I have an idea that we could do here at this blog that I think could make a difference in the sorry state of media coverage in this country.
The Republicans have in place already a system to funnel their talking points to media outlets across the country. We commonly refer to this apparatus as the "echo chamber." Now, the inner workings of the echo chamber go on in the background so that nobody can check their methodology and facts. The reason, of course, that they do all of their work in secret is because their ideas all come from ever-reliable sources like the Heritage Foundation and corporate-sponsored think tanks.
We need to combat their echo chamber with one of our own, except that ours will be transparent and, <gasp> based on actual facts. Daily Kos, with it's enormous readership, is the perfect vehicle.
Josh Marshall over at Talking Points Memo already had an idea like the one that I'm about to pitch, so I don't claim originality or anything, but I think we would complement Josh's operation.
more explanation on flip
I think we need to have an organized section on this site that has threads based on
ideas. Whenever we see a new misleading Republican talking point coming from the Beard, Tweety, or any other "respectable" journalist, we would start up a new thread. Then members of the DKos community can post links to information, such as from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, articles from their local newspaper, articles from national newspapers that have gone unnoticed, magazines, other blogs, etc... In addition to links, posts methodically and logically explaining why the talking point is false would also help.
Whereas Media Matters goes after individual journalists every time they mislead or lie, we would focus on debunking individual Republican talking points that have displayed a frightening tendency of showing up unfiltered and unchecked in places like CNN and CBS -- not to mention Fox News.
With the massive readership on this blog, it won't take long to assemble our case in a definitive manner so that we can then confront the media outlets with our findings. Grass roots rapid response system. :)
This operation, as I mentioned in the intro, won't be as organized or as well-moderated as what Marshall is putting together, but it will be on a much larger scale. The more eyes and ears we have working on this, the better.
Thoughts, comments?