I'll get the embarrassing part out of the way first. Long, long ago, Dec. 2009, I proposed a diary series around writing letters to the editor. It got a slight spattering of approval. And I even solicited a partner to help manage it. But, I didn't follow up. So, confession over; let's begin again.
I really think the idea has merit, even though personally I'm not a big letter writer. Multiple reasons for that, but one is that I live in Oklahoma City and we have what's been deemed "the worst newspaper in America" (Columbia Journalism Review, 1999) and our LTE page is a travesty and a regional joke. However, occasionally liberal letters do get printed (and once in a blue moon a guest column takes a slightly left-of-center position) and it's possible that more would, but most Democrats/liberals/progressives here either refuse to read/respond to the paper or gave up trying to respond to its worst content long ago (or they are on the all too real banned list for not being adequately respectful of the LTE editor's fee fees.
But the opinion page of a newspaper is still a pretty significant spot for public dialog, along now with the comment threads on local corporate media websites.
So I'm still thinking it would be worthwhile to foster and/or highlight some LTE writing and corp media engagement as a political strategy, probably until they stop printing on dead trees.
What do you think?
Of course, with the groups feature in DK4 now, this could really be an easier and more interesting project. While encouraging Kossacks to write "Dear Editor," we could also examine opinion pages around the country, particularly in more conservative areas, to see how we can begin to tilt the game a little more in our favor.
Logistically, I don't even have TV status at the moment (though I think I'm achingly close), so a group would have to be started by a TU who agreed that this might be useful, or at least a fun experiment.
If we get that far, got any clever ideas for a group name?