I was investigating the Ohio Democratic Party on Wikipedia and noticed it was largely written by a Republican. The entry used several terms to describe the democratic party that would never be in our frame and then went on to have a lengthy section on republicans that have replaced democrats in ohio (an open endorsment of republicans on the ohio democrats page!). I tried to change it using clues from the frameshop series. (I am not a great writer so I hope I did okay.) As i investigated wikipedia further it seemed that either republicans have hijacked some key pages or that the republican language is so prevelant in society that it leaked onto wiki. Regardless - We need to spread our frames and wiki is a good place to start. Ideas/Suggestions/Examples below the fold -
Please check out the page that refers to the Democratic Party of your state. Make sure it states what progressives stand for. If it doesn't exist maybe you could start it, or start a page for your DFA.
Also, we should put our frames out there. We are learning so much from some great diaries including:
The Feldman Diaries:
http://www.dailykos.com/user/Jeffrey%20Feldman/diary
http://dogfight04.typepad.com/TheFeldmanDiaries.pdf
Coturnix Lakoff Series:
http://www.dailykos.com/user/coturnix/diary
and many others.
I would like to see us put this into motion with a complete edit of the wikipedia. Not an assault on the truth, just a purging of un-democratic terms that are currently being used by the administration to mislead the public.
I am sure we'd have something to add to the War in Iraq, the Patriot Act, Health Savings Accounts/ Health Insurance and other issues which are dear to our hearts. Example: Do a search for a key word like "Social Security" then everywhere it is mentioned, every article, find a relevant place to add that "Social Security is a successful social program that helps millions of Americans." I am not advocating spamming wiki. I just want to make sure the truth is stated using our frames.
Republican politican bio pages need to include thier scandals/controversies (no lies - just opposing views backed by fact). And Democratic politicians need to state the democratic mission/ principles at the top of everypage. Something like: "The stated mission of the Democratic Party is to represent and protect the interests of working Americans and guarantee personal liberties for all." and from frameshop:
* America leads by example
* Responsibility is the moral core of a strong military
* Respect is the foundation of an effective foreign policy
* America is a land of opportunity for eveyone, not a place where a few wealthy people own everything.
I once read if someone hears something 30X it becomes part of their belief system. Well we have to start somewhere. Let's start at wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Thank you for reading. This is my first post, so I'm a little nervous. Being a mom of a one year old leaves me little time to write but, I was so irritated by my findings that I thought I had to tell you. I hope you will find the time to fix the wiki to support our frames.
Added 2:08 est
I am not advocating spamming wiki with propaganda. Just using our frameshop knowledge smartly, working within the rules of the wiki community.