The highly popular diary disemminated by Moulitsas is not only old hat, but also distracting from creating real solutions to a mis-informed electorate.
In the August 7 Daily Kos writer by the name of Akadjian wrote a commentary titled: “15 things everyone would know if there was a liberal media”. His facts are right – indeed most of them are legacy issues known for years if not decades.
However, his target for criticism is badly misplaced. Don’t blame the media; don’t blame the talk show hosts; don’t blame your conservative friends, don’t even blame the Republicans. No, the real culprit here is the Democrats, and most specifically the Democratic National Committee. They have essentially been out of sight and out of mind for many elections now; and if the public is either misinformed or uniformed, the Dems have only themselves to blame.
First as to the media, Akadjian’s representations of the media are old hat. Like real old. On Dec 31, 2007, I published an article in the Daily Kos: “It’s the media, stupid” arguing the same situation and exposing the myth of the “liberal” media.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
2007...and we are still having this same discussion! In 2010, Bill Press published his book, “Toxic Talk” – the most definitive description of the (conservative) media in America. Yet, the Akadjian diary has over 300 comments; and Markos Maulitsas felt impelled to enlighten us on this situation. The issue I have about all this is that it is the same old nonsense that distracts us from the real issue – and thus, useful solutions. Complaining is not a solution.
The problems are threefold, and solutions are possible if only the Democratic Party could get its act together.
Problem number one is there are too many progressive organizations fighting for too little funds, and sending out too many disparate messages. Frankly I have stopped giving to any of them anymore. I am inundated virtually daily for contributions to the DSCC, the DCCC, the DNC, Change.org, Credo, Barackobama.com, various individual campaigns, and…well you get the idea. With the advent of the internet, Will Roger’s famous saying was never more relevant: “I don’t belong to any organized political party, I am a Democrat.” Humorous but deadly when it comes to cogent communication in political elections in the 21st Century.
Secondly, we Democrats spend too much time preaching to the choir. Publishing in Daily Kos is wonderful; it is a needed and fine media source. But we are not reaching the people we need to reach if we want to make a difference in future elections. We are talking to ourselves. Moulitsas’ suggestion that we send this article to our conservative friends is a good one – but verifies that these crucial, well written, and valuable messages are not reaching the right folks. Not the right folks if we are attempting to change minds when it comes to voting. That is especially relevant for the vast undecided voters, and that is also especially sad because we have the issues on our side.
Which brings us to the most egregious error progressives are making, and it is one of our own doing. We do not communicate with the American public effectively. And to that I lay the blame on the Democratic National Committee. They are virtually out to lunch during the election period, and essentially non-existent between elections, when opinions can be formed and the public enlightened in a less “hot” environment.
None of this is intended to replace boots on the ground, voter registration, and other aspects of winning elections; but merely to focus on the Akadjian complaint that the media is not on our side. In short, the communication component of disseminating factual and useful information to the public.
All of Akadjina’s contentions are true. We do have the issues on our side. We are in sync with the vast majority of American, especially as you study the current and changing demographics of the electorate. We have the candidates. We are facing a GOP party in disarray. We ought to be whipping ass in elections, but wins are skinny, and lots of our candidates fight headwinds. Yes, there is the issue of gerrymandering, but let’s say IF the voters were better informed of the issues (as Akadjian and Moulitsas suggest), we would have much easier and more frequent wins. But counting on their proposal that we send this information to our conservative friends is tilting at windmills.
The solution lies in:
a) funding a single source to publish communication of progressive positions, and conservative failures and obstruction; we have too many organizations with too many mixed messages
b) Hiring professional, talented writers and communicators to produce the messages; after owning ad agencies for 45 years, I cannot emphasizes enough how crucial this is in persuading an audience
c) Taking control of our own dissemination of messages. Presuming Akadjian is correct that we cannot get the media, in it present configuration, to do that for us, we must put dissemination in our own hands. There are lots of ways to do that – especially with decent funding. Ads, PR, infomercials, better press relations, and well produced TV shows are but a few of the tools communicators can use. But an “educational-style” campaign with factual reasoned information to let the public have the true facts of governance as they exist between elections (like NOW) is critical if we are to get the undecideds moving in our direction ahead of election season.
The one organization designed to do this, and the one that should be doing it is incredibly ineffective: the DNC. It is run by politicians. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (current Chair) is a great congresswoman. But, she is busy, she has numerous obligations…but most of all, she is not a professional architect of a well planned communication program. We do not need politicians to run the DNC; we need powerful ad and PR professionals who know how to build a strong communication program and where to employ it.
We (the Democrats) have not done this – we are still all over the board in messages and media, as well as funding. So, let’s not blame the media for our weaknesses. Let’s not blame the GOP for blunting our messages. Let’s not blame our conservative friends for being misinformed. Let’s put the blame where it really lies: on ourselves. Then…let’s do something effective to correct it instead of merely whining to ourselves.