Last night, I submitted a hastily drawn diary that kicked off Operation Media Liberation. It got 20+ recommends, but somehow never got bumped upstairs. I'm reposting it now, with more detail and battle plans, for the morning crowd.
Remember the brief joy of defeating Sinclair's wacko decision to play that anti-Kerry doco in October? The power of the boycott, and the media coverage of how twisted the right-wing noise machine can be?
Do it again. By 2006, I want us to have made major progress tearing down the major pillars of the right wing media. Fox. Drudge. Sinclair. Newsmax. It's time to go on the offensive.
First prongs of the battle plans after the jump.
As a precursor, we must all
keep up with the efforts of Media Matters: http://mediamatters.org/. We need to keep up on our intel to know our enemy.
- Finish off Sinclair. Rev up the boycott! We can't wait until they get ideas in their heads again. Assault their advertisers, pummel their stock, make them a takeover target for Soros. To that end, please visit the Sinclair boycott website, which has a page listing their advertizers. The same people are spearheading a "Sinclair Patrol" and appear to need some donations to start the effort.
- Target Drudge's ammo production. We need to start taking out Drudge's funding and diminish his influence. First step, a boycott of his major advertizers. I've seen Verizon Wireless there, and now see Best Western. These are major companies advertising on a well-known purveyor of lies and gossip, and an obvious right-wing hack. We need to set up a "Boycott Sludge" page (which doesn't appear to exist yet), starting with Verizon and Best Western, and do the research needed to make a list of his advertizers and other funding sources. Drive this guy out of business. (Note: generally, we could use a centralized website that could serve as a clearinghouse for boycotts).
- Begin the seige on Fort Faux, Phase I: The first phase is to begin exposing the Fox contradiction. Somehow, the GOP base of moralists that love Fox News don't notice the amazing contradiction that the network version is a major perveyor of slimy broadcast television (as is FX, the cable outlet). Explicit oral sex on Joe Millionare. Fraud on Big Fat Obnoxious Boss. Drug abuse on 70s Show. I'm for artistic freedom and there are some great shows on Fox, but we need to drive down Faux News's viewership. Time for a coordinated attack of LTEs, blog posts, etc. that highlight that Fox is causing the very moral decay that its Fox News base loathes. (Once we drive down viewership at Fox News, the needs to pander to the right-wing seen on CNN and MSGOP will begin to falter - and make the future attack wave on the mainstream press easier.)
Ok, those are the first three prongs of the attack. Finish the job with the Sinclair outpost. Take out the Sludge ammo factory. Begin the seige on Fort Faux.
If there is interest, I'll keep this series going with more diaries down the road with updates and more battle plans. Toss in your ideas as well.
Let's do it. Take 'em out. The future is now.
Morning after notes: Many comments from last night about taking on NBC and others, and so I added my rationale in the Faux News battle plan on why the first assault wave doesn't include them. Corporate media is slave to the dollar, so the first step is to take out their incentive to pander to the right. Bringing down Faux News is the key to that strategy.
Update [2004-11-16 10:48:12 by VirginiaDem]: Great Boycott Faux News websites:
http://www.spendingliberally.org/
http://www.adnausea.org/
Update [2004-11-16 13:18:7 by VirginiaDem]: Rabidnation is heading up organization:
You wanna do this thing?
OK, then WRITE ME at david (at) rabidnation.com. I'm going to start putting together a list of who wants to be involved, how they want to be involved, what skills/aptitudes/time/resources they can bring to the table, etc. I will also create either a maillist or discussion group (yahoo-style or something, members-only) for purposes of providing an easy means for participants to contact each other en masse.
As I see it, here's where we are right now:
Obviously, the idea is to take this germ of an idea, grow it, and make it viable and effective. We're at stage 1: Initial organization. We're putting together the central core of ppl who will determine the overall objectives/structure/methodology of this "organization" (using terms loosely). First-wavers. The 2nd wave will be the launching of the (site/project/boycott) whatever the final form(s) turn out to be. Third wave will be the publicizing/recruiting/propagandizing stage where we push ppl to become involved on a mass level.
So, between here and there, there are a large number of things to be accomplished. I'll be sending an email to those who've posted their email addy to those who have already posted on this list; anyone else who wants to be involved -drop me a line: david(at)rabidnation.com.
Update [2004-11-16 13:18:7 by VirginiaDem]: Second organizational update from Rabidnation:
OK: there's been some progress I can let you know about:
a) About ten of you have written to me so far expressing an interest in being involved in the coordinating stage of this project. However, most of you didn't identify who you were on here (your dKos name) in your email, so I don't know exactly who I've heard from from this list. I'll be getting emails out to everybody shortly just acknowledging that I got your request and that you've been added to the "database" (a/k/a my desktop post-it note).
b) I have created an opt-in automated mail list for the use of the people on the coordinating committee. In the emails I send out to everyone, I'll be asking if they want to be on this list (might be hard to accomplish much if not, but...) and will be providing instructions for how to sign up. This will not be a published list - nobody's email address is going to sneak out into the world at large, nor are their messages.
c) I have set up the domain name foxdetox.com and have put up a placeholder page at that site (y'can look at it if you want to; FoxDetox. The only thing on it is an email address for more info for wander-ins; this is answered by an autoresponder, into which we will put a general statement of principles (once this is established) and suitable contact/participation information.
d) Note that "FoxDetox" is not necessarily the end-name for this project - I bought it so that we would at least have a working name and a server to put the collaboration site stuff, run the automated email list, etc.... the final choice of names/domains can be altered, if we decide that the mission is markedly different than tackling fox & fellow travellers head-on, or if someone comes up w/ something catchier or whatever. "OperationMediaLiberation" sounds great...but it's a hell of a long name to type into a browser, and the 3-letter acronym OML is taken.