Lettered
So, I just finished writing a letter to MoveOn, putting forth the following proposal (lemme know what you think)
My letter to MoveOn
Hey. Recently I've been reading the book "The Republican Noise Machine", by David Brock, which has sparked an idea in me. I don't know if you're familiar with his book, so I'll provide a brief overview of what I believe to be it's main thrust.
Essentially, this book provides an analysis of how the Far Right has succeeded in shifting American politics rightward by creating a conservative "echo chamber" consisting of right-wing think tanks (ala the Heritage Foundation) working with various forms of right-wing media (Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, The American Spectator, etc.), which has the power to influence (and in some cases, almost direct) mainstream press coverage of important issues (I'd urge you to read this book yourselves, if you haven't - I've really only touched the surface).
What I'm proposing we (by which I mainly mean you, honestly) do about this is organize a national campaign to put a sort of counter-pressure on the mainstream media (I was thinking through a letter-writing campaign ala the Kerry campaign's Media Corps).
For instance, newspapers tend to cite conservative think tanks much more often than progressive ones, yet they rarely if ever disclose these organizations institutional ideology (more than a few of them refuse to print studies which turn out to challenge the science behind Republican projects), let alone the fact that much of their funding comes from the very industries and politicians they so fervently defend and promote. Given the fact that Opinion pages are often the most-read sections of the newspaper, just a few letters written in to get out the truth about these organizations and to chastise the newspaper for not disclosing these facts itself could have an immense impact both on public perception and future media coverage of these organizations. Much the same sort of thing could be done to correct the falsehoods and distortions commonly presented as fact by conservative Op-Ed columnists (who similarly dominate the market), other conservative commentators, and right-wing media outlets such as Fox News. Individual letter-writing could also be supplemented by the occasional mass petition - much like the ones which you already run - to very large media outlets (primarily ABC, CBS, or NBC news) when they mess up in this manner.
Furthermore, I believe that MoveOn is in an ideal position to launch this sort of campaign. You have an impressive number of people on your mailing list to whom you could email petitions. You have a high-profile site (which could benefit from an ongoing campaign of the sort I have outlined, to draw people in and bring additional attention to other initiatives you are undertaking) on which to host the tools to facilitate individual letter-writing. Your E-mailing list could further serve to maintain interest in this campaign through monthly (or weekly, or bimonthly, or whatever seems appropriate) updates on the campaign's progress so far - providing a total of letters written, goals met (20,000 letters written on X subject, for example), and new goals set.
And perhaps most of all, your position at the forefront of the progressive message puts you in a position to inspire others to follow your lead, and to educate progressive Americans on how the right-wing media's corruption of the mainstream press's objectivity is damaging our democracy.
Thank you for taking the time to read this (it's been buzzing around in my brain for a few days now), and I sincerely hope that you will give some consideration to the proposal I have put before you.
Thanks again,
John.
P.S. Oh, and I've posted this letter on my little mini-blog (http://www.livejournal.com/community/progressiveblog/), so if you get any similar letters, that's their probable source.
Oh, and as you may've guessed from my little "P.S." there, if any of you want to write in supporting letters (which you can do here), that'd be just fine by me. (Hint, hint)
My letter to MoveOn
Hey. Recently I've been reading the book "The Republican Noise Machine", by David Brock, which has sparked an idea in me. I don't know if you're familiar with his book, so I'll provide a brief overview of what I believe to be it's main thrust.
Essentially, this book provides an analysis of how the Far Right has succeeded in shifting American politics rightward by creating a conservative "echo chamber" consisting of right-wing think tanks (ala the Heritage Foundation) working with various forms of right-wing media (Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, The American Spectator, etc.), which has the power to influence (and in some cases, almost direct) mainstream press coverage of important issues (I'd urge you to read this book yourselves, if you haven't - I've really only touched the surface).
What I'm proposing we (by which I mainly mean you, honestly) do about this is organize a national campaign to put a sort of counter-pressure on the mainstream media (I was thinking through a letter-writing campaign ala the Kerry campaign's Media Corps).
For instance, newspapers tend to cite conservative think tanks much more often than progressive ones, yet they rarely if ever disclose these organizations institutional ideology (more than a few of them refuse to print studies which turn out to challenge the science behind Republican projects), let alone the fact that much of their funding comes from the very industries and politicians they so fervently defend and promote. Given the fact that Opinion pages are often the most-read sections of the newspaper, just a few letters written in to get out the truth about these organizations and to chastise the newspaper for not disclosing these facts itself could have an immense impact both on public perception and future media coverage of these organizations. Much the same sort of thing could be done to correct the falsehoods and distortions commonly presented as fact by conservative Op-Ed columnists (who similarly dominate the market), other conservative commentators, and right-wing media outlets such as Fox News. Individual letter-writing could also be supplemented by the occasional mass petition - much like the ones which you already run - to very large media outlets (primarily ABC, CBS, or NBC news) when they mess up in this manner.
Furthermore, I believe that MoveOn is in an ideal position to launch this sort of campaign. You have an impressive number of people on your mailing list to whom you could email petitions. You have a high-profile site (which could benefit from an ongoing campaign of the sort I have outlined, to draw people in and bring additional attention to other initiatives you are undertaking) on which to host the tools to facilitate individual letter-writing. Your E-mailing list could further serve to maintain interest in this campaign through monthly (or weekly, or bimonthly, or whatever seems appropriate) updates on the campaign's progress so far - providing a total of letters written, goals met (20,000 letters written on X subject, for example), and new goals set.
And perhaps most of all, your position at the forefront of the progressive message puts you in a position to inspire others to follow your lead, and to educate progressive Americans on how the right-wing media's corruption of the mainstream press's objectivity is damaging our democracy.
Thank you for taking the time to read this (it's been buzzing around in my brain for a few days now), and I sincerely hope that you will give some consideration to the proposal I have put before you.
Thanks again,
John.
P.S. Oh, and I've posted this letter on my little mini-blog (http://www.livejournal.com/community/progressiveblog/), so if you get any similar letters, that's their probable source.
Oh, and as you may've guessed from my little "P.S." there, if any of you want to write in supporting letters (which you can do here), that'd be just fine by me. (Hint, hint)