Thank you, John Kerry

For proving that when you spend 19 years in the US Senate, you probably know how to read a speech or two. And unlike the current President, you know how to write one. John Kerry threw down the gauntlet last night, powerfully delivering a speech worthy of history. It was a solidly liberal speech that spoke to American values of equality, shared sacrifice and strength. He called out President Bush for his 4 straight months of negative campaigning, virtually assuring that he can take the moral high ground during the bulk of the election season. And most of all, he made sense. Tax cuts for the middle class? Keeping US jobs at home? Gaining respect in the world as a way to defuse terrorism? Know what, that just makes sense. Forget labels of "centrism" or "progressivism," it just makes sense. Kerry seems like the right guy at the right time.

The criticism that needs to come out of this convention should be directed at the US media, who once again proved themselves stupid, dismissive, unfair and fawning. The Convention would have been covered better by Access Hollywood than CNN. How do I even begin to discuss the ineptitude of this coverage? From constant talk on the horse-race aspect of the Convention (will the Democrats stay unified?) rather than its issues, to CNN's focusing on the balloon drop after Kerry's speech than the speech itself, to Chris Matthews' lambasting of Al Sharpton like a high school principal talking to a rebellious student, to the overapplied "fairness doctrine" of allowing Republican operatives to spin GOP talking points immediately after major speeches, to the major networks' sins of omission by giving only 3 hours of coverage for the week, neglecting Barack Obama's excellent oratory, to ABC showing a few seconds of al-Jazeera's translation of Kerry's speech (which you know makes the connection in many voters' minds that al Qaeda must be pro-Kerry), and, worst of all, forcing Kerry to keep within network time parameters, making him rush through applause lines and practically plead with the audience to keep it down so he could get through it. This was a miserable, shameful failure at all levels of the broadcast media. The only outlet that deserves to hold its head up high is C-SPAN, which provided uninterrupted, unspun, unfiltered gavel-to-gavel coverage every day. As for the other corporate- owned and controlled media, they ought to have their licenses revoked for the disservice they have done to our democracy. Conventions should be mandatory programming on all major and cable news networks; and not one hour of it, but all of them. Free air time for candidates should be another essential feature. A democracy without information ceases to be a democracy. Save for a few minor sources, that is where we are today in America. Shameful.