They just don't get it. Two good reads on established versus Alt Media. Be sure to read Dean Barnett versus Mort Kondracke here. I've some issues with this from WSJ Online:
How Conservatives Enhanced Online Voice
Talk Radio Blends With Blog Postings To Boost MessageBy endlessly picking through the evolving immigration legislation, bloggers kept up a steady stream of material for each other and their readers. Talk-radio-show hosts relied on the bloggers for material, but so did voters, who swamped Senate offices with calls and faxes at the urging of conservative Web sites.
The public mood against an immigration bill seems to have developed swiftly after that. The Senate last summer passed a bill that was seen as more generous to illegal immigrants, but "talk radio was nowhere" then, said Roy Beck of NumbersUSA, a Washington group that opposes increased immigration.
It was what, a thousand pages of legislation? We didn't pick through it. An Army of Davids read it and provided information to would be voters who didn't like what they heard. That process prevented our political class from rushing through legislation most Americans didn't want. Is that a process you really want to criticize? America is a democracy, after all. At least it's starting to become one thanks to Alt Media, including talk radio and blogs.
And that title: Enhanced ... Boost? Yes, technically those words serve to define what happened with the immigration debate, but they also serve to deflect from the fact, demonstrated by several polls, that what Alt Media did was give voice to sentiments already present across much of the population once they knew the facts. Were it the sixties and the cause had been civil rights, we'd be reading words like empowered, gave voice, etc. The very language the WSJ uses distorts the debate about Alt Media, unless the opinion of the majority of Americans is only legitimate when it agrees with them. And it gets worse.
Political activism on the Internet -- and in the so-called blogosphere, in particular -- has long been considered a liberal stronghold. But conservative bloggers show increasing signs of their own coming of age.
No, no, no .... NO! The conventional wisdom has always been wrong on this. The Left has collectivized itself around some few mega blogs and gotten into the fund raising business, that much is true. They've had more direct influence on the politicians up until now. But Alt Media is about the Long Tail. And if you scan through the ecosystem, I would argue you will find a much larger number of smaller independent bloggers from the center to the Right, as opposed to the Left. The Right side of the blogosphere didn't do something new here. It simply found an issue upon which the many facets of it agreed.
How old is old media? The WSJ credits Alt Media for derailing immigration reform and the Harriet Miers nomination, then adds this:
Currently, the two are railing against talk by some Democrats about bringing back the "Fairness Doctrine," which required broadcasters to balance coverage on controversial topics.
Psst ... this below is from a post of mine in January. We have seen this coming for over six months and have already had significant influence. See Michelle Malkin on Mike Pence's amendment if you haven't heard.
Hopefully, the misguided effort of Dennis Kucinich to bring back the Fairness Doctrine won't result in average Americans having fewer choices in what they'd like to read, listen to, or watch in media programming today. For more on the Fairness Doctrine please see here. h/t Instapundit.
Sunday, January 21, 2007 at 11:14 PM in | Permalink
As the WSJ acknowledges, center Right Alt Media has derailed a Supreme Court Justice nominee, killed legislation, fostered support of a passed amendment against the Fairness Doctrine but the Lefty blogs are the more powerful because:
Liberals have long used blogs to press their views. They successfully put pressure on congressional Democrats to focus on ending the Iraq war. During the 2006 election cycle, they were instrumental in ousting longtime Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman -- a fervent backer of the war -- from the Democratic primary, though he won as an independent in the general election.
Last time I looked, the Iraq War goes on and Senator Lieberman will likely be in office until he chooses to retire, or run for another office. If that makes the center Right weak, I'll take it. I can only imagine how powerful we might one day become if we ever, you know, get our act together. The reality is we are more issue than ideology driven on the Right and far more independent than the Left side of the blog world. We don't do it for the show, or the dough .... we do it when we believe in it and we happen to represent the majority of America. Just ask Reagan's ghost. Heck, I'm still undeclared, but he may even re-appear if you keep an eye out for him. Reagan went over big media's head to the people and he didn't even have Alt Media back then.
And don't forget Barnett versus Kondracke who, with all due respect, is as about as current as his full first name, or George Will's bow tie when it comes to getting Alt Media today. The horse is out of the barn, politics aren't only inside the Beltway anymore. Wake up! It's a new day in America and we haven't even gotten beyond morning ... now where have I heard that before?
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