National Impeachment Movement
Ignored by Corporate Media
By Peter Phillips
If a national
movement calling for the impeachment of the President is rapidly emerging and
the corporate media are not covering it, is there really a national movement for
the impeachment of the President?
Impeachment advocates are widely
mobilizing in the U.S. Over 1,000 letters to the editors of major newspapers
have been printed in the past six months asking for impeachment. Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette letter writer George Matus says, "I am still enraged over unasked
questions about exit polls, touch-screen voting, Iraq, the cost of the new
Medicare?who formulated our energy policy, Jack Abramoff, the Downing Street
Memos, and impeachment." David Anderson in McMinnville, Oregon pens to the
Oregonian, "Where are the members of our congressional delegation now in
demanding the current president's actions be investigated to see if impeachment
or censure are appropriate actions?" William Dwyer's letter in the Charleston
Gazette says, "Congress will never have the courage to start the impeachment
process without a groundswell of outrage from the people."
City councils, boards of
supervisors, and local and state level Democrat central committees have voted
for impeachment. Arcata, California voted for impeachment on January 6. The City
and County of San Francisco, voted Yes on February 28. The Sonoma County
Democrat Central Committee (CA) voted for Impeachment on March 16. The townships
of Newfane, Brookfield, Dummerston, Marlboro and Putney in Vermont all voted for
impeachment the first week of March. The New Mexico State Democrat party
convention rallied on March 18 for the "impeachment of George Bush and his
lawful removal from office." The national Green Party called for impeachment on
January 3. Op-ed writers at the St. Petersburg Times, Newsday, Yale Daily News,
Barrons, Detroit Free Press, and the Boston Globe have called for impeachment.
The Nation (1/30/06) and Harpers (3/06) magazines published cover articles
calling for impeachment. Garrison Keillor, and Richard Dreyfuss both have come
out for impeachment. As of March 16, thirty-two US House of Representatives have
signed on as co-sponsors to House Resolution 635, which would create a Select
Committee to look into the grounds for recommending President Bush's
impeachment.
Polls show that nearly a
majority of Americans favor impeachment. In October of 2005, Public Affairs
Research found that 50% of Americans said that President Bush should be
impeached if he lied about the war in Iraq. A Zogby International poll from
early November 2005 found that 53% of Americans say, "If President Bush did not
tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should
consider holding him accountable through impeachment." A March 16, 2006 poll by
American Research Group showed that 42% of Americans favored impeaching
Bush.
Despite all this advocacy and
sentiment for impeachment, corporate media have yet to cover this emerging mass
movement. The Bangor Daily News simply reported on March 17 that former
US Attorney General Ramsey Clark has set up the website Votetoimpeach.org and
that other groups are using the internet to push impeachment. The Wall Street
Journal, on March 16, editorialized about how it is just "the loony left"
seeking impeachment, but perhaps some Democrats in Congress will join in feeding
on the "bile of the censure/impeachment brigades."
The corporate media is ignoring
the broadening call for impeachment - wishing perhaps it will just go away.
Television news and talk shows have mentioned impeachment over 100 times in the
past 30 days, mostly however in the context of Senator Russ Feingold's censure
bill and the lack of broad Democrat support for censure or impeachment. Nothing
on television news gives the impression that millions of Americans are calling
for the impeachment of Bush and his cohorts.
The Bush Administration lied
about Iraq, illegally spied on US citizens, and continues war crimes in the
Middle East. Despite corporate media's inability to hear the demands for
impeachment, the groundswell of outrage continues to expand.
Peter Phillips is a
Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University and Director of Project
Censored a media research organization. He is co-editor with Dennis Loo from Cal
Poly Pomona of the The Case for Impeachment of Bush and Cheney scheduled
for release this summer by Seven Stories Press.
--
Peter Phillips Ph.D.
Professor Sociology/Director Project
Censored
Sonoma State University
1801 East Cotati Ave.
Rohnert Park, CA
94928
Office:
707-664-2588
www.projectcensored.org