The newfound kick-*****, in-your-face attitude exhibited by emerging
progressive media is an important development and a cause for
celebration.
Using blogs, talk radio, new models of content distribution and a
tenacious rapid-response media watch capacity, progressives are
scratching back with new ferocity.
The new phenomenon of progressive talk radio has begun to gradually
loosen the media stranglehold the Republicans have on Washington.
Democrats who make guest appearances on Air America Radio seem to
develop more spine in the process.
The A-list political blogs, led by The Daily Kos, My DD, and a dozen
or so other established blogs, have been strengthened considerably by
blog upstarts like FireDogLake , and the highly trafficked video blog,
Crooks and Liars .
Meanwhile the Huffington Post, initially met with scads of skepticism,
has catapulted over much of the blogosphere, becoming the fourth
most-linked-to blog in the world.
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/35074/
April 18, 2006.
New Progress for Progressive Media
By Don Hazen
Progressives are beginning to flex some media muscle, finding ways to
counterbalance the right wing's powerful spin machine.
But there's still much to be done.
When the Washington Post recently announced the hiring of right-wing
Republican operative Ben Domenech to blog on the Post website, it was
literally a matter of hours before an avalanche of negative
information regarding Domenech's bigotry and plagiarism was uncovered
and widely distributed by a team of progressive bloggers.
Domenech, ostensibly brought in to provide "balance" to watch-dog
columnist Dan Froomkin, quickly resigned.
Chalk up another progressive blogger victory in the rough-and-tumble
world of media politics.
When Air America Radio launched, skeptics predicted that the
progressive talk network would remain isolated in big cities in blue
states, and be crushed by the long established right-wing talk.
A relatively short time later, Air America is operating in more than
75 cities, covering 60 percent of the country and often scoring
ratings victories over the right-wing shows.
The experience so far demonstrates that, with sufficient funding,
there is clearly a market for progressive talk.
There was little expectation that any progressive media strategy could
put a dent in the seemingly invincible image of global behemoth
Wal-Mart.
Yet the release, effective publicity and innovative distribution of
Robert Greenwald's documentary Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price,
along with the close cooperation of activist groups, put the corporate
giant on the defensive as never before.
A series of Wal-Mart PR fiascoes quickly ensued, along with a scramble
to try to fix policies and a dropping stock price.
There are many more such examples that showcase the newfound muscle in
progressive media in the Bush era.
The dynamics have changed.
A fresh breed of smart, relentless media operatives, using the
internet in creative ways, have put new pop into progressive media.
But alas, that is not the full story.
As Rick Gell points out in his accompanying article, while
progressives have certainly made progress, it does not yet equal
success.
There is a giant hole in the TV world, where progressives are
virtually invisible and donors seem unable or unwilling to do battle
in the commercial world of advertising and investments.
Much of progressive media remains "alternative" media, speaking mostly
to its secure audience while some of its political clout is hindered
by the legal limits of most organizations' nonprofit status.
So there is much to be encouraged by, and much to contemplate.
But no matter how the challenge of progressive media gets weighed or
examined, a serious investment of capital and chutzpah is necessary if
progressive media is going to provide the counter balance to the
right-wing media machine that will be revved up for fall elections in
2008 and beyond.
Post-Kerry handwringing
After John Kerry's shattering defeat in the 2004 election, organizers,
political leaders, pundits and funders all agreed that without a
significant boost in progressive media capacity to provide a counter
to the highly partisan right-wing media, the chances for liberal and
progressive issues to gain traction and for Democrats to return to
power, were questionable.
When compared to the radical conservatives and religious
fundamentalists, the progressive media sector lacked clout.
Post-election, the right enjoyed a huge talk radio advantage and
ownership of dozens of right-wing oriented local television stations.
Fox News dominated cable news, while large-circulation dailies like
the New York Post, the Scaife papers and the persistence of the Rev.
Moon-funded Washington Times provided a powerful megaphone for
right-wing ideas.
Meanwhile, religious broadcasters rapidly penetrated into numerous
cable networks, perhaps surpassing mainstream corporate media as the
most potent threat to a democratic media.
In addition, conservatives in 2004 appeared to have a better
understanding than Democrats and the Kerry campaign of how the media
environment has been transformed by the internet.
Republicans and the right wing recognized that it no longer made sense
to plow tens of millions of dollars of resources primarily into
television commercials and New York Times ads while ignoring the rest
of the media ecology, especially at the grassroots level.
No example of the right's "new media" savvy was more telling than the
Swift Boat Veterans' attack on John Kerry.
The right wing played the internet card brilliantly, effectively
smearing Kerry and putting the Democratic candidate -- a war hero
running against a phantom soldier -- on the defensive.
Meanwhile, rather than counterbalance the attacks with the facts, the
corporate media basically helped publicize the Swift Boaters'
scurrilous campaign.
Seventeen months later, as the '06 campaign is heating up, it's a good
time for an updated assessment.
How much change has there been in the progressive media apparatus?
Are progressives making real progress in the battle of language, ideas
and audience-building?
With this president's current dismal popularity scores, can
progressive media seize the ripe opportunity for political change, and
create more space for populist issues and Democratic candidates?
___________________________________________________________
We'll, hopefully, soon find out, won't we.
Harry
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