It takes a lot of guts for a former TV talk show host to bash the media – especially when he is campaigning to secure a seat in the U.S. Senate.

Alan Keyes, Illinois’ Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, spoke to an NIU political science class Tuesday and centered much of his speech on the media, their lies and their money-driven purposes.

Considering the late start Keyes got in the Senate race against Democratic candidate Barack Obama, it’s a brazen move to publicly rip into the media. If it weren’t for the media, no one would have even known that Keyes – a seemingly last-resort candidate for the spot – accepted the bid from the Illinois GOP.

A part of Keyes’ speech at NIU focused on public-opinion polls and how news outlets should not be allowed to publish them until 45 days after they are administered. The polls only influence people to go along with the majority, he said.

Keyes said that if he is elected, he will introduce a bill to forbid such publication. Banning the publication of information would be a violation of the First Amendment, if Keyes is looking at the same Constitution we are.

If Keyes is such an expert on how public opinion polls work to sway voters, you would think he would use that to his advantage rather than use it as a means to bash the media.

In a letter to his “friends” on www.keyesforsenate.com, Keyes said it would be wrong for a person with Obama’s record to “kind of waltz into the United States Senate unopposed.”

However, Keyes’ response to that was to waltz into a state he knows nothing about. Keyes, a Maryland native, set up shop in Calumet City in August in order to gain residency to be eligible to run in the Senate race.

Given his disadvantage of entering the senate race late, the media are a key mechanism for Keyes to gain popularity – and votes – by expressing his views to the public. Publicly bashing media – even though it was just to a group of NIU students – just might earn him a ticket to tango back to Maryland.