The greatest threat to American Democracy isn't the ethics abuses of Bugman Delay. It isn't corporate America's influence in Government. It isn't even the nasty policies of BushCo. The single greatest threat to our democracy is the lapdog media, the crumbling fourth estate, so drunk on power and terrified of losing access that they roll over day in and day out, reporting whatever their masters tell them to. Who's their daddy? Rove is. Rove decides who gets access and who doesn't. He decides what the story of the day, week, month, etc. is. And Americans will continue to follow the media and believe what they are told to believe.
We can sign all the petitions out there, attend marches and rallies, email and blog, but how do we break through the din of media blather? How do we get the truth out there without the access to a mass audience?
The blogs
The blogs are a great place to start, but most Americans don't get their news from blogs, and when they do, they go to blogs that espouse their already-established point of view. Look at us. Why are we here? To discuss politics with like-minded folks.
Now, blogs have had some success breaking through to the corporate media. Take the Gannon story. Through a lot of innovative and creative techniques, the blogosphere managed to make this a story that was reported on from the New York Times to the Daily Show. Even politicians started talking about the story. Where we failed was in making it a lasting story that Americans cared about more than those stupid non-story Bush tapes that revealed what everyone already knew. Oh yes, Rove had that in his back pocket for just the right moment. Then when he needed to change the story that had huge controversial implications, he just called in the favor. Poof! Gannon disappears as a main story. Nothing happens, and now no one cares. Even the blogs have given up on it.
Talk Radio
Conservatives own it, and despite the blooming success of Air America, and the presence of Tom Hartman, Ed Schultz, Amy Goodman,et.al, we are still in the minority when it comes to progressive voices on radio; it will take years to catch up to the right and truckloads of cash that the left may not have to spend on building up our presence on talk radio. There are literally thousands of areas in the US that still have no liberal voices on their radios.
Old Media
Newspapers, cable news, and network news are slaves to their coroporate owners and advertisers. They are the problem. Once in a while, you get a Keith Olbermann or an Arianna Huffington, but is it really enough to counteract the din of conservative talking points blathered dayindayout by the rest of the old media? In a word, NO.
So what can we do?
I suggested on a particularly frustrating day when the Gannon story was losing traction that what we needed was some good old "heat in the street". I suggested we organize protests at major media stations: CNN in Atlanta, CBS in New York, NBC in Los Angeles. You get the point. Heat in the street doesn't really do any good unless there is a committment to stay until they take notice. Look, the Ukranians camped out for weeks by the tens of thousands until they got the results they demanded. Showing up for two hours and then going home isn't going to make the headlines, but let us stay for several days and I guarantee some results.
Next, I say we bypass the corporate media altogether. When I worked on the Dean campaign, that's how we got the word out about him. We attended community events (like fairs and farmer's markets,etc.) and passed out home-made fliers. We put up signs and left campaign materials everywhere: laundromats, coffee shops, student centers, libraries, etc. Of course, we used Meetups and internet tools as well, but the culmination of these tactics drew enough attention to our candidate that soon enough, the MSM was paying attention to a guy they had laughed off as a dark horse only months before.
Imagine a link to this site that had a one page news story on it with graphics. Let's take Tom Delay first. Some enterprising graphics person teams up with a good writer. They put together a news story that discusses why Tom Delay is a cancer in Congress, with a quick synopsis of his most aggregious abuses. We end with an analysis of why his "leadership" is so harmful to democracy. We avoid making these news fliers overly partisan. We just lay out the truth and plant the seed of doubt about him. Then, everyone in the leftwing blogosphere prints out 10-20 of these and leaves them inconspicuously around. When we're out of our homes going about our daily lives, we take these with us and place the news flier wherever we are. If we pass a publice bulletin board, or eat at the local deli, visit a book store, whatever. It doesn't have to be labor intensive. I'm not suggesting we spam cars in parking lots or stick them in people's mailboxes, but I am suggesting that we bypass the corporate media, create our own news fliers, and leave them where everyday, average citizens go. They may pick them up, and they may not, but treating this like a campaign gets us all involved. We can create one a week or more, but you get the idea. We can consider it our campaign for truth or our campaign for accountability in the media. The news fliers should be fun, factual, and as non-partisan as possible (and it won't always be possible).
If we're truly fed up with trying to break through the din of corporate blather, then it is up to us to take what we know as the truth and share it with the rest of America. We can do this, and we can do it for very cheap, but we have to be prepared to take on the RWCM at every turn.
I get so frustrated at what passes for news these days, and it's only because of blogs like dk that I don't go truly insane. I imagine there are many citizens who are also tired of the "news" and they just turn it off. But is no information better than bad information? I'd say no. I've gone on media blackout before, and all that does is disengage, and isn't there enough disengagement already? These are my suggestions, and I wouldn't make them if I weren't prepared to participate in them. The question is are you?