Fresh off his presidential debate in Chicago, Justice Party candidate Rocky Anderson was in Logan Friday stumping for his campaign--and warning the audience of the media's "mass deception":
"They often times look like the bulletin board for the press releases from our government. Without looking into the stories. Without getting after the truth. So we, the American voters, are left with the lies. We're left with the misinformation."
Anderson, who grew up in Logan, says the media's 2-sided coverage of climate change has been damaging to the public's understanding of the issue:
"This person says X, this person says Y and then they leave it at that. So what's conveyed to the reader is 'Oh, there's disagreement among the scientific community, so I'll wait until we find a consensus.' It's been absolutely irresponsible and incredibly damaging."
He was critical of the Bush Administration and the media's lack of skepticism during the build-up to the Iraq War. But some of his harshest criticism was reserved for President Obama:
"Research shows that 2% of the thousands of people killed by drone strikes have been high-level Al Qaeda operatives. 2%! If these had been Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld doing this, Democrats would have been holding Congressional hearings, there would have been Congressional subpoenas, people would have been out in the streets. There would have been demonstrations all over this country and yet when it's our guy, when it's one of us rather than one of them, we line up blindly behind him."
Anderson will be on the ballot for president in 15 states, including Utah. He hopes to garner write-in votes in 20 other states.