Once upon a time, the media landscape was dominated by 1) the corporate media, more concerned with Michael Jackson and OJ Simpson than with notions of truth, and 2) the Right Wing Noise Machine. And the wingers were so successful in "working the refs" in the corporate media, that conservative voices dominated opinion shows like the Sunday morning talk shows.
The Right Wing Noise Machine, consisting of the entire AM radio spectrum, Fox News Channel, the Washington Times, the Wall Street Journal editorial board, the partisan weeklies, Matt Drudge, etc., worked in concert with each other to push stories into the "mainstream" critical of Demcorats and Democratic policies.
It was truly a thing of beauty. Efficient, effective, ruthless. Everything Democrats and their non-existent machine were not.
In that environment, any Democrat who stuck her/his neck out was sure to get slapped down hard. That Dem would face a barrage of criticism that would climb up the media ladder, across the media landscape, with no support from the progressive community. We didn't have the vehicles to fight back.
So why would a Democrat take a courageous stand? It only led to lots of pain and no reward. Eventually, Democrats got comfortable with that setup. Their lives consisted of avoiding anything that would stir the Right Wing media borg into action.
But then blogging hit the scene. And as our audience grew, and a demand for partisan liberal media was proven, interest in building a left-wing media machine heightened. Air America and Democracy Radio came on the scene, and started growing rapidly despite long-held assertions that liberals couldn't be successful on AM radio.
Now money is flowing into a VC fund that's looking to create an alternative to Fox News on the cable dial, while also building out other elements of a progressive media machine. The idea isn't to recreate what the Right did, but build a better machine tailored for the 21st century.
And suddenly, Democrats aren't sure what to do. Some, like Harry Reid, have recognized that we're now able to provide cover to courageous Democrats. So he takes strong stances, and we help beat back wingnut efforts to smear and tar him. They try to shut Durbin down, and we provide cover fire so he can continue speaking the truth.
But in the same vein, we can now hold Democrats accountable as well. In that old world, Democrats could sell out to the highest bidder, and there was no way to hold them accountable. Now, we can. And many of them don't like it.
Remember this?
John Podesta, president of the progressive Center for American Progress (CAP), faced pointed questions from lawmakers at last Thursday's New Democrat Coalition (NDC) meeting about an inflammatory e-mail his organization sent to liberal activists and bloggers.
In a March 9 e-mail, David Sirota, a fellow at CAP, accused 16 pro-business Democrats of supporting bankruptcy-reform legislation because they received political contributions from the commercial banks and credit-card companies that stand to benefit if the legislation becomes law.
The e-mail coursed through the blogosphere and generated angry phone calls from liberal activists to the offices of the 16 centrist Democrats. Sirota, a former minority spokesman for the House Appropriations Committee, criticized 16 of the 20 Democrats who wrote Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) March 7 urging him to bring bankruptcy reform to the House floor.
Things have changed, and they'll keep improving for the better. We're increasingly able to provide cover for courageous Democrats when barraged by the Right Wing Noise Machine, while punishing those who act against the people's interests.
Many Democrats -- especially those that act hurt when faced with a barrage from our side -- don't realize that the rules are changing. We reward the courageous, and punish those too comfortable in the minority.
And as our media machine grows, we'll soon be able to take the fight to the enemy. And then things will change some more.