~~ Since the 1970's, the left has made little effort to match the right's media outreach to Americans. In the face of massive right-wing investment in messaging, progressives threw away their lead in media and think tanks by prioritizing “local organizing,” under such sloganistic homilies as, “think globally, act locally,” and increasingly "put its available money into well-intentioned projects, such as buying endangered wetlands or feeding the poor."
~~ In 2010, wealthy progressives let Air America Radio go away, rather than invest the money and talent necessary to make it a counterpoint to right-wing dominance of the AM radio dial.
This has been so successful that many journalists and progressive politicians have adopted risk-avoiding tactics and timidity in reporting and governing rather than expose themselves to the right's media Shit Machine.
A piece by respected lefty investigative reporter Robert Parry at Consortiumnews.com writes that at a December White House meeting, Obama told some assembled economists that he felt "handcuffed" by conservatives' longheld agility at rallying Americans on behalf of Reagan’s “government-is-the-problem” message. The looming problems of this century - like kick-starting job growth, rebuilding the decaying infrastructure, reforming immigration laws, creating a non-manufacturing economic base, and dealing with climate change are ones that only government can feasibly solve. Yet...
"''It was hard to change the narrative after 30 years' of Republican repetition about the evils of big government, one participant quoted Obama as saying."
Parry laid out a compelling case in 2005 that the American left made bad decisions in the 1970's as to where to put their media money and mouth; the American right made good ones, and it's paid-off real good.
Back in the '70's while the grasshopperish left was dawdling with local organizing, feel-good, but otherwise ineffective anti-globalist or environmentalist politics, the right was busy building a domestic media infrastructure.
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.
[...]
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.
We can only point to Seattle. For over 18 years, a growling, snapping, 3.5 conservative radio stations organized, and loudly spewed the consistent, national right-wing line (KVI, KTTH, KKOL, about half of KIRO, and bits of KOMO) to Puget Sound listeners, long a progressive stronghold.
They didn't win the day -- it could even be argued they lost the war -- they're almost extinct these days. But while rarely having winning candidates, they had some significant political wins: They played a huge part in inventing and reanimating anti-tax Golem Tim Eyman; KVI's Kirby Wilbur nationally embarrassed Hillary Clinton in a demonstration on the streets of Seattle over health care; the 1994 Republican wave even swept this state and King county, and talk radio had a hand; Wilbur and John Carlson won an important (to the right) state supreme court decision about the right to do political operations on the air; Wilbur, Carlson, Peter Weissbach, Dave Boze and Mike Siegel gave knees-up to many conservative intitiatives and helped push this state into the revenue corner it's in.
Media here, ignored "hot talk," though it was a force with to contend with for many years, despite it framed many local issues.
The Democrats, and the progressive moneybags in Seattle ignored building or supporting local progressive media that might counter the right-wing swine. The city's second, and more liberal paper was shuttered by its corporate masters, nothing rose in its place.
Local lefties assembled and blew hard over the last 20 years with teach-ins, peace potlucks, and the WTO protests, the message of which was subsumed like candy from babies by nihilistic anarchists. It ended in grubby intra-city squabbling about police brutality and not much else - certainly no high-minded and lasting political movement.
We're not hopeful that much will change ... and neither is Parry:
While continuing to do little about its media deficit, the Left accuses Obama of failing to use his bully pulpit. Simultaneously, Obama – seeing no effective counterweight on the Left to the Right’s media power – shies away from what he fears would be a political suicide mission.
Omammy is a pussy.....face it.
Posted by: fucj out | January 02, 2011 at 10:21 PM
The lamestream media is circling the drain..
Posted by: KS | January 02, 2011 at 11:06 PM
It is nice that FNC, a few little radio stations around the country and the couple of conservative newspapers has brought CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NBC, ABC, AAR, The PI, The Times (NY, LA, Seattle), San Fran Chronicle and a few hundred additional liberal rags, radio and TeeVee broadcasters to their knees.
That's it, I'm sure. Maybe, with this here computer thing we are all studying, people of above average intelligence have learned just how much those fine institutions have been lying and deceiving us all of these years and it just can never be the same.
Once they let the stupid get educated, the left will have nothing or nobody left to work with.
As far as I can tell, the left has mostly minorities. How long can you keep black people in the ghetto or Latin people in the barrio? How long can you keep throwing them crumbs and stifling their dreams? Once we get the truth to them and get them thinking, then all you will have left is Venezuela, Cuba or some other socialist utopia to move to because they won't put up with the lefts crap either.
What do you say Fox News grows another 10 to 15% this year and MSNBC and CNN lose some more of their less stupid viewers.
But yes, the left did cause their own dysfunction. Reporters getting and broadcasting tingles over their beloved politicians is just one of many examples of the behavior that will neuter the left.
Posted by: Chucks | January 02, 2011 at 11:20 PM
Yes, the left was out helping people while the right was figuring out ways to win over the greedy suckers in society. That's about it - right chux?
Posted by: joanie | January 03, 2011 at 03:27 AM
she's repulsively selfrighteous, isn't she folks? oh, and can you say delusional?
Posted by: Tommy008 | January 03, 2011 at 04:53 AM
note to the lib clowns and fools on this blog- Obama and his little group of fellow thugs are laughing about how they pulled an end run around you fojks in the lame ducker, betraying their pledges to you and cobbling together cynical compromises with your hated Repugs. They're cackling and horselaughing over how they think by giving you folks the finger they're sleazing their way right into re-election in 2012. Are you just going to lie there and take it while he kicks you in the baLls?bwahahahahahahahah
Posted by: Tommy008 | January 03, 2011 at 05:05 AM
shouldn't you be getting your own lib purity candidate prepared right now, to take on Obama n the primaries?
Posted by: Tommy008 | January 03, 2011 at 05:09 AM
shouldn't you be organizing peaceful but vocal protest rallies around the country?
Posted by: Tommy008 | January 03, 2011 at 05:48 AM
The lamestream media is circling the drain..
Posted by: KS | January 02, 2011 at 11:06 PM
That's "Coiler-Country" as Nevets would say.
Posted by: Puget Sound | January 03, 2011 at 06:31 AM
The Progressives do not have the courage to primary President Obama. Hell, they can't even bring themselves to talk about how they are getting the shaft (how's it feel, Coils?)
It's been a tough two years for the Usual Suspects. Taking good advantage of a favorable moment in history, they sweat their asses off to get this man elected, give him veto proof majorities, and look what happens.
He's not materially different than Bush in Foreign Policy and his domestic agenda is largely nothing to brag about. And the one part that is, Obama-care, is going to be defunded over the next couple years.
Pres Obama thinks sooooo little of Progressives he won't even close Gitmo and is now appearing on Fox.
What next, a 5 minute talk on Rush Limbaugh?
At this point, even the Usual Suspects should be able to spell Triangulation.
And what will they do? Scream 'troll' when confronted these unpleasant facts. And run away.
Posted by: Puget Sound | January 03, 2011 at 06:39 AM
But hey, Usual Suspects if you don't believe me, hear what this fellow says about his own party's weaknesses after getting the election boot:
"Representative Alan Grayson, a Democrat from Florida’s Eighth Congressional District, is leaving office on Wednesday much as he entered it two years ago — as the pugnaciously partisan, verbal-bomb-tossing, liberal folk hero of the 111th Congress.
But in a wide-ranging interview as his term drew to a close, he repeatedly aimed his artillery in an unexpected direction: toward his own party.
Not for overreaching, in this age of hand-wringing over big government and creeping “socialism,” or for ideological purism. Instead, while surveying the wreckage of the November elections that cost him his seat and looking to the Congressional term ahead, Mr. Grayson posits that many Democrats have not been acting Democratic enough.
Judging by the results of the midterm elections, it does not exactly seem to be a widespread sentiment.
But at a moment when centrism seems to be the party’s antidote to a redrawn political landscape, Mr. Grayson is setting forth a radically different playbook of sharp elbows and unapologetic liberalism.
During the long conversation, Mr. Grayson, a 52-year-old father of five, faulted Democrats for failing to deliver for some of their most potent constituencies, among them labor unions and antiwar voters.
“What did the environmentalists see over the last two years?” he asked. “A proposed monumental increase in subsidies for nuclear power industry and offshore drilling.”
As for gay voters, he said: “What they got to see was a judge order that ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ no longer be enforced and a Democratic president appeal that decision. That is what that constituency saw before Nov. 2.” (The law was repealed in the final hours of the 111th Congress.)
By Election Day, Democratic voters in many districts felt that they had no real choice, Mr. Grayson said.
“If you want people to support you, then you have to support them,” he said. “You have to think long about what you did for people who voted for you, made phone calls for you, who went door to door for you.”
Posted by: Puget Sound | January 03, 2011 at 06:59 AM
It's hard to fault liberals during the 70s for practicing what they preached during the previous 50 years, and not engaging in some Machiavellian process to eliminate opposition, control the message, and undermine democracy.
Posted by: YellowPup | January 03, 2011 at 08:38 AM
'machiavellian process' hell, its the competency that is suspect.
the Democrats can't even manage the Legislative process when they have veto proof majorities.
LMAO
Posted by: Puget Sound | January 03, 2011 at 08:53 AM
Well, I think they knew we liberals weren’t as gullible as the right. Just read the above post. Chuck S is not only bragging about Faux dummying him down, he’s also insinuating anonymous posts at blog sites will educate him and the masses.
Posted by: BlackRhino | January 03, 2011 at 09:41 AM
ah yes, that's the problem. you're just to darn sophisticated for the rest of us rubes.
a variation of the ol'liberals are too smart to listen to talk radio' as a way to explain away lack of success.
keep at it, BR. I see Joanie lining up to kick away at that football...
maybe the real crux of the problem is an over reliance upon labels 'racist' 'troll' et al as a fallback when losing a discussion.
Posted by: Puget Sound | January 03, 2011 at 10:04 AM
the new Congress (Mitch Mc Connell) will focus on attacking Obama for crap Bush did.
Posted by: Coiler | January 03, 2011 at 10:16 AM
i am curious as to what Congressman Issa will be looking into.
Probably a bad time to be a Dim right now.
Hey Coils, you gonna go with Nader or Kucinich in the 2012 primaries?
Or will you keep with that Hope and Change deal?
Posted by: Puget Sound | January 03, 2011 at 10:46 AM
the new Congress (Mitch Mc Connell) will focus on attacking Obama for crap Bush did.
Posted by: Coiler | January 03, 2011 at 10:16 AM
That congress was wrong for not attacking Bush for that crap, so this congress is attempting to make it right by attacking Obama for doing the same crap Bush did. You were actually half right by accident.
Posted by: KS | January 03, 2011 at 11:14 AM
"Chuck S is not only bragging about Faux dummying him down, he’s also insinuating anonymous posts at blog sites will educate him and the masses."
BR - With all due respect what is your excuse for the leftists being dummyed down ? Their goal is to pattern this country like the failed European model that is handstrung by the Guvmint. The left is obsessed by using the same old failed statist construct in the belief that they will get it right this time around and succeed. That epitomizes the definition of insanity. The money supply is running out all over the globe, thanks the the entitlement ponzi schemes that the left pepetrated; yes, I mean Medicare, Medicaid, Guvmint pensions. These entitlements are here to stay, but unless they are reduced, they are unsustainable - Iceland, Greece and a number of EU countries are coming to realize that unsustainability has consequences.
Keep spinning like a top.
Posted by: KS | January 03, 2011 at 11:27 AM
kind of surprised m hood has not commented on the 211 million dollar offer for fisher broadcasting by a canadian company...
Posted by: dave, not dave ross | January 03, 2011 at 11:39 AM
you're just to darn sophisticated for the rest of us rubes.
Posted by: Puget Sound | January 03, 2011 at 10:04 AM
Haha, remember Putz…You said it!
HAHAHA
Posted by: BlackRhino | January 03, 2011 at 11:42 AM
KS, the thread is about the Libtards inability to create a propaganda machine similar to the Conservatards. Please, keep up.
The story has been around since 2005, do yourself a favor and read the link. I’m not so sure you and the unusual suspects would be so willing to sing it’s praises if you take the time to examine the original link. Then again I may be wrong.
Posted by: BlackRhino | January 03, 2011 at 11:54 AM
I would say that I don't necessarily accept the premise of that article. First off, David Brock has been subjugated by George Soros and believe he has always had a few screws missing and since then has switched from the the conservative to the progressive neo-com side of the debate.
Not denying that conservatives have a media or a so-called propaganda machine that the left refers to it as - it has been gaining momentum. However, are you saying that the NY Times, WaPost and other liberal-biased newspapers, the online conservative smear cites (media matters, moveon.org, the Huff Post), CNN, MSLSD, ABC, NBC and CBS are not part of the liberal propaganda machine ? Are you trying to deceive by saying this or was that just a brain fart ? That theory is dead wrong and DOA.
Of course, you and Agent Joanie Moonbeam the moonbat and the other usual suspects cannot accept that because it would puncture the bubble world that progressives live in.
Posted by: KS | January 03, 2011 at 12:17 PM
"the thread is about the Libtards inability to create a propaganda machine similar to the Conservatards"
They have those, they call them "degree granting institutions".
Posted by: Andrew | January 03, 2011 at 12:19 PM
"First off, David Brock has been subjugated by George Soros"
Was he subjugated by Richard Mellon Scaife before that?
Posted by: Coiler | January 03, 2011 at 01:10 PM
That could range from degrees via the iinternet to ones at a four-year accredited college. There is no degree for common sense, which the lib prog elites are lacking in.
Posted by: KS | January 03, 2011 at 01:14 PM
The by line is attributed to Robert Parry, KS.
Be that as it may, he is not the only one who thinks the conservatives have a tight control of right wing media and the brains of those who imbibe.
Posted by: BlackRhino | January 03, 2011 at 01:19 PM
From RT.com - the growing Marxist movement in NYC.
"A look at the growing Marxist movement in New York City. Even though they read Marx and Stalin, organize protests against Israel and play a board game that equates capitalism with barbarism, they shy away from calling themselves "socialist". As one member puts it, "It's more positive to say progressive or left."
Note how those involved want to be known as and how they don't want to be. Maybe its just me, but it sounds a lot like the usual suspect agents that inhabit this niche in cyberspace...
Posted by: KS | January 03, 2011 at 01:21 PM
"First off, David Brock has been subjugated by George Soros"
Was he subjugated by Richard Mellon Scaife before that?
Posted by: Coiler | January 03, 2011 at 01:31 PM
Andrew,
Here is one of the studies done at those bastions of higher learning.
Again, in the UK, those lefties are up to no good there too.
KS; “living up to the meme”
Posted by: BlackRhino | January 03, 2011 at 01:35 PM
hey Coils,
How's that Tea tasting post election?
Why don't Progressives form their own version of a powerful force within the Dem Party to move em back to the left? Take a lesson from those 'rube' Teaparty types?
Posted by: Puget Sound | January 03, 2011 at 01:35 PM
Be that as it may, he is not the only one who thinks the conservatives have a tight control of right wing media and the brains of those who imbibe.
Posted by: BlackRhino | January 03, 2011 at 01:19 PM
According to Parry's statistics, there is a similar level of misinformation by the those who voted Democrat and Repuglican. He does not get into the significance of misinformation, which can be very telling. It seems like Politifact, which is not a reliable source IMO, because all that shows is the media trying to police themselves with their inbred biases. Even though it shows facts in a very general sense, it reads more like an opinion piece.
So according to Parry, Conservatives have a tight control of the rightwing media just as the liberals have a tight control of the leftwing-lamestream media. OK, so it is a well-known fact that there is a high degree of polarization. Big surprise ? NOT
Posted by: KS | January 03, 2011 at 01:36 PM
Andrew,
Here is one of the studies done at those bastions of higher learning.
Again, in the UK, those lefties are up to no good there too.
That was one of the most ridiculous studies ever done, IMO. It appeases the liberal elitists. Just one question - where is the science ? It seems like some puff-academia piece that Agent Joanie the moonbat would be all over like flies on shit.
Posted by: KS | January 03, 2011 at 01:41 PM
KS
I think on the weekdays, Conservatives have Agent Joanie Moonbeam on the late shift.
Posted by: Puget Sound | January 03, 2011 at 01:49 PM
She is known in mainstream circles as Agent Joanie Moonbeam the moonbat or Agent ph(J)oanie for short - green on the outside and red on the inside - LOL.
Posted by: KS | January 03, 2011 at 03:07 PM
Posted by: KS | January 03, 2011 at 12:17 PM
"First off, David Brock has been subjugated by George Soros"
Was he subjugated by Richard Mellon Scaife before that?
Posted by: Coiler | January 03, 2011 at 03:26 PM
You tell me, Agent Ecoli
Posted by: KS | January 03, 2011 at 03:40 PM
I read Putz is trying to man-up his pots here.
This was an interesting exercise in mud slinging. The conservatives at better at mudslinging. The left needs to stick to reasonable and intelligent discussion of issues. Why don't the progressives do what the Tea Partyers did? They did. They elected Obama. The media would rather not talk about it.
And so, we are back to the topic of the thread.
Posted by: The Anti-Dori | January 03, 2011 at 04:46 PM
Make that "posts" rather than "pots" or may both.
Posted by: The Anti-Dori | January 03, 2011 at 04:47 PM
Anti Dori
If they elected President Obama, how come he shows your people such little regard?
More important, why do you take it?
Two words: Dennis Kucinich.
Posted by: Puget Sound | January 03, 2011 at 05:16 PM
I don't know, puts. But that wasn't the question or the statement, was it?
Dennis Kucinich? I don't understand. Can you be more specific?
Posted by: The Anti-Dori | January 03, 2011 at 05:26 PM
'Primary' Pres Obama with Denis Kucinich. Or resign yourself to Bush like Foreign Policy.
Unless of course, you like that Anti Dori.
The Domestic Agenda will be tacking to the right via 'triangulation' tactics of Bill Clinton.
Unless of course, you like that Anti Dori.
Posted by: Puget Sound | January 03, 2011 at 05:38 PM
Talk about “living up to the meme”. This thread highlights the divergence of the hesitant left and the propagandist right. When whadaya know, Putz attempts to change the subject with propaganda.
Stay predictable Putz.
Posted by: BlackRhino | January 03, 2011 at 06:14 PM
To the left, money is apparently no object, especially money that isn't theirs and they are unapologetic about it (Don't do as they do, do as they say). The right appears to have got religion and is out to cut spending, but there is inconsistency from the past that they will have to prove otherwise to win more trust.
More correctly, the resident left lives up to their meme, while the opposing views live up to the counter-meme.
Posted by: KS | January 03, 2011 at 07:07 PM
"but there is inconsistency from the past that they will have to prove otherwise to win more trust"
Watergate, Iran-Contra, failed invasions of foreign countries, tax cuts for the wealthy, Mitch Mc Connell' "ban on earmarks" after requesting a billion dollars worth of same.
Posted by: Coiler | January 03, 2011 at 07:20 PM
You made my point with those examples less than 10 years ago.
Posted by: KS | January 03, 2011 at 07:38 PM
Dont forget the newly elected Republican Rep. who campaigned against the health care bill, and then, once elected, complained that he had not yet received his government healthcare for being a member of Congress.
Posted by: sparky | January 03, 2011 at 07:39 PM
Mitch McConnell is last month.....
Posted by: Coiler | January 03, 2011 at 08:01 PM
Ahhh, KS and Putz taking the spanking.
Posted by: BlackRhino | January 03, 2011 at 08:04 PM
To the left, money is apparently no object,
KS, you really believe that government spending is the problem. You believe that the right should be able to keep their money. Mr. Johnston talked about his book Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich - and Cheat Everyone Else,
You don't have to believe him. It is based on his research. But you ought to give him a listen and then talk about whether or not it is really spending that's the problem or our tax code. Maybe both?
Posted by: joanie | January 03, 2011 at 08:06 PM