The right wing has a message machine that always seems to work better than ours. They have surely already written their attack pieces against President Obama’s big speech tonight. I propose that we all have our own support message ready to go immediately after the speech.
I might not agree with everything the President says tonight. But I know that I admire his courage in tackling the health care problem that presidents since Harry Truman have been trying to manage without success. So I’m composing my letter to the papers that I’ll adjust as needed after the speech and send with variations to any outlet I can think of. May I suggest that you all do this, too?
Below are some media outlets. For newspapers, they generally want the letter to refer to an article (there will definitely be online articles right after the speech), your name and address and daytime telephone number. The letter most likely won’t get published but I believe a volume of letters on one side makes an impression. Make it short, sharp, and intelligent. (NY Times says no longer than 150 words.)
New York Times: letters@nytimes.com
Washington Post: letters@washpost.com
Los Angeles Times: letters@latimes.com
Baltimore Sun: talkback@baltimoresun.com
CNN TV: http://www.cnn.com/...
Various MSNBC and NBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
Washington Post online chats with journalists - you can post a question ahead of time. Schedule is here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
The Diane Rehm Show NPR has a national political discussion on Friday mornings 10-11 am. You can email a comment or question ahead of time to drshow@wamu.org.
(Sorry if you have to cut and paste those links. I'm not too savvy on how to set that up.)
These efforts are just tiny drops in the bucket but doing something is better than doing nothing, right? Our outrage machine should be greater than theirs!! So my finger will be poised and ready to click the "send" button tonight - how about yours?