First diary, so be kind.
We all have seen how the media has revved up the echo chamber and is becoming an active participant in the Swiftboating of Barack Obama (highbrow elitist wuss - while at the same time somehow being scary black militant - hard to pull off but they are succeeding). We have to come up with a strategy to prevent this from going any further.
Possible line of attack after the jump.
We all saw that the email blitzes after the ABC were recognized and briefly provided a recognition in the MSM of the dissatisfaction in this kind of discourse.
It's the constant every day droning of the cable shows however that takes the media narrative and turns it into reality, so although we can write emails regularly that will not stop it. As long as they have ratings they will continue. Let's be honest, any "boycott" doesn't really have the dramatic impact that is needed. What we need is something visible to embarass the networks into covering the issues. The network honchos care about ratings, but they and the pundits care just as much about their reputations. This is where we have an opportunity.
We are very good at raising money. We need to use it to hurt the media. One idea is to take out a full page in the New York Times or Washington Post talking about the media's role in this campaign.
One of Obama's problems is that the whole Wright controversy does have racial aspects but he can't call them out because even if people don't accuse him of playing the race card, just keeping his race and the whole controversy alive and is a distraction to getting his message out. So we need to keep the message of any such ad or message that it is the media not addressing the real issues that people care about. I think it should even be kept non-partisan to get the most respect. If nonpartisan it would also prevent the blowback on our candidate (we know how "reporters" love to be coddled and get even when they are not).
If we could get signatures from high profile people it might get some buzz and even get some discussion on the MSM talk shows about the level of discourse (because if it's from just lowly bloggers, they will yawn). Heads of journalism schools, retired news reporters and elected officials. I'm not sure of the format, but some sort of comparison of a real news items not being addressed with the media narrative of the day is one idea. Like a list of the following:
April 1st - Number of minutes of Iraq coverage each on CNN and MSNBC and FOX.
vs.
April 1st - Number of times candidates attire, drink choices, sporting scores are mentioned on CNN, MSNBC, and FOX
A whole listing of various items, taxes, environment, etc. With a tag line something along the lines of "Is our news media a source of information and real journalism these days or not, only they can decide."
Anyone think this has potential? It has the added benefit of helping out the newspaper industry who still on occasion does real reporting by giving them some ad money.