Speech for Sale: How Toxic Slime-Fests Can Shrivel Voter Turnout
When five Supreme Court justices decreed that corporations are entitled to full free speech rights in our elections and that corporate money is a form of speech that can't be restricted, they produced a nightmare tsunami of corporate cash that is now drowning our people's democratic rights.
After all, if money is speech, then speech is no longer free -- it's for sale.
This year, we're seeing what the Court's absurd edicts are costing us.
When five Supreme Court justices decreed that corporations are entitled to full free speech rights in our elections and that corporate money is a form of speech that can't be restricted, they produced a nightmare tsunami of corporate cash that is now drowning our people's democratic rights.
After all, if money is speech, then speech is no longer free -- it's for sale.
This year, we're seeing what the Court's absurd edicts are costing us.
First, the corporate purchase of political speech has in fact reached tsunamic force in the 2014 midterm elections. Spending may cost a record total of $4 billion, with somewhere between $1 billion and $2 billion dished out on TV commercials intended to influence voters.
Second, the bulk of this speech isn't being bought by candidates or parties, but by secretive outside front groups that hide the corporate interests funding the ads. In Senate races alone, these shadow groups have already run some 150,000 TV spots. The Koch brothers' main front group, Americans for Prosperity, is by far the biggest buyer of speech.
Third, and most pernicious, the court-created "right" of moneyed front groups to flood the airwaves has handed them the power to dictate any campaign's message. Advertising created and bankrolled by those secret fronts now define the issues and even the candidates themselves before races really get going.
Because the outside groups are anonymous, their "speech" consists almost entirely of the nastiest, most vituperative attacks on candidates they oppose, turning our election-year discourse into toxic slime-fests that turn off voters and shrivel turnout.
To help stop the corporate purchase of the People's political speech rights, connect with MoveToAmend.org.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
When five Supreme Court justices decreed that corporations are entitled to full free speech rights in our elections and that corporate money is a form of speech that can't be restricted, they produced a nightmare tsunami of corporate cash that is now drowning our people's democratic rights.
After all, if money is speech, then speech is no longer free -- it's for sale.
This year, we're seeing what the Court's absurd edicts are costing us.
First, the corporate purchase of political speech has in fact reached tsunamic force in the 2014 midterm elections. Spending may cost a record total of $4 billion, with somewhere between $1 billion and $2 billion dished out on TV commercials intended to influence voters.
Second, the bulk of this speech isn't being bought by candidates or parties, but by secretive outside front groups that hide the corporate interests funding the ads. In Senate races alone, these shadow groups have already run some 150,000 TV spots. The Koch brothers' main front group, Americans for Prosperity, is by far the biggest buyer of speech.
Third, and most pernicious, the court-created "right" of moneyed front groups to flood the airwaves has handed them the power to dictate any campaign's message. Advertising created and bankrolled by those secret fronts now define the issues and even the candidates themselves before races really get going.
Because the outside groups are anonymous, their "speech" consists almost entirely of the nastiest, most vituperative attacks on candidates they oppose, turning our election-year discourse into toxic slime-fests that turn off voters and shrivel turnout.
To help stop the corporate purchase of the People's political speech rights, connect with MoveToAmend.org.
When five Supreme Court justices decreed that corporations are entitled to full free speech rights in our elections and that corporate money is a form of speech that can't be restricted, they produced a nightmare tsunami of corporate cash that is now drowning our people's democratic rights.
After all, if money is speech, then speech is no longer free -- it's for sale.
This year, we're seeing what the Court's absurd edicts are costing us.
First, the corporate purchase of political speech has in fact reached tsunamic force in the 2014 midterm elections. Spending may cost a record total of $4 billion, with somewhere between $1 billion and $2 billion dished out on TV commercials intended to influence voters.
Second, the bulk of this speech isn't being bought by candidates or parties, but by secretive outside front groups that hide the corporate interests funding the ads. In Senate races alone, these shadow groups have already run some 150,000 TV spots. The Koch brothers' main front group, Americans for Prosperity, is by far the biggest buyer of speech.
Third, and most pernicious, the court-created "right" of moneyed front groups to flood the airwaves has handed them the power to dictate any campaign's message. Advertising created and bankrolled by those secret fronts now define the issues and even the candidates themselves before races really get going.
Because the outside groups are anonymous, their "speech" consists almost entirely of the nastiest, most vituperative attacks on candidates they oppose, turning our election-year discourse into toxic slime-fests that turn off voters and shrivel turnout.
To help stop the corporate purchase of the People's political speech rights, connect with MoveToAmend.org.