Where are the Networks?

If The New Yorker is correct that Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) has given 54 interviews and press conferences while Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) has doled out one to ABC, under her stipulated conditions, and submitted to one lovefest with Fox, the networks — ABC included — have lost their credibility and failed to fulfill their responsibilities under their licenses.

Why aren’t all three networks reporting to the public that it is being foreclosed from providing real and essential information by the Republican Party, which refuses to let its candidate into the unscripted light of day?

Of course, they all know they are being used, manipulated and emasculated. Why do they go along with this tactic? Will they wait until the election is over, making millions for running the candidates’ ad while rigorously examining only three of the four candidates? Then will they go through anguished self-evaluations about what they did not do, as in the Iraq war start-up?

Since when do candidates get to decide when and to whom and about what they will submit to network examination? Where are the Murrows and Russerts, who would never have accepted this sad state of network coverage? The networks have the power to demand access on their — the public’s — terms. If they together refused to run the candidates’ ads, or broadcast their debates, they’d quickly get who they want, when they want. Then they’d be doing the public’s business, which is their First Amendment responsibility, as they know and often claim.

Visit www.RonaldGoldfarb.com.