After last night's "debate" outrage by ABC's Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopolous - Atrios calls it a gang rape of democracy - it's time to ask a simple question: is there really any good reason to have Corporate Media at all? Or should we just Kill The Media?

I'm not advocating the murder of journalists or any other act of violence, which I adamantly oppose. I'm advocating using our spending power to put Media Corporations out of business by refusing to give them or their advertisers any of our precious time or money. In simpler terms, it's called a boycott - but this boycott should be permanent.

The United States is a Democracy, founded by Patriots who issued a "Declaration of Independence" full of radical claims like "all Men are created equal" with a right to "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."

They didn't ask the Media for its approval. They just did it - and risked "our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor." Then they grabbed their muskets and drove the British King and his Royal Army off our soil. They called it a Revolution - long before anyone ever heard of the "revolutionary" Weather Underground.

There was no "Corporate Media" back then - there were just citizen bloggers like like Tom Paine, who were called "pamphleteers." If we didn't need a "Corporate Media" back then to tell us how to be free, why do we need one now?

As America grew, there was a time when fiesty newspapers expressed diverse opinions and contributed to our Democracy. Unfortunately they also lied us into imperialist wars.

As that diversity was lost to corporate consolidation, there was a brief moment when professional news organizations like the Washington Post exposed government corruption at the highest levels and held a President accountable. But that was 1973.

In the 35 years since, the Corporate Media has done nothing for America except undermine and destroy our Democracy.

In 1980, President Carter was brought down by a daily drumbeat of "Day 368 of America Held Hostage." Why didn't Iran release hostages sooner? Because Reagan's crony William Casey told the Ayatollah to keep them so Reagan would defeat Carter and improve relations with Iran. Incredibly, Iran released the hostages the very day Reagan was inaugurated, William Casey was made CIA director, and the Corporate Media never reported the story!

Reagan made good on his promises to the Ayatollah by selling Iran weapons in a scandal that became Iran-Contra. When Democrats tried to investigate the scandal and hold Reagan accountable, the Corporate Media insisted Reagan be allowed to gracefully serve out the rest of his term. As a result all of the criminals went free - only to move back into the White House in 2001 and commit crimes that were infinitely worse.

Reagan also let rightwing loudmouths and billionaires take over the media by killing the Fairness Doctrine, which required equal time for both sides. That opened the door for the rightwing takeover of talk radio (Rush Limbaugh) and cable (FOX News).

When Limbaugh was at his peak in 1994, rightwing talk radio put Newt Gingrich and the Republicans in control of Congress in what was famously called "the year of the angry white man." How come no one denounced "bitter" voters then?

In 1995, the rightwing media encouraged Gingrich to shut down the government rather than compromise with President Clinton over a Medicare copayment dispute.

In 1998, the rightwing media shut down the entire country over Monicagate and helped Republicans impeach a twice-elected President with a 60% approval rating. (Voters were so angry Clinton's approval went up to 65% and the largest grassroots organization in recent history was formed out of an online petition that said simply, "Censure and Move On.")

During the 2000 campaign, the Corporate Media declared Al Gore a bore and George Bush the cool guy you'd rather have a beer with, and gave us the most disastrous Presidency in our history - one we'll be lucky if we ever recover from.

The Corporate Media reported lies about Gore - that he claimed to have "invented the Internet" or inspired "Love Story." But they adamantly refused to report the truth about Bush - that he deserted the Texas Air National Guard in 1972 with two years left to serve, and did so because his alcoholism produced "Fear of Flying."

On Election Night 2000, George Bush's first cousin at FOX declared Bush the winner in Florida despite massive problems at the polls and a margin of only 1,000 votes out of 6 million - far too close for any mathematical projection of a "winner." MSNBC quickly followed, and from that moment on Al Gore was declared a "Sore Loser" simply because he wanted humans to count every vote even if defective machines couldn't.

On December 12, 2000, five rightwing Justices appointed by Bush's father or Reagan in turn appointed George Bush president by throwing out 175,000 votes that were never counted. When they were finally counted by the Corporate Media and Al Gore was shown to be the winner in every scenario in which all votes were counted (as ordered by the Florida Supreme Court), the Corporate Media lied and said Bush won. The largest inauguration protests in history got zero coverage.

The rest is history we're all too familiar with. 9/11 "changed everything." Bush invaded Afghanistan but let Bin Laden escape from Tora Bora with no protests by the Corporate Media. Bush lied about Iraq and the Corporate Media embraced every word while blacking out the largest anti-war protests in history. Bush invaded on 3/19/03 in defiance of the U.N. and the AUMF but no dissenters were heard. Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" on 5/1/03 and the Corporate Media had orgasms over his codpiece, even as insurgent bombs were exploding all over Iraq.

This morning I got a call from Tom Curry of MSNBC asking about the Weather Underground. After a polite chat, he kept pressing me and I finally exploded. Why the hell was MSNBC covering a story absolutely no one outside FOX News cared about, when George Bush just admitted he approved torture? Curry fumbled for excuses and promised to "look into it."

I'm not holding my breath. If we're going to survive as a Democracy in the wake of Bush's monumental War Crimes, we cannot look to the Corporate Media for help.

Thanks to the Internet, we don't need the Corporate Media any more to get our news. So let's just Kill the Media and go back to citizen journalism - just as the Founding Fathers intended.

Update 1: Some of the Corporate Media poison is infecting the progressive media too. David Corn of Mother Jones just sent an email about his blog on the Weather Underground. I replied:

Dear David,
ENOUGH of this petty crap!!!!!
Why don't you ask Senators Clinton, Obama, and McCain what they think of Bush's admission on Friday that he personally authorized torture, and whether they plan to hold anyone accountable for what is a clear War Crime. That's what progressive voters care about!
Your friend,
Bob

Update 2: As Digby reminds us, this isn't the first debate outrage.

Regardless of who gets picked to pieces, with only a couple of exceptions, the debates and the debate coverage have been simply awful through the whole season. The ones Chris Matthews hosted were nearly unintelligible and the total inanity of Tim Russert in the October 30th MSNBC debate set the bar for nonsensical gotcha questions extremely high. Apparently Gibson and Stephanopolous leaped over it tonight like a couple of drunken gazelles.

The political media are a broken institution. Hopeless.

Indeed. So let's Kill the Media.

Update 3: I agree with Matt Stoller completely

I really don't see how the media industry changes of its own volition at this point.  There is nothing, not torture, not the theft of hundreds of billions and the blood of hundreds of thousands, not a thousand stories of petty corruption or deceit, none of that can impact the coddled world of these wealthy spoiled brats or the CEOs who keep them well swaddled in tiny luxuries and a tuxedoed social world.  

I've been in rooms of liberal elites who lament the decline of newspapers and investigative reporting, but I don't.  There is just no evidence that the superstructure that keeps both investigative journalists and pundits employed is helpful.  If the New York Times disappeared tomorrow, my guess is that it would be a good thing for the world and for progressives.

Update 4: I also agree completely with Eli

The media don't actively smear Democrats (and tiptoe around Republicans) because the GOP has duped, seduced, or bullied them (although that's a convenient alibi), they do it because their Republican corporate ownership dictates it, whether explicitly or implicitly.

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