For the second year in a row, Time has dropped Daily Kos onto their list of most overrated blogs (actually they've listed a blog called "The Daily Kos," so perhaps I'm wrong to be offended).
The complaint the real-deal journalists at Time have with DK?
...nothing, not even the oil spill or the faltering war in Afghanistan, has really catapulted anything on the Daily Kos into the national consciousness.
It's nice that traditional outlets can simultaneously complain about those ill-informed bloggers in their PJs, and moan that the same bloggers are failing to drive the national conversation. However, there's a very good reason that these outlets are now rarely featuring ideas that originate on this site. It's not because the writing here is any less consequential. I can say without any doubt that the writing on Daily Kos over the last two years has been better, sharper, more insightful, better researched, and more important than at any time in the history of the site. The decline has not been on this side of the aisle.
The difference is that much of the "mainstream" media has become so severely self-censoring that they wet their collective pants at the thought of offending conservatives. Once upon a time they used to at least hint that maybe, just maybe, there was something wrong in Dick Cheney's confident statements that he knew where the weapons of mass destruction were located. There was an occasional rumor that wearing a snug flight suit might possibly not mean the war was over. Sure, the slightest challenge was enough to cause them to retreat behind the false objectivity of "showing both sides." For example, when the New York Times was faced with those who defended the use of torture, their decision is not to call them on it, but to dodge the issue by displaying all the backbone of a sponge. It's no wonder that anti-science forces shout that we should "teach the controversy" between reason and nonsense, when this is the official position of the most influential paper in the nation.
These days, even that level of discourse would seem daring. Why has nothing that surfaced on DK in the last couple of years really "launched" into the big media? Because the big media has decided that conservatives must be treated like mountain gorillas: give the silverbacks plenty of room, try to fit in with the troop, don't look them in the eyes. Above all, don't make any moves that might get them even the slightest bit upset.
These days there's no such thing as too conservative. It's a media where a lifelong conservative and former editor-in-chief of a conservative paper can immediately be fired from the Washington Post for daring to point out that the current crop of conservatives are completely disconnected from reality. And a media where the "consumer ombudsman" at the Post reacts to aggression by the right by suggesting that the proper thing to do is replace their conservative-but-not-blind writer with a couple of even more conservative writers who will do a better job of picking lice, being differential, and grunting along with the troop.
Every outlet might not be privy to Roger Ailes' morning talking points, but they're following the script just the same. Fox creates a faux-movement, down to scheduling the time and date for events, advertises their little wingding for weeks, provides the banners and secures the location. And then Fox posts a complaint that other media isn't celebrating the event they created. Results? Rather than telling Rupert to faux off, the rest of the media scurries to prove that they are too giving this extra-special episode of Blossom Beck all the attention it so richly deserves. Look at us, Mr. Murdoch. See how we're devoting far, far, far more time and ink to your skit than to genuine grass roots events of vastly greater import? See how well we pretend that this is a "populist uprising," rather than the most extreme members of the Republican right driven completely off their already fragile rockers by fantasies bawled out between ads for gold schemes and luxury doomsday bunkers?
It's a media where, confronted with the uncomfortable proof that Sarah Palin is a buffoon incapable of answering a question more complex than "what's your favorite color," Time solves the problem by just not asking her any more questions and snapping lots of pictures instead. That way the media can take two word snippets from her latest paid appearance (here's a guess for next week: some toothy animal + "moms") act as if her statement makes sense, and carry on with the story on how inspirational Palin is to other women. Presumably other women who would also like to command a six figure payday for showing up, grinning, and babbling like a deranged Chatty Kathy.
It's a media that can dutifully report on John Boehner's dismissal of the May jobs report because "it included too many census workers," and then cover Boehner's claim that the June job's report spells doom, without mentioning the minority leader's earlier statements. Where Republicans can blast Obama for "dithering" in Afghanistan, then hit him again for moving too precipitously, and know they won't be called on it. They rest confident in the knowledge that the media will treat the public as if we have the short term memory of the main character in Memento. Obama has always been responsible for the massive cost run up by two wars, the stock market crash, the bailout of the banks, and the massive national debt, signed Teddy.
To keep these stories intact, the media has to avoid any substance whatsoever. They can't so much as demand one actual fact from Palin, or Rove, or Cheney, or (God help us) Liz Cheney, or any other brilliant light of the right. They have to ignore their own writing to hold out any pretense of consistency. They can't possibly point out the daily -- hourly -- contradiction between conservatives railing against every watered-down action of the government as socialism, and conservatives railing against the government's inability to right every wrong. Hell, Bobby Jindal is rewriting himself so fast he has to carry a pencil in one hand and an eraser in the other. But don't worry, folks, you can still make him look good if you keep your story short and hope that no one watching recalls what was said at breakfast. By next year, you'll still figure out a way to get together that "doesn't he look presidential" highlight reel. Time surely has all the pictures ready of Jindal looking highly concerned and serious.
Why does the media so chastely tiptoe around the absolute, incontrovertible fact that the GOP is daily peddling bullshit to the American public? Because they fell down and can't figure out how to get up again. News media from television to newspapers saw that the audience being generated by drooling pundits was out-pulling straight news, so between bouts of blaming bloggers for media's misfortune, they gathered all the actual vipers right into their beds. Just a little. Just a few hours. Just a few columns. Just every day. And don't you worry, a network, paper, or magazine won't have any problem pointing out the pants-free nature of a raving lunatic once that lunatic is their biggest revenue generator. Of course they won't.
Above all, the one thing the media dare not do is demonstrate the clear link between conservative policies and the economic collapse. A media with the guts of a gnat would warn people that on our way to becoming one nation under Ayn Rand (with Ronald Reagan as her prophet) conservatism has failed in every measurable way. They'd devote the airtime and glossy pages to show that conservatism has always made things worse, always led to greater instability, always resulted in more concentration of wealth, and always brought on greater national and personal debt. They'd report on the Republican Party's endless fight to wreck the country out of spite.
Maybe they would, but we don't have that media. We have the one that places the superficial ahead of the substantive, and values controversy over resolution. We have the one that continues to stand by, letting Roger and Rush dictate their schedule, "teaching the controversy" and wondering why they don't get any more juicy stories from those footie-wearers in the blogs.
Sadly enough, I think Daily Kos will have to go on being overrated, stuck in its niche of reporting facts and pointing out issues even when they don't fit the predefined narrative. In the meantime, Newsweek goes up for sale, US News and World Report becomes a monthly, and Time sees a 35% drop in sales. All of them sinking gentle into that long night, without a drop of rage.