Democrats Getting Uppity
THE TRIANGLE: Matthews, Moore, Murtha, and
the Media: What's the common thread running through the past half-decade
of Bush's presidency? What's the nexus between the Swift-boating of Kerry,
the Swift-boating of Murtha, and the guilt-by-association between Democrats
and terrorists? Why has a seemingly endless string of administration scandals
faded into oblivion? Why do Democrats keep losing elections? It's this: the
traditional media, the trusted media, the “neutral” media, have
become the chief delivery mechanism of potent anti-Democratic and pro-Bush
storylines. And the Democratic establishment appears to be either ignorant
of this political quandary or unwilling to fight it. Peter
Daou~~~~~~~~~~
Unless you give the media an alternate storyline to
cover, and pressure them and specifically their bosses to cover it, we are
wasting our time. Democrats cannot break through the media blackout because
we are not disciplined and aggressive enough. Now is the time to start working
the refs ourselves. It can’t be left to center-left bloggers to do what
the party and Beltway politicians have heretofore been too self-interested
and unfocused to do themselves. Steve
Soto
The above two posts from Peter and Steve are quite instructive
and right on topic for today. Needless to say our actions towards Matthews is too. Frankly, we're just not going to sit here while MSNBC promotes comments like Chris made against Michael Moore.
One of the things I cover over and over again, including in my
political show, is that people vote on emotion, how they feel about a candidate.
When the media is telling the public that Bush is a regular guy, a nice guy,
and as Chris Matthews says over and over again, someone more likely to stop
and help you if you have a flat tire, it's hard to get the truth out.
Here's something I recounted in a prior post.
Recalling a December 4 interview with
Ron Silver in The New York Times Magazine, which I didn't read, the
actor and activist talked about how President Bush was a “really likable
guy.” Then Silver recounted his encounter. The president said to him,
“You're a good man, Ronnie. It's nice to see you.” To which Silver
replied, “Mr. President, only my mother calls me Ronnie.” Bush looked
Silver right “in the eye,” then said again, “You're a good
man, Ronnie.”
A nice guy doesn't say, screw you, pal, I'll call you whatever I want.
But things like this just don't get offered up.
Today's Washington Post chat, along with our open letters are a start at talking back, but there is much more to
do. We need you to get involved.
It also doesn't help when we've got “Beltway politicians,”
to quote Soto, going off on their own because they've only got their own cause
in mind.
It is about being aggressive, which the right has been doing for
years, on TV, on radio and in print. They've even got people convinced there
is a liberal media bias. However, if that were true we'd be actively engaged
in a discussion on how to pull out of Iraq.
John F. Kennedy said something that
rings true today. You see, he had a VRWC back in the early 1960s, because that's
when they began their push. JFK said, “No matter
how big the lie, repeat it often enough and the masses will regard it as the
truth.”
A lot of people right now don't want to admit they were wrong.
Many Democrats were right, not only about Iraq, but about the incompetence of
George W. Bush, but quite a few of our leading senators were not. After winning 2 elections, that's a hard pill for our leaders and media
to swallow. Democrats are going to have to jam this reality down the throats
of the powers that be whether they like it or not. It takes working at it every
day. But if we don't get them to quit explaining themselves and start attacking what's wrong in the media right now, today, we're going to be re-arguing history until 2006 and 2008 have come and gone.
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