Supplementary » November 18, 2004

Whats on the media agenda?

By David Brock

Progressive values and ideals were not rejected on Election Day. That’s the first thing we should keep in mind. This was a very close campaign, too close to draw any conclusions about the public’s embrace or dismissal of any ideology. Indeed, there is still much reason to believe the public shares our core values: equal treatment and opportunity for all, strong communities, hard work, compassion as a way of life rather than a political slogan, greater economic opportunity, affordable and effective healthcare, and an educational system that makes all of this possible. These are our values, and they are America’s values.

Although our values weren’t rejected (no matter how often you hear otherwise) we were defeated, and there are things we’ll have to do better in the future.

First we must build a progressive infrastructure of think tanks, media monitors, issue advocacy organizations, and media outlets to compete with the right. Fortunately, this has already begun, with groups like the Center for American Progress, Air America and my organization, Media Matters for America.

Many progressives have realized over the last few years that the right enjoys a tremendous advantage in the long-term fight to define the playing field on which short-term electoral battles are fought. That’s one reason conservatives have electoral success that is disproportionate to the quality of their ideas. Their think tanks relentlessly promote right-wing policy proposals. Their media outlets like Fox News and the Washington Times act as little more than a newsletter for the Republican Party, and their media monitoring organizations pressure the mainstream media to do likewise. Just as importantly, media criticism on the right isn’t confined to a few organizations, but is instead fully integrated into all levels of the conservative message machine, from President Bush down to local activists.

Progressives have begun in recent years to address this infrastructure gap: We have started building effective and essential new organizations and activist networks; we’ve brought millions of new activists, volunteers and voters into progressive politics.

The challenge now is to maintain and increase these efforts. After all, conservatives brought millions of new activists into the process as well. We know theirs will remain engaged; if ours don’t, the next election really will be an overwhelming rejection of our values.

And that’s the second thing we should remember. Despite all the talk of 2004 as being the most important ideological fight of our lifetime, that isn’t quite true. The next big fight is always the most important of our lifetimes. The election of 2004 is over. The question now is whether we are broken or merely beaten, whether we retreat and cede to conservatives the dominance they claim to have already won, or whether we continue the hard work of slowly but steadily moving America forward.

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• Reader Comments

  to answer your question on what the media attention should be on - how about the truth -the unbiased truth for a change. Stop pushing the liberal agenda. example how many pictures of Abu Grahib did you post on the news outlets- oh the humanity- now how about pictures of the house where all the hostages were butchered. How about the outrage for that. Unless you folks in the media start policing yourself a little better and weeding out wackos like dan rather and his blatant lies and bias you too will go the way of the democrats. Bloggers have already put a massive dent in your credibility and you need to get the clear message -stop being a biased mouthpiece for the liberal democratic party and beg forgiveness from the American people .

  Posted by redstate on Nov 18, 2004 at 1:04 PM

  Media Matters for America is doing a good job of monitoring the media.

  Posted by Mikhail Capone on Nov 18, 2004 at 5:36 PM

  http://www.mediaresearch.org/ is another site monitoring the media from the “other side” My humble advice it to go the site posted by Mikhail and then mediaresearch read both and make an informed opinion somewhere in the middle.

  Posted by redstate on Nov 18, 2004 at 8:05 PM

  Apparently ‘redstate’ still believes that the media is liberal, sad.
  More liberals attack the media for not telling the truth than his ilk. Blues can handle the truth. The tragedy is that when we finally pressure the media to expose it, reds call it lies. That’s the Orwellian world we find ourselves in.
  Reds can’t see that mainstream (corporate) media is keeping the truth from them so their heads won’t implode. The media is protecting them; pundits are explaining events so that they can understand them; because they simply can’t think for themselves. Sites like ‘mediasearch’ just condenses the talking points into a pablum of easily swallow-able slurps for them.
  Peace is war, pal.

  Posted by Pleiku on Nov 18, 2004 at 11:18 PM

  all I am saying is you need to look at every angle and then decide for yourself what the truth is. I think the truth is that sometimes I almost feel sad for “the media” they can’t seem to please anybody. being able to think for yourself is the most important part of making an informed decision.

  Posted by redstate on Nov 19, 2004 at 5:54 AM

• extended discussion >>>Continued...

  Discussions with more than 5 comments are continued on our special discussion page to encourage continuity and ease of use. There are currently 7 posts.

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