Letter: Interest groups win; nation loses

Friday, Aug. 17, 2001 | 4:35 a.m.

Government "of the people, by the people, for the people." What a wonderful dream! For a while we made it come true. Then a few wealthy people destroyed it.

Charles Lewis tells how in "The Buying of the President 2000." "Increasingly," he writes, "the only way to reach the electorate is via paid media or television commercials. Why? Because national news services provide less and less coverage of political campaigns and issues every year."

Broadcast coverage of the 1996 presidential election was down 55 percent from 1992 and front page coverage in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times was down 45 percent. Editors and publishers have concluded their audiences are losing interest in politics. Perhaps they are right, but the consequence of cutting down on political reporting is disastrous for the public's search for truth.

Groups with the most money to spend on advertising and propaganda win. The majority of us lose. Adding to the problem is the mushrooming of lobbyists in Washington, from fewer than 100 registered 30 years ago to more than 14,000 today. Payola is replacing reason and public opinion in government.

All this explains how Bush got in and how he sold a tax cut for his rich supporters. What can we do about it? One help would be to put Sen. McCain's election finance reforms back on track. Bush and his "compassionate conservative" mercenaries sidetracked it. They don't want their gravy train derailed.

Another help would be to demand that the people we elect to Congress control lobbyists or ban them altogether. Then maybe we could be proud of our democracy again. The example we now set for the world, government by the rich for the rich, is an embarrassing blot on our nation's history.

PAUL GWIN