David Westin, President of ABC News                   April 17, 2008

Dear Mr. Westin,

We write to thank you for your ABC News "Debate" of April 16.  This "debate" served an important public function by showing ABC News to be fundamentally craven, insipid, inane, and an insult to the intelligence of every American who cares about this country's future.

As you know, many Americans believe that the "MSM" (Mainstream Media) serves the interests not of viewers or voters, but of corporate sponsors and its own bottom line.  Many also suspect that Barack Obama, in calling for an end to the power of "lobbyists & special interests" in Washington, represents a direct threat to the Mainstream Media's continuing power, profits, and capacity to influence public opinion.

Last night's "debate" provides powerful evidence in support of these beliefs & sentiments.  Indeed, there are certain "moments" in history when the essence & core of an individual or institution suddenly become crystal clear – such as Bill Clinton's "I did not inhale" prevarication, or the Bush Administration's response to Hurricane Katrina.  In these singular moments, the truth of things suddenly becomes clear.  The same was true of the April 16 "debate". 

The "debate" exposed with uncommon clarity the essence & core of ABC News - that it has no interest whatever in serving the public good.  As a symbol of "how things really are," the "debate" also reminds us of the events in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963.  As you know, in their struggle for civil rights, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the SCLC hoped that the city authorities of Birmingham would respond with violence, thus revealing the essence of Jim Crow –  ugly, violent, and morally indefensible.  The strategy worked.  Bull Connor & his police dogs & water-cannon, trained at thousands of peaceful demonstrators, gave the Civil Rights Movement exactly what it needed at that critical juncture - proving to ordinary Americans, and to the world, the violence & evil at the core of Jim Crow.

On a much lesser scale, your "debate" served a similar public function.  It demonstrated with stark clarity that ABC News has no interest whatever in promoting substantive public discourse on the issues facing American voters.  Instead, by focusing on "flag-pins," "bitterness & guns & religion", and a host of other irrelevant & distracting non-issues, ABC News revealed its essence & core -  a "news" organization whose only interest is in securing its own profits and advancing the interests of its sponsors, and with deep antipathy toward the prospect of an Obama presidency.     

We therefore thank you for revealing with such clarity the truth about the core mission & values of ABC News.  We also thank you for providing us with a symbol around which we might rally in our struggle against the interests your "news" organization serves and the values it espouses.

Sincerely,

Goal:  100 signatories.

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