Conservatives have mastered the use of new media
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/connelly/189550_joel06.html
The View From New York: Conservatives have mastered the use of new media
Monday, September 6, 2004
By JOEL CONNELLY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST
NEW YORK -- "Radio Row" was the busiest site as the Republican National Convention drew to a close, filled with politicians and handlers and conservative talk-radio hosts carrying their message to America.
At the KVI Radio alcove, where GOP activists John Carlson and Kirby Wilbur held forth, a John Kerry punching bag stood ready to be swatted. It was appropriate, in that conservative radio hyped the "swift vote veterans" anti-Kerry smear as a warm-up to pumping up Bush at the convention.
Democrats may dominate the documentaries, but Republicans have lately mastered the art of propelling their stories and "spin" to center stage in the national media.
David Brock used to be a conservative spin doctor, author of the lacerating book "The Real Anita Hill" on the Oklahoma law professor who charged Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas with sexual harassment.
He fell out with the right after producing a Hillary Clinton biography somewhat less hostile than its underwriters expected.
The young writer also experienced pangs of conscience at being a pawn in the campaign to bring down the Clinton presidency.
"What we see is the ability of conservatives to take something from one outlet, create a story and put it out to the country," Brock said. "They create a chain of propaganda, and the swift-boat book is a classic example.
"The story is picked up by the Fox News Channel, it is pushed by the Drudge Web site and then by talk radio. If they make enough fuss, it gets into the mainstream news media."
It doesn't matter if the story turns out to be false.
The crew on Kerry's boat -- and the captain of a nearby swift boat that was in action -- back up the candidate's account of the Mekong Delta rescue under fire for which he was awarded the Silver Star.
Increasingly, however, the news media are moving away from their role as a truth seeker and finder of fact. Instead, cable TV and talk radio are increasingly turning into forums for opinion. All opinions, from reasonable to outrageous, get equal weight.
As well, Americans seem to be picking news based on whether they agree with its biases. The adoring Republican convention coverage on Fox drew more than 5 million viewers last week.
Carlson, happily holding forth in his booth at Radio Row, had his own spin.
"There is now a counterweight to the liberal mainstream press," he said. "Stories once ignored are now covered or even highlighted."
Lately, however, the "mainstream" media have appeared increasingly nervous at being on the right's wrong side. The Washington Post beat the drums for the Iraq war. The New York Times was an outlet for weapons-of-mass-destruction stories planted by the Iraqi National Congress. Rush Limbaugh was slavishly welcomed as a commentator onto NBC's "Today" show during the 2000 election.
Conservatives have shown a particular quickness in mastering the new media. Campaigns by liberal groups, in Brock's words, "are largely based on out-of-date tactics and technology."
He is correct. Just consider the ceaseless dog-and-pony-show news conferences held by environmental, social activist and Democratic groups in the Seattle area -- and the paltry results from the effort.
John Podesta, a former chief of staff in the Clinton White House, sounded a bit plaintive last week as he told a symposium: "The people who preach the politics of inclusion in this country need to find their way into the public dialogue."
He has a point. Just consider what the country is not talking about at the moment.
With a pair of powerful hurricanes striking Florida within a three-week span, are we not seeing evidence of the upsurge of catastrophic storms that scientists predict as a consequence of climate change?
Didn't we see census figures, a couple of weeks back, proving that a substantial number of American families have recently lost health insurance?
Ongoing revelations by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., recently established that Enron manipulated power markets and gouged Southwest buyers.
In 2000-01, a contrived power shortage cost the West Coast billions of dollars and thousands of jobs. The federal agency charged with ensuring fair-and-just rates is performing its duties at a glacial pace.
Lastly, a special committee of the publishing company Hollinger International delivered a 513-page report last week that said conservative newspaper magnate Conrad Black and his allies ran a "corporate kleptocracy" and looted the company.
A chief villain was Richard Perle, until recently chairman of the powerful Defense Advisory Board, who was called upon to return $5.4 million in pay as a company director after "putting his own interests above those of Hollinger's shareholders."
Yes, lots of meaty stuff should be on the nation's plate this fall.
Instead, stories will be planted in The Drudge Report on Kerry's haircuts or Teresa Heinz Kerry's houses.
"Drudge is an absolutely critical piece in the machinery of the Republican Party," Brock observed.
Bush will also get a push from the folks on "Radio Row" and the president's "amen corner" of Fox commentators.
The conservatives are disciplined, manipulative and aggressive. As this column is written, I've just read two dozen "preview" and response e-mail messages sent by the Kerry campaign and pro-Democratic groups in response to the president's convention speech.
None of it held a candle to what was going out from "Radio Row." The Kerry campaign had better learn, in Muhammad Ali's famous words, how to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.