I attended a sort of 'goodbye' gathering last night for our local Republican Congressman --- who despite being an excellent conservative pro-life, low taxes, supports the WOT, etc. --- LOST by about 1,000 votes to a newby thuggish type Democrat who never held office, and did nothing the entire year but throw bombastic hate-Bush statements.
Anyway, last night I spoke with our COUNTY GOP officials about launching a local daily or weekly newsletter, with REAL balanced news about all things political.
(yeah, and maybe some other stuff just to break up the monotony.
The main problem, as I see it, is my Congressman was NEVER able to get out any credible news about himself, his votes, his political views, or his REAL opinions on national issues such as Iraq, immigration, unemployment.
That's largely because our local newspaper, where I worked as a reporter for six years during the 1990s, is stuffed to the gills with hard-left rabid liberals.
I know that sounds cliche, but make no mistake, I heard the daily banter from the top editor, and 90-percent of the 'hard news' reporters, all of which accused Republicans of "all being a bunch of senile old white men', and other such statements.
The reporter who COVERED my about-to-lose Repub. congressman the days before the election accused me (in the middle of the newsroom) of being a hate-mongering racist .... all because I said I would prefer a flat tax rather than a graduated income tax.
"All you flat tax people just want to take away welfare from African Americans," she bellowed in my face. I am not kidding.
Anyway, back to the point.
Given that no Republican in my area can overcome the embedded bias that comes through daily in the newspaper, I can only think that some type of Internet news site, or weekly mailing will be effective in blunting some of the slant.
I ran a news site in the late 90s (after I was fired by this local newspaper), and it is not that difficult if you have several people willing to help.
I eventually had to shut it down cause I wasn't making money, and had to go back to a real job.
Still, I suggest that conservatives who really want to make a difference can start some type of daily or weekly newsletter in their particular area, in hopes of combating press bias, which not only is REAL, but it is getting worst as years go by.
Who knows, you might even be able to make some money if you find an advertiser or two.
You're on the right track with seeking alternative media outlets as probably the most viable option to getting balance.
IMHO, a lot of this would go away if advertizing on any mass media (reaches XX,XXX people) that didn't have a reasonable political balance to it's news reporters and editorial staff would be NOT be tax deductible. Shows and sites, with a disclaimer that views expressed on this media don't necessarily reflect the views of the broadcaster or it's advertizers would be OK. Sort of turning the Dem's fairness doctrine on it's head...
As it currently stands, the PRESSident (drive-by-media) uses the dominance of it's political affliation in reporters and editorial staff to leverage (unpolitically biased) advertizing $$ towards the PRESSidential political perspective without a disclaimer of their reporting/editorial bias -- which seems wrong.
However, don't hold your breath on anything like this out-of the-box balancing act ever happening. The PRESSident would veto it by every possible means at their disposal.
Currently, the best balance in mass media is the FOX network with the caveat that outside of a few nationally balanced FOX news/editorial shows there lurks tons of left wing bias in local FOX network new and editorial staffs.