GORE: Ultimately the guarantor of our freedoms are the people. And these kinds of outrages, a president saying that he has the right turn George Washington’s 200-plus year prohibition against torture and torture anyone he wants with his assistants gathering in the basement of the White House – according to recent revelations – personally reviewing the kinds of torture techniques being used prisoner by prisoner, its obscene.
As usual, Al Gore is right.
Unfortunately, The People have a few obstacles in their way.
Such as a Congress that is …(Editors note: long, expletive laden description of Congress deleted for space reasons)….ineffective. So ineffective as a matter of fact, that in his post on Dkos yesterday Senator Kerry in effect said that we have more power than he does….
And, when it comes to getting coverage on television, I really think you are selling your own power short. My going on the television and shoe-horning a 5 second mention of this into an interview – especially when the interviewer wants the interview to be on something else – doesn’t really change the nature of coverage. And I could hold press conferences until I’m blue in the face and it won’t get more coverage if the news networks don’t want to cover it. In the end, the main pressure the networks feel is from you. It was satisfying for me to go on MSNBC and tell them they had to get over asking about Wright all the time, but what can really bring real change is when you make folks like CNN realize that you didn’t want to hear any more about it. Activism works.When you push on your end, and I push on mine, we can make sure everyone knows that we all demand answers to this. We need to keep up the clamor in every way we can.
….he is saying, by my interpretation, that it is the press that holds the ultimate power at this stage of our democracy. That it is the biggest obstacle facing We The People in taking back our country.
And at this stage of my two and a half year journey through the blogosphere and the scorched earth of twenty-first century American politics, I wholeheartedly agree. One of the factors that made me give up pushing full tilt for impeachment was a interview I saw (sorry, no link) with Conyers, wherein he stated (only slightly obliquely)that the real reasons the Dems would not impeach was the coverage, the spin, that they were afraid the Press Corpse would bring to bear.
Of course the fact that the Press Corpse is our major obstacle isn’t a huge revelation. But with the candidate wars about to wind down, I think it is time to focus on them more. Both as a response to them pushing McThirdterm….and their amazingly irresponsible ‘coverage’ of the rape of the Constitution by Bushco. When one of the most powerful Senators admits helplessness and defers to the press as the real power to get things done, we need to heed that message, as sad as it is.
One of the results of the candidate wars has been a divided blogosphere, concentrated on parsing every bit of horse race trivia to death. A divided blogosphere is an ineffective blogosphere, as we have seen. After a short period of mourning, they will now unite behind Obama. Since McCain is cash crippled, he will try to run his campaign through the media. The Blogosphere thus will be fighting the media everyday. It should be exciting and epic!
This represents a real chance to infuse that fight with some higher principles of media reform and accountability. As well as to pressure them to cover and investigate the worst offenses of Bushco, both on their own and as part of tying McCain to Bush. Every revelation against Bushco is a slam on McCain…and to an extent, vice versa. It is a golden opportunity, if used correctly.
We have one ally in the Merde Stream Media, Keith Olbermann. His success is a leverage point. I propose as a first step in the blog/media war to try to use that leverage to move MSNBC…and by extension, NBC itself, towards actual responsibility in its coverage. We have seen over the past ten years what having one network, Fox, has done for the Repubs as far as influencing the entire media. If we in the blogosphere can influence their coverage towards actually telling….what’s it called again?…..oh yeah, The Truth…it will be a huge step forward both in preventing a third term, and hopefully exposing the horrors of the first two.
To sum up….
It is time for The People to go to ‘war’ against the media!
And I think MSNBC is our first target.
More tactics and strategy in the days to come, please comment and essay with your thoughts!
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A place to start, a game plan, undeniable facts and figures and a mouthpiece to help bring the real infomation to the people.
Time to begin plotting a plan, then.
like Tweety’s show????
btw… I appreciate Al’s words on torture. i know he’s made several statements about it in the last two years.
but wow, Al, let’s get some traction out of your outrage. like how about painting a placard and marching in front of the White House. now that would grab some attention. cause we’re all done talking about it… we want you guys to do something about it.
the fastest way to get at a news program/network is through the sponsors. but i think a lot of the ad time on cable networks is bundled, and carried across multiple channels.
personally i am running ragged all through this month…maybe ill have more by the time some ‘more tactics and strategy’ are being discussed..
we need to do something about Tweety. It is a miracle I haven’t thrown something at my TV while watching. Actually, it has gotten so bad that I turn off Hardball, read for an hour, then turn on Countdown. I have e-mailed MSNBC about this and complained about Tweety…to no avail.
Any suggestions how we effect MSNBC?
As you know, I’ve long been railing about the Corporate mass-reach media and its virtual monopoly on content. (And it is vitally important we understand that mass-reach media is a completely different creature than the internet)
If we’re thinking clearly about it, we can see using the internet (which is and always will be a self-selected audience) to gain leverage over mass-reach is the way to approach this. For example, ever notice the curious absence of TV ads for important blogs?
Imo, if we stick to this monopoly on content as our target, as the axiom all our analysis and strategies build upon, we’ll come to what’s needed.
In that context, targeting MSNBC might well be the avenue to take. I’m a little bit skeptical because if push comes to shove, and remembering that all the Media Cartel interlocks with the military/chemical/financial/pharma complex, I’d expect them to drop Olbermann first.
Still, if people get behind it, it would be great. Like most liberals, I believe if we just had an impartial airing of facts, in an adult atmosphere, the People would line up with the liberal point of view almost always. No special “liberal” network needed.
But if we can open up the stranglehold in just one outlet, that would be a huge step forward.
Before I pass out again (sick as a dog this last week) I’d like to add this reminder: It isn’t just liberals who regard media-as-is as a Public Enemy. Any successful strategy is going to have to involve an alliance with every part of the political spectrum: all of whom detest these twits. The Press actually ranks lower than Bush or Congress in the public’s estimation, and we should work on that.
FWIW, boycotting all of cable seems to get some support when I bring it up. (And don’t forget everyone finds it overpriced and wishes for ala carte.)
I will be following this development closely. And thanks for working on it. This topic is really the heart of the matter in our modern political life.