I'm sure it's obvious to all of you by now that the media has an enormous impact on our elections. In most cases, that impact is really bad, especially for us. We need to hold the media accountable for its actions in 2004, which is why I am encouraging you all to sign up with MediaChannel and MediaTenor, and help participate in this grassroots effort to keep the 4th estate in line.
Visit
http://www.mediachannel.org/ and check out all the great stories they have that analyze the media coverage. Of particular interest should be the recently launched Media For Democracy project, which can be found at
http://www.mediafordemocracy.us/
Also visit MediaTenor, which publishes frequent analyses of media coverage by the major news outlets: http://www.mediatenor.com/index1.html
One MediaTenor study found that "In the week preceding the New Hampshire primary, only 4 percent of network reporting covered candidates' policy positions." They are also publishing weekly reports on the elections that show who is getting negative coverage, what the media coverage is relative to voter attitudes, etc. Here is the most recent one:
http://www.mediatenor.com/cand_040126.pdf
Everyone go to these sites. Sign up for the mailing lists. Participate in the letter writing campaigns. We all know how important this is!
