re:How Do We Coordinate Our Responses to the Media?

Many diaries over the past few weeks have focused on outrageous articles, rendering infamous the likes of Nedra Pickler.  I have dutifully written my share of emails to journalists with praise or blame--probably about 15 in the past six months, including five in the last week, as things have heated up.  I know many of you have done the same, and I believe these emails make a difference.  

But the question ought to be: What approach will make the biggest difference?

Lots of good people are working their own angles in attempts to keep the media honest and fair: The Dean Defense Forces respond en masse to smears and negative press.  Atrios, I believe, has encouraged readers to "adopt a reporter."  It all helps, I'm sure.

But money talks, and what I'd really like to see is a big grassroots organization like MoveOn get active in this arena.  This great article, which Kos linked to on the main page, examines in detail what most of us have recognized: that the Washington Post has been trashing Dean from the outset.  They've been appalling, from their June editorial snarkily "welcoming, we guess" Dean into the race, to their refusal to cover Dean when the news is positive.  They actually printed my letter to the editor excoriating them for not bothering to mention Dean's August 23 rally in Northern Virginia, which attracted 4500 people.  

Now, I've written them to complain on at least three occasions, but they haven't stopped, and I'm beginning to think that my emails and yours don't bother them overmuch.  But what if MoveOn announced with great fanfare a new campaign to monitor the press?  They could announce that we aren't going to let this year's nominee be gored, and they could request that members vote on which major media outlet has been the most unfair and sensationalistic in its coverage of the election.  (They could exempt Fox News from this vote, declaring that we all already know that Fox is nothing but a Republican echo chamber.)  Then, once they get a winner, they could publicize the reasons why this outlet "won" this dubious contest, and they could call on their members to write to this outlet demanding better.  Best of all, they could declare that this outlet was on "probation," and if it published or ran a story that met any of several criteria for unfairness, smearing, etc., MoveOn would call on its members to boycott it.

The whole enterprise would generate big press and in itself would help fight the CW that the media is biased in favor of liberals.  And what fun it would be if, say, the Post won, was put on probation, then was found "guilty" of yet another biased smear job.  MoveOn could run a full-page ad in other papers announcing that tens of thousands of Post readers had canceled their subscriptions.

What do you think?