The Left's Media Miscalculation--Robert Parry (MUST READ)

[Gloria]

This is a very important article....there is still no urgency about the media.


http://www.consortiumnews.com/2005/042805.html

The Left's Media Miscalculation

By Robert Parry
April 29, 2005

To understand how the United States got into today’s political predicament – where even fundamental principles like the separation of church and state are under attack – one has to look back at strategic choices made by the Right and the Left three decades ago.

SNIP

Besides well-known anti-war magazines, such as Ramparts, and investigative outlets, like Seymour Hersh’s Dispatch News, hundreds of smaller publications had emerged across the country in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Though some quickly disappeared, their influence shocked conservatives who saw the publications as a grave political threat.

Conservatives felt out-muscled on a wide range of public-policy fronts, blaming the media not only for the twin debacles of Watergate and Vietnam but also for contributing to the Right’s defeat on issues such as civil rights and the environment

Fateful Choices

At this key juncture, leaders of the Right and the Left made fateful choices that have shaped today’s political world. Though both sides had access to similar amounts of money from wealthy individuals and like-minded foundations, the two sides chose to invest that money in very different ways.

The Right concentrated on gaining control of the information flows in Washington and on building a media infrastructure that would put out a consistent conservative message across the country. As part of this strategy, the Right also funded attack groups to target mainstream journalists who got in the way of the conservative agenda.

The Left largely forsook media in favor of “grassroots organizing.” As many of the Left’s flagship media outlets foundered, the “progressive community” reorganized under the slogan – “think globally, act locally” – and increasingly put its available money into well-intentioned projects, such as buying endangered wetlands or feeding the poor.

So, while the Right waged what it called “the war of ideas” and expanded the reach of conservative media to every corner of the nation, the Left trusted that local political action would reenergize American democracy.

MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[justice4all_1]

1. How is Air America doing?

We got Air America back on the air in Los Angeles a few months ago. I love the programming. Al Franken and Randi Rhodes are terrific.

However, last week Al Franken had on Byron York (I believe) and he had some recent arbitron ratings that did not look good for Air America. I thought that Air America was doing pretty well, but I don't know how their ratings are doing.

Does anyone know exactly how Air America is doing? Air America is a great way for people to get great information in an entertaining way.

Air America is on KTLK on 1150 AM in Los Angeles.

[countmyvote4real]

4. I think Al disputed York's interpretations of the ratings.

At least I heard him do that in response to an article in the LA Times. I doubt that York was actually on the show. I don’t get to listen 24/7, but it would take a lying liar with big balls to actually appear on the Franken show and dissemble those numbers. It’s not like an anonymous internet forum.

Welcome to DU.

[justice4all_1]

5. I only got to listen to the first few minutes of the interview...

Unfortunately I arrived at my doctor's office and could only listen to the first few minutes of the interview. Al had just welcomed Byron to the program and was starting to discuss the LA TIMES op/ed piece with him. All I heard was that the ratings in NY and LA were down. Franken pointed out that the show was beating idiot OReilly in NY and that the ratings in Seattly (I think) were very good.


Is there any place to find out what the arbitron numbers are in each Air America city?


- T

[countmyvote4real]

14. Oops. My bad.

I just listened to the replay and Brian C. Anderson was on the show to back up his claims. Once again, Al had facts on his side while Anderson dissembled them.

[Syrinx]

2. on the other hand, the right also made big gains by...

Running and winning low-level offices such as school board positions. I agree that they've been masters of propaganda though. It's obvious actually.

[madfloridian]

3. The left IS building a media.

They are working on it right now. Air America is doing pretty well, and Sirius Left has some good guys.

But they are putting together a well-funded media operation. If you read The Republican Noise Machine you will see it took years for the GOP to get this powerful system going. It will take us a long time as well.

It is being done.

One of the aspects was building from the very local offices like school board and city councils and mayors. DFA does that, and the DNC is working to build at the local level as well.

You have to have both.

[Gloria]

6. Parry argues that the media prong is still NOT being taken seriously...

and comments on MoveOn's lack of action...or rather, postponement. Parry worries about this constant postponing of dealing with it and often, the denial that there is even a problem.

[madfloridian]

7. They are not making a huge public deal of it.....

There have been meetings going on with investors. The DNC is aware of it only, not involved. Needs to be kept separate.

They are doing it. It will just take a long time.

[Arugula Latte]

13. I hope you are right.

Because the way the right did it, under the radar, is the way to go. The right never announced: "Loookeee here! We're gonna take over the media and turn it into a whoring rightwing Pravda!" It was subtle changes over time. We don't have the luxury of time, but those plotting to increase our influence should be relatively low-key, IMO. Silent but deadly.

[w4rma]

8. Nominated. (nt)

[enough]

9. You are right, Gloria, a very important article.

I hope everybody will read the whole thing. Nominating.

[Q]

10. Another great article...

...from Consortium. Required reading.

[confludemocrat]

11. I don't buy it

The liberals kind of went to sleep and failed to notice how cowed the media was. The right devoted alot of energy and money to pure propaganda that consisted of fabricated and manufactured attacks, distortion and lying, not getting out a "message" as Parry too soliticitously and charitably describes it.

This a setting up a false choice between grass roots organizing (which they didn't really do anyway, since the actions Parry describes is not really grassroots organizing but has always occured in some form before this era he describes) and a smarter use of the media.

Parry strikes me anyway as a borderline Hitchens, more willing to describe what he sees as liberal mistakes and feeble and misguided thinking than leading an attack on the enemy.
So he lists as mistakes the things liberals and progressives have always done and says how foolish that was, but what solutions does he truly offer? Typically none.

[Arugula Latte]

12. kick

This is indeed a very important read.

We will always spin our wheels until the center-left as a whole realizes the importance of media control and message framing. We are woefully still far away from that.