The Media is the (Right Wing) Message

This is the text of feedback I submitted to MoveOn.org:

As Jamison Foser writes in Media Matters (http://mediamatters.org/items/200605260016),

"The defining issue of our time is the media...

The dominant political force of our time is the media.

Time after time, the news media have covered progressives and conservatives in wildly different ways -- and, time after time, they do so to the benefit of conservatives."

From Russert and Broder to the foaming mouths of talk radio, Progressives are under assault as never before. And what makes this so serious is that there is simply NO BALANCING counterweight. The So-Called Liberal Media (SCLM, thank you, Eric Alterman) is not just missing in action, it is a Right Wing red herring.

Most Americans dismiss politics as "not their thing" and as a result base their voting choices on the blather from Sunday talking heads, shameless Right-wing op-ed pages and the slanted views expressed on talk radio and cable and broadcast news.

This has to stop if Progressives are going to make any inroad into the relentless takeover of America by the Religious Right, the Corporate elites and the Neo-Con imperial expansionists.

There is only one way to address this and it's to hit them in the pocket book. I propose that MoveOn.org support existing efforts (The Daily Howler, Media Matters , Crooks and Liars, and others) to monitor TV, newspapers and periodicals and perhaps even expand their scope to include the entire media spectrum.

The results should be publicized to promote a movement to cancel subscriptions to unbalanced outlets and to focus purchasing power on Progressive-friendly media and their advertisers and away from Right Wingnut advertisers (like Domino's Pizza, Amazon.com and WalMart). Web sites like Media Matters, BuyBlue.org. should be aggressively supported. Progressives selected by Nielsen and Arbitron should be encouraged to NEVER include Right Wing-supporting media when they report their viewing and listening.

The Right has been doing this for decades with the result that they now OWN the media. NBC can get away with lionizing Ann Coulter on the Today Show and Jay Leno because there's no price to pay, there's no outcry from Progressives, their advertisers peacefully continue to advertise, their ratings remain untouched. CNN, MSNBC and Fox can maintain their stable of Right Wingnuts who cover the airwaves with venom simply because they can...there's perhaps only the slightest murmur from the Left but no other impact.

My own hometown newspaper, the San Jose Mercury-News, has been a balanced paper since I began subscribing 30 years ago. However, its parent company Knight-Ridder has recently been sold and the Mercury-News has been bought by some conglomerate I have never heard of before. I'm keeping a close eye, however, and if they start moving to the Right, my 30-year subscription is coming to an end.

I did cancel my 40-year Time magazine subscription when they put Ann Coulter on the cover with a long and supportive article.

Only with a concerted, organized and relentless effort from a group like MoveOn.org can this be effective. We can have house parties, we can have contribution drives and we can sign petitions all we want, but until we address the nature, quality and orientation of the media where most of the US population gets its news and forms its political judgements, we are simply putting out forest fires with a dixie cup.