If a tree falls in a forest and nobody knows that the tree fell, did the tree really fall?
If a politician uses racist code words like macaca and nobody hears him say macaca, did he really say macaca?
If a politician goes to a town in Mississippi and starts using the same rhetoric of the thugs who murdered 3 civil rights workers and the 3 major networks never show you the video, did that politician ever use that rhetoric?
For the past several decades the answer would be no. This country has had its major newspapers, its major radio outlets, and its major television networks controlled by the same anti-middle class corporate interests. So when Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W Bush said the dumbest of things or acted in the most callous of ways, or inflicted the most egregious of harms, these were simply words and acts of that proverbial tree falling in a forest that nobody (or not enough people) knew about it.
This all is changing and you are making it possible.
In years past, 3 major networks, CBS, NBC, and ABC would censor 99% of all video that would reveal right wing and conservative politicians for who they are and what they stand for. (I reiterate that if RW conservatism is exposed for its true agenda, it's a 4th party ideology) In the 1980s CNN joined that mix followed by Faux Noise in the 1990s. By 1999, for all practical purposes, there wasn't much of an Internet, no such thing as YouTube, no alternative media, no cell phones, etc... For decades, conservatives have had their censor enablers not only across most radio stations in America but with almost all newspapers as well, especially the Washington Post and the New York Times which serve the duel but nefarious function of pretending to be mainstream while carrying the water of the right wing extremists.
In the past, right wing extremists and a few enablers with Ds after their name could cast outrageous votes and these votes would go unreported.
In the past, right wing extremists could make outrageous comments and the gatekeepers at Big Media would throw the tape in the garbage and you would never see or hear it.
In the past, when there are audio and video showing right wing conservatives lying and contradicting themselves, these audios and videos would never see the light of day.
But things are changing. With the Internet, You Tube, I Pods, Blackberries, etc... you have the power to attend town hall meetings, local events open to the public, etc... and expose them. You have the power to post diaries online, set up blogs, post comments, and report stories that the MSM has self censored. You have the power to inform people of an issue that your newspaper won't write about.
Big Media still has a role in society but very often, more people are reading the blogs these elitists attack than the vituperative columnists who do the attacking.
Big Media still has a role on television and could still be useful but if they don't want to report the facts and they don't want to show the relevant video, they'll continue to be less relevant. (Put Olbermann, Stewart, and Colbert on one of the major networks and have them as the news department and I'll almost guarantee you that not only would they be number one, number two would be at least 50% behind them.)
We are just in the beginning of taking our country back from the extremist right wingers (A 20% fringe but they do control the GOP and every candidate running for President on their side is part of this fringe) who are destroying our Constitution, our economy, our military, our education system, our health care, and our environment. And with the Internet and the New Media, this progress will only continue to expound.