President Obama’s State of the Union address this evening will be dissected by thousands of journalists across the nation. Panels of journalists and political pundits will convene to debate and discuss the merits of his speech. The in-depth analysis of Obama’s speech will go on for days. The Republican’s rebuttal of the speech will be aired, and then it will be analyzed ad-nauseam.

 

President Obama’s speech will no doubt contain voluminous rhetoric on his fervent support for small business, middle class, and job creation. However, there will be one aspect of President Obama’s speech that seems to be so taboo, that mainstream journalists are specifically not allowed to even mention it.

 

That would be the subject of President Obama’s consistent refusal to offer anything other than window dressing and empty promises to the American small businesses that create virtually 100 percent of all net new jobs in America. You certainly won’t hear a word about existing Obama policies that have actually hurt woman-owned firms, minority-owned firms and millions of small businesses.

 

President Obama’s speech will undoubtedly contain dozens of convincing and passionate statements on his undying support for small businesses and the middle class. Unfortunately, ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN will not mention the fact that President Obama and Congress have allocated less than 2 percent of the stimulus funds to small businesses.

 

You won’t hear Wolf Blitzer mention the fact that Obama’s Administration has diverted billions of dollars in federal small business funds to Fortune 500 firms.

 

You won’t see Diane Sawyer asking President Obama or Robert Gibbs why he has refused to honor his campaign promise when he said, “It’s time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants.” (http://www.barackobama.com/2008/02/26/the_american_small_business_le.php)

 

Ann Curry will not accuse the President of hypocrisy for allowing billions of dollars in government small business contracts to be diverted to some of the largest firms in Italy, England, France and South Korea.

 

Brian Williams will not talk about the fact that the first African American President and Attorney General are allowing all federal contracting programs for minorities to be dismantled.

 

Katie Couric will not mention the fact that President Obama has refused to honor his campaign promise to implement the nine-year-old law establishing a 5 percent federal contracting goal for women-owned businesses.

 

Small businesses are the engine of this nation’s economy. It is time for the mainstream media to quit ignoring the rampant and documentable abuse in federal programs designed to assist the 27 million small businesses where most Americans are employed.

 

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