Disappeared News

by Larry Geller

It’s dinner time. The phone is ringing. Answer it or not? It’s another pollster. I’ve answered a few. “Which candidate will you vote for, Case, Hanabusa or Djou?” Me: “None of the above.” Pollster: “Do you mean ‘Undecided?’” Me: “No, I mean I plan to vote for someone else.” Pollster: “Thank you” (sometimes) Hangs up.

There probably isn’t even a place on their computer screen to record anything but the three frontrunners or Undecided. So the other 11 candidates are even erased from the opinion polls, the way they are erased from our daily newspaper stories and from the TV screen. This makes those polls totally dishonest.

Rafael del Castillo hit the cover of the Honolulu Weekly yesterday and was the subject of their first story on the invisible candidates, The contender: Why first-time candidate Rafael del Castillo believes he has all the experience he needs to be a congressman.

Yes, there are candidates other than the three that the gatekeepers of our commercial media let through. Voters should be able to choose based on information on all of them. That is, if we had a real democracy.

So check out the story. I hope the Weekly will continue to step in where our dailies fear to tread.

Permalink posted by Larry @ 4/29/2010 08:53:00 AM