Every night the news is dominated by the latest Republican/Fox allegations about something, anything to distract from the real problems facing this country. And the rest of the media, including I'm sorry to say MSNBC, spends most of their air time discussing exactly what the Republicans want them to discuss. When will the Democrats wake up and learn to take control of this game?
It is not that hard to shape what happens in the media. Any first time campaign staffer can figure out how to manipulate the media. Make a public accusation, stage a photo op., say something controversial in an interview, etc. etc. The basic idea is to give the media the raw meat it needs to sell commercials.
The undisputed masters of media manipulation are Republicans and their Fox cronies. Every night, the media reports the latest Republican story line as if it's real news. Under the rubric of "fairness" they get suckered into showing "both sides" of the story by interviewing Democrats who deny the Republican story line. Why can't Democrats see that they are being used as stooges?
The only antidote to the Republican media strategy is to be better at it than they are. Democrats need to get over their squeamishness about "using the media." and this self-defeating crap about bi-partisanship. Every day, some smart Democrat somewhere (are there any left?) needs to figure out what charges they want the Republicans to answer on the evening news. And make it happen. It's really not that hard. You don't need anyone's permission. And there is nothing wrong with being clever in service of a good cause (like for example ending this country's 100 year health care nightmare).