As most of you probably already know, the Center for American Progress has been doing a bang-up job of highlighting the staggering gap between the rhetoric of the Bush administration and reality. Its daily
Progress Report has become one of my favorite reads--up there with dKos.
Today, the Center is unveiling its
Claim vs. Fact Database. I for one am
very excited. They have created a tremendous tool to combat this administration's Orwellian doublespeak and the memory hole with which most media seem to operate. Their database is very similar to what was envisioned last winter at
The Left Coaster. Some of us actually talked a bit at that time about a Truth Corps website, but it was clearly a massive task, and as far as I know it didn't get very far.
The Center for American Progress is also encouraging submissions to the database. If you have a juicy bit of BS from Bush or his keepers, with a companion fact to discredit the juicy bit, send it in!
For those of us involved in the Truth Corps discussions, media outreach was considered vital. I'm not sure of the extent to which The Center for American Progress is rebutting Bush BS directly to the media. My fear is that it's mostly progressives like me who get the daily updates on the administration's dishonesty.
But now we progressives have a great tool in hand, and we ought to use it. I would suggest that, any time you write or email a media outlet, columnist, or reporter, you include a citation from the Claim vs. Fact Database with a link. And we can contact the media proactively, not just reactively. For instance, we could contact our local newspapers--and the major national news media--before Bush makes a highly publicized statement. Is Bush traveling to Ohio (again) to speak on his great economy? Hit the Ohio papers and the major networks with claims and facts from the Database before his visit, so that reporters are more likely to include the facts in their reports. Too often we have seen or read reports that simply repeat Bush's claims. And we all know the value of a first paragraph with substantive rebuttals built into it. Something like: President Bush traveled to Ohio today, claiming credit for a stronger economy. But in a state that has lost 220,000 manufacturing jobs during his term, and with its highest unemployment rate in twelve years, his claims were received with widespread skepticism.
We know that some reporters and columnists aren't interested in the facts. Others often seem too lazy to seek them. A kinder interpretation would be that reporters are forever rushed to get their stories out and lack the institutional resources to get to the bottom of each story. So let's help them! Arm reporters beforehand with the facts--and with earlier examples of BS rhetoric--and we may be giving them the handy viewpoint they're seeking for their stories. To put it another way: Show them just how much blood there is in the water, and they may well act with their instinctive bloodlust.
And don't forget your conservative friends, coworkers, and family. Every time the wingnut in the next cubicle makes some claim about Bush's accomplishments, send him or her a present from the database.