Ever heard of the Media Research Center? They are one of several right-wing groups with the focus of "exposing and stopping liberal media bias", i.e. - pressuring mainstream media to move even further to the right.
I subscribe to their newsletter to keep tabs on them. And I always get a good laugh reading their latest examples of big, evil "liberal bias", as it's always transparently weak, misrepresented, or easily debunkable.
But this is no laughing matter. These right-wing pressure groups have got the mainstream media cowering in fear, walking on eggshells to avoid further accusations of "liberal bias", and ignoring or downplaying any stories (like man-made climate change) that might raise the ire of their far-right accusers.
It's because of right-wing pressure groups like this that Dan Rather lost his job for a Bush story that turned out to be true while those responsible for fiascoes like the 60 Minutes/Benghazi hoax go unpunished.
It's because of right-wing pressure groups like this that most independent voters believe the IRS targeted only conservative groups, the Affordable Care Act is causing more harm than good, both parties share responsibility for the gov't shutdown, etc.
And it's because of right-wing pressure groups like this that a good community organization like ACORN no longer exists, drummed out of business by fake pimp videos and fake voter fraud stories the mainstream media was all too willing to uncritically accept as real.
And it's only going to get worse if we don't stop them.
Here's the latest example of what they're up to:
https://www.mrc.org/...
They've "amassed more than 226,000 signatures from patriotic Americans demanding that news media outlets stop censoring the truth", they are "hand-delivering the petitions to the major news outlets (ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN)" and are sending "certified letters to all the board members at each network."
By contrast, what kind of pressure do you think the news networks are getting from progressives?
If you guessed little to none, you're probably right.
And this needs to change.
We need to regain access to the mainstream discussion. Retreating to our own progressive alternative media doesn't do us any good, as it has no influence on the vast majority of voters. We need to get out there and debunk, discredit, and destroy right-wing propaganda wherever it rears it's ugly head.
If we fail to do this...
We lose.
It's really that simple.
Know any groups or individuals who are working to address this problem?
Let me know in the comments and I will edit this diary to acknowledge them.