Except for a very few others, last Wednesday’s broadcast of Lawrence O’Donnell’s Last Word shames every other broadcast anchor. O’Donnell was reporting about the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High. However, this diary is not about gun control or mass shootings in schools. It is not about the amazing kids from Douglas High who, if they can hold the MSM’s severely dysfunctional attention long enough, might just force some meaningful progress in stopping the slaughter of innocents by guns. Instead, this diary is about the strategic significance of the way the story was told. It is about the pervasive civic ignorance that Justice Souter worries about, which is in part the result of the failure of the MSM to perform their role as the fourth estate. It is about the fact that, despite the MSM’s failures, people still give the MSM media more credibility than any other institution in our political system. However, the MSM abuses that trust by giving an unquestioning platform to the party that has been undermining this country’s institutions for over six decades. The MSM continues to repeat ad infinitum Trump and Republican lies with very little time for a meaningful Democratic response. Further, that response time frequently includes another Republican party hack or enabler (Steve Schmidt being the obvious exception) that takes time away from the effectiveness of the response.
It also is about the failure of Democratic messaging and the eternal debate about whether the party should use pithy slogans or longer detailed policy statements. Its about the Party’s reliance on mass advertising when poll after poll shows that only negative advertising works and even that is very unreliable. Its about fighting smarter in a world in which America and liberal democracy is under attack by enemies within and without. O’Donnell’s story is a must watch if you are serious about electing more and better democrats.
This is the first in what I hope to be a lengthy series about how the Democratic Party needs to evolve, covering campaigning, policy making and governing (I could use some help, more below the fold if you are interested). This story came up unexpectedly, but I simply could not pass on writing about it and made it the Series kickoff story. Further, O’Donnell’s reporting is too good a piece not to be shared here. Next up in the Series: Part 2, Is It Treason and If Not, Should It Be?
The story from the Last Word, embedded below, demonstrated what broadcast journalism needs to look like if we are going to save our democracy from the forces arrayed against it. In it, O’Donnell totally destroys Trump’s ludicrous idea of arming teachers. I am not going to quote it here because you need to watch for yourselves if you have not already done so, not just for the story itself, which is powerful and moving, but for the way it is told.
For me, it brought to mind some of President Obama’s best speeches which addressed complex issues with measured tones and sound reasoning. And, of course, the best of what we see here on Daily Kos everyday. Is it because O’Donnell has been a teacher himself? In any event, I believe that it was his Edward R. Murrow moment. And it provides a significant guide post as to how Democrats should expect the MSM to perform, and why the MSM needs to be shamed if they do not meet those expectations.
Three things are what make this powerful and effective. First, it is long, more than a quarter of O’Donnell’s show. It treats the subject with the seriousness it deserves. Second, Trump gets less than 2 minutes of the segment or about an eighth of the time. This is what is needed to deal with the constant lies and the attacks on our democracy. Not equal time, but enough time to provide a serious, in depth and nuanced response. It is rare that Democrats get the time needed to adequately respond to the lies of the other side. Finally, O’Donnell masterfully delivers that response himself, not a dubious panel of “experts”. For me, this segment conclusively demonstrates that Democratic messaging needs to focus on informed, in depth analysis not campaign slogans (though great slogans do have their place). But the real challenge is, how does the Party get the MSM to give the Party the time it needs to deliver messages like this one? That has yet to be determined.
Durrati linked another part of O’Donnell’s show here, about how the job description for American teachers now includes how to handle mass murder. This segment is even more emotionally powerful than O’Donnell’s earlier segment above. I also highly recommend it. It should be noted though that on YouTube, the first segment above has more than five times the views of this latter segment which again to me demonstrates that, properly done, an expanded exposition on policy positions can be more effective than emotional appeals. Together, they make that night’s show one of the best news hours I have seen since Trump took office and moves O’Donnell to the top of my must watch list. Lets see if management lets him keep it up.
Changing subjects, as discussed above, a brief intro to Fighting Smarter, the Series. I have been trying to work on this series of articles for about two years since my last group of diaries about Bernie’s primary chances in 2016. These articles are intended to address structural flaws in the Party’s policy development and messaging from a radically left perspective. I spent most of my career developing and implementing public policy, both fighting for the environment while also spending a great deal of time working on energy and economic issues, including antitrust. In addition to being a lawyer, I am also CPA, having been a chief financial officer of a number of different organizations and having raised millions for organizations and clients, including not-for-profit clients and public policy analysis organizations. As a result of this lifetime of multidiscipline experience, I believe that to be successful, liberal policy making must be both frank, multidiscipline and fully thought out, something that I find sorely missing in current party campaign positions. Therefore, much of the series will be based on original, in depth research that will hopefully provide a fresh insight into the challenges we face.
Unfortunately, life has kept intervening, mainly having to take on nearly single handedly a pro-bono legal challenge to certain inconsistently applied changes to the California public employee retirement system potentially cutting the pensions of up to 50,000 teachers in violation of the California state constitution. This has been commanding much of my time.
Notwithstanding the ligation, I hope to gain crowdsourced input into the issues to be raised in the Series. This in turn will lead to an effort to create and fund a not-for-profit organization to support the enormous challenges that the party and America faces in restoring our damaged institutions and transitioning to a more stable, sustainable society. Frankly, I could use all the help I can get. From commenting, recommending, sharing, and following me to pre publication review and editing, internet research, helping with social media, volunteering to take on certain issues, and helping create a new user group here on Kos, if you are interested, I would really like to hear from you. If you would like to preview and provide input to Part 2 before it is posted, let me know.
I am on California time and will be unavailable when this is first posted. I will join the discussion later.
Sunday, Feb 25, 2018 · 11:51:24 PM +00:00 · Paradigm Change
Rec List wow! Thank you all. And thanks to Lawrence O’Donnell for the inspiration. Guess I got lucky when I hit the delete key to the earlier version. Only now, I have got to finish Part 2 and then the rest of the series. I can only hope I am as successful in the lawsuit. Now about volunteering. . . . . . ;)