's address. Telemundo, the other big Spanish-language network in the U.S. will also show the speech live. And the White House is expected to stream the event online.
Stelter reported that White House officials decided against formally requesting that the major networks carry the address after getting the impression that they would be hesitant to do so, reports echoed by Deadline and The Hill. November is sweeps month, when primetime slots become all the more valuable. The four major networks have shows slotted for 8 p.m. that attract big audiences, including the fall finale of "Grey’s Anatomy" on ABC, Deadline noted.
Obama announced the address on Wednesday, saying "everybody agrees that our immigration system is broken," and, "I'm going to be laying out is the things that I can do with my lawful authority as president to make the system work better."
While the exact details of the president's plans to sidestep Congress are not known, the sweeping reforms could potentially shield up to 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation.
The president's expected executive action on immigration has prompted protest among Republicans, including Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) who said on Wednesday that Congress should take legal action in response.
Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.com/
Author: Andrew Hart

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