Brent Bozell

Notice the double standard there. When Republicans are winning the battle in the polls and campaign coffers, voters are losing. When Democrats are winning, democracy has triumphed.

But what of the people and institutions that build up or tear down candidates in between the political commercials -- i.e., reporters in "news" media consistently promoting Obama & Co., while disparaging all things tea party? As usual, the media lament when other corporations try to purchase a fraction of the firepower they unload daily on Republicans.

"Citizens United" is not an ugly phrase that connotes corporations are drowning out democracy. "Citizens United" is a court case that demonstrated how media and entertainment conglomerates get more power in a democracy than every other institution, and how conservative voices are often squashed and mocked by the liberal media.

It began when Citizens United tried to buy pay-per-view cable time to air "Hillary: The Movie." Their free-speech rights were crushed by the FEC, and then by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, which said the McCain-Feingold campaign law prohibited its airing within 30 days of a Democratic primary election. Whose voices were being drowned out in this democracy? Relief from the courts didn't come during the campaign, when it really mattered. Justice came long after that campaign was history.

By contrast, powerful Hollywood leftists had no problem getting their documentaries with political overtones widely distributed in theatres as Citizens United was being squashed. In the summer of 2007, Michael Moore's health care mockumentary, "Sicko," was shown on more than 1,100 screens. In the fall of 2008, Bill Maher's noxious atheist documentary, "Religulous," was spread across America on more than 500 screens. Even this fall, anchors like Harry Smith are already promoting the ridiculous Valerie Plame "docudrama" titled "Fair Game," complete with sound bites of her real-life congressional testimony. Those evil-Bush-years commercials will run in the campaign's final weeks without a single reporter batting an eye.

And guess who's financed that "Fair Game" movie? A film company named Imagenation Abu Dhabi. The executive producer is Mohamed Khalaf al-Mazrouei, chairman of the Abu Dhabi Media Company. But Obama won't be pounding the podium against that foreign influence.

Brent Bozell

©Creators Syndicate