Lets give a standing ovation to Ann Coulter
for tactical brilliance in achieving a total
domination of the modern media, giving
her a platform to make many millions of
dollars, and successfully supporting the
demonization of Democrats and liberals
for being the party that supports treason
and opposes God.
Meanwhile, would somebody explain to me,
why Air America may be the only company
in the history of the entertainment business that
adamantly refuses to put out even rudimentary
press releases?
The triumph of Ann Coulter speaks volumes
about why Washington is today the functional
equivalent of a one party state, and why the
right perpetually dominates the media message machinery. The lethargy
(at best) of the Air
America management speaks volumes about
why the progressive and moderate viewpoint,
which represents far more people than the Bush and Cheney viewpoint, and
infinitely more than the Ann Coulter viewpoint, perpetually lags behind
and is trapped playing minor league baseball against a world series
opponent.
Lets follow the Coulter trial, her m.o. and her
patented formula for success:
First she makes an accusation and launches
an attack and stops at nothing: even pond scum such as attacking 9-11
widows.
Then she saturates the entire hard core base
of the conservative and Republican machine.
She launches on talk radio, Sean and Rush
and the crowd will either offer crocodile tears,
saying they don't completely agree with her,
or they simply agree with her. They inject
the venom into our body politic. The very idea
of a pro and con about whether liberals are
traitors or against God is the essential tactic
of Joe McCarthy. The very pro and con is
the power of the thing: it is impossible to win that debate.
Then, she moves to conservative cable, with
Fox giving her the equivalent of a Papal
audience, and Fox Lite, otherwise known
as MSNBC and CNBC, giving her the megaphone.
Meanwhile, conservative financed publishing,
conservative financed newsletters, and the
conservative financed magazines give her
a publicity blast. CNBC does a one hour
solo that I saw repeated at least four times
in two days. She is everywhere, saturating
and dominating the media, which stimulates
books sales, which reach best seller lists,
which gets her more appearances everywhere.
Then, finally, the networks. It does not matter
if Matt Lauer takes her on; the poison and the
venom and the damage is in the repetition of
the charge, 24/7, everywhere. When Middle
America hears this so repeatedly, they might
conclude liberals are evil and Godless traitors,
or they might conclude that liberals are not
so bad, just merely out of the mainstream,
but whatever they conclude, the pro and con
debates of this leaves them worse than before
the debate began.
Trust me: mark November on your calendar,
for the next fearmongering scare that will be
broadcast and rebroadcast, written and then
re-written, though the same conservative
media machine, then the same conservative
cable channels, then the Fox-Lite cable, then
the networks will have an election eve debate
about whether liberals are dangerous to
American security.
Perhaps by then, Air America will put out a
press release. Perhaps not. I am not referring
to the talent on Air America. They have some
wonderful people on the air. I am referring
to the management of Air America, which
does such little outreach, publicity and straight
marketing and advertising that they keep the
Air America talent more secret than Bush keeps
the NSA intercepts!
Here is the strange part. I am not the smartest
guy I ever met, but: the American people are
fed up with fear and smear media and fear
and smear politics, which is why Democrats
might win the election in spite of themselves.
Second, the number of people who oppose
the status quo is huge, far more than the
number of people who support it. And third,
the hard core base of progressivism and of
the Democratic Party is larger than the hard
core base of conservatism and Republicanism.
So: why do we have this giant, huge, powerful
media megaphone and money machine on the
Right that injects fear, demonization and even
the most pond scum attacks into the heart of
the entire media? Yet there is virtually zero
media megaphone on the other side, even
though we represent far more people, with
a far larger audience base, which is just
as committed as anyone on the right?
Candidly: If I were an investor in Air America
I would be staging a hunger strike in front of
their office. If I were the management of
Air America, I would be reaching out like mad
to the progressive equivalent of right wing radio, the blogs, and
merging their potential
power and reach together and creating an
election year war room on the radio.
But Air America is not the problem, only the
symptom of the problem, and the real problem
is that large right wing money is far smarter
than large progressive money, and, frankly,
far more committed to their cause. That is
the problem: conservatives have superior
millionaires to progressives, in ways that
matter to win elections and govern the country.
The entire Armada and media machine of the
Right, which is more than thirty years old,
could have long ago been matched and then
surpassed by progressives and moderates who
represent far more people. At a minimum when
Bill Clinton controlled the White House and the
Democrats controlled one or both houses of
Congress, there should have been a very
systematic and well funded megaphone
and media to speak to the under-represented
majority who remain under-represented today.
But it didn't happen; not in 1992, not in 1996.
It did not happen with the rush to war in 2002, which most Washington
Democrats supported. It did not happen in 2004, even when our war
hero nominee was slandered by the smear.
It did not happen in 2006, when the major
money people of the Democratic Party and
the progressive movement allow many of
the best voices for people and ideas to
struggle to survive even though they speak
for the overwhelming majority of real people
who support Democrats.
Any one big Hollywood star could change the
world by putting money where it matters, to create the alternative to
the right wing media
and megaphone machine. Any one of the 100
largest Democratic contributors could change
the course of American history by financing,
empowering and giving voice to those who
speak for and mobilize the majority that is
largely unheard, while the pond scum attacks
reach the best seller list and dominate the
major media.
The hard truth is: their money people give
generously and brilliantly measured in billions
of dollars to a massive machinery of ideas
and communication and message. Ours do
not. Ours put virtually no money, where it
matters the most. Even when they would
make profit by so doing, they still don't. It
is Kafkaesque.
I am actually getting optimistic, because the
winds of change are blowing and money is
starting to move. But those of us who believe
our national security is not merely a matter of
of exploding bombs but must lead with a battle
of ideas, must understand that the first battle
of ideas begins at home. We will not win
elections by liberals telling liberals how much
they detest Ann Coulter, though I am glad to
jon in.
We will win elections, lead the nation, and
make America the best it can be when we
build and finance the megaphone that will
end the one party state once and for all,
by ending the one party media that makes
it possible.