NEWS MEDIA NEGLIGENT, PUBLIC UNINFORMED ABOUT TREATY SCHEME
Commentary by Dave Felice
Dave Felice |
Daily newspapers ignore or dismiss news coverage. The story is too profound for broadcast media. Community newspapers have not yet realized how a treaty with Pacific nations can devastate local government and the local economy.
For example, most Coloradans don’t know that members of the state’s Congressional delegation declined to join 194 House members, Democrats and Republicans, in signing joint letters against the treaty.
Congresswoman Diana DeGette made a weak statement about opposing the “Fast Track” approval process. Rep. Ed Perlmutter said the bipartisan letters had “too many adjectives,” and composed a tepid letter on his own. Congressman Jared Polis issued an unpublished statement about “transparency and balance” in the negotiations. The Republicans from Colorado stayed silent.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership could destroy a just-launched state program to boost Colorado exports, especially agricultural products.
In another instance, Colorado residents who care about how and where food is produced would be shocked to learn that TPP promotes importation of products from Vietnam, a totalitarian nation with substandard health requirements and no limits on child labor. TPP also eliminates “country of origin” labeling.
Because the Fourth Estate has betrayed the public by ignoring the story, I have set up two online petitions: http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/denver-post-dont-ignore
and http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/denver-post-meet-obligation.fb40?mailing_id=17327&source=s.em.cr&%3Br_by=4060277&r_by=124
These petitions are similar. One is a “short” version and the other is slightly longer. Anyone can sign both petitions. Both petitions demand better news and commentary about TPP.
Sign one or both petitions. It’s one way to make your voice heard in opposition to the unbalanced secrecy surrounding the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Some 600 corporate "advisers" have online access to the TPP text, while members of Congress must sit in a locked room somewhere in the Capitol building to read it, with a
Join the campaign to demand that news media do their job and cover the TPP story. Sign the petitions now.