Take Back the Media

Peter Daou of the Daou Report has an excellent piece up on the current state of American media and how it serves to deliver the right-wing spin of the Republican party so well. For those misguided idiots people out there who still believe in a "liberal media," all I can say is that you're just not paying attention. Here's a very brief excerpt; you should really read the whole thing to understand why Democrats and progressives continue to get the short end of the stick lately when it comes to disseminating information and the "common wisdom."

To illustrate the power of the media to shape public opinion, simply imagine what would happen if the cable nets and the print media and the elite punditocracy treated the warrantless spying scandal with the same round-the-clock intensity as the Swift-boating of Kerry or the Natalee Holloway disappearance. Suppose Lewinsky-style headlines blared about impeachment and presidential law-breaking. Suppose the question of the day on every cable net was, “Should Bush be impeached for violating the Constitution?” The media can create a crisis -- and can squelch one. The media can deliver narratives, they can frame events, they can shape the way Americans see the political landscape. A disproportionate amount of power is wielded by a handful of opinion-shapers, and when these individuals tell America a story that favors the right and marginalizes the left, the remedies are few.