Whether or not Spin Magazine is correct in labeling this election “the most important election of your life,” today will be the first time many people of college age have ever cared to vote. And while it should be interesting to see how spinster histories will come to regard our nation’s 42nd president, we already have a wealth of informative materials at hand, especially within the entertainment community.

While the right complains of propagandized entertainment from such liberal mouthpieces as Michael Moore, Jon Stewart, Al Franken and even Howard Stern, these sources are important. Moore himself has labeled “Fahrenheit 9/11” propaganda. And his film is still just that, a film, and definitely not even his best piece of work. But as of now, our mass media is consistently filled with propaganda and consistently labeled incorrectly as news. For years, news organizations have removed coverage from the people, relying more and more upon press releases and expert interviewees. In March of this year, the Bush administration and the Health and Human Services Department deployed video news releases, or VNRs, where members of the public relations firm Home Front Communications posed as journalists in segments that unabashedly praised prescription drug benefit laws for Medicare members. This in itself is a completely legal act, almost akin to the type of fake reality used for cereal and detergent commercials depicting “real people” supporting products. But the Medicare segments were many times interwoven into news programming without any identifying remarks as to the source of the pieces. In May, the Government Accountability Office judged the pieces covert propaganda. This is vastly more dangerous that anything Michael Moore could squeeze into theaters.

Just a few weeks ago, there was another sting of VNRs released as real news regarding Bush’s No Child Left Behind plan. The news release, which was created by taxpayer money and produced by the Bush administration, followed the same formula as the Medicare news releases and mainly lacked general program information. So lazy reporting basically becomes uninformed flag-waving propaganda while Bush’s rampant tax cutting is killing music programs for underprivileged students. It’s no wonder that more informed viewers turn to Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” than Fox News programming. Speaking of informed viewers, the University of Maryland’s Program on International Policy Attitudes and Knowledge Networks published a study last week that found 75 percent of Bush supporters believed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or programs to make them actively and that Saddam Hussein gave al Qaeda “substantial support” although in the past months extensive government publications have proven the falsity of both statements. And while anyone who’s taken introductory journalism understands the inherent flaws in these types of surveys, the results are still disheartening and could probably be easily be linked to media coverage and viewership.

And as Bush’s buds, Michael Powell and his FCC cronies continue pushing for less regulations regarding media consolidation, we as a nation are looking at the possibility of even less choices for where to get news and entertainment.

Conservative entertainment insiders are all too quick to blame low sales of albums and films on illegal pirating and downloading, but mp3 weblog sites such as Fluxblog and Cocaine Blunts and Hip Hop Tapes (as well as a wealth of other sites dishing out huge amounts of free mp3s) are receiving massive support from record companies as a perfect way of generating a deep-penetrating buzz for emerging artists. And the FCC’s loosening of regulations allows four major record companies (Universal, EMI, Sony-BMG and Warner) to release 80 percent of all new music and for Clear Channel Entertainment to control 60 percent of all rock radio and own 248 of the top 250 radio markets. But unfortunately, news agencies have exploited indecency infringements in order to keep these blatant monopolies in the background and out of America’s collective conscious. That’s where Howard Stern and Janet Jackson (whose touring is exclusively owned by Clear Channel) come in handy for big media conglomerates. While unwholesome programming becomes retrograded into oblivion, fewer voices are being heard. So not only is it harder for unsigned artists and independent entertainment to find an audience, that audience is subjected to fundamentally conservative restrictions regarding what is and isn’t decent. This is where the FCC’s shady definition of indecency runs into major problems. Who can say what is artistically indecent and what is simply indecent? With fewer voices weighing in, the smaller the amount of expressive art that will get passed on to the public.

While everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Camper Van Beethoven to Eminem (whose “Mosh” video is refreshingly anti-violence and pro-individual power, look for it online) to the Dixie Chicks has lampooned and lambasted President Bush, it seems obvious that artists, record labels, production companies and news organizations and publications more interested in substance rather than profit will benefit from a change of pace.