The Culture Wars Reach the Culture

Opinion Journal ^ | 11/10/03 | ROBERT L. BARTLEY

[Pokey78]

We hit a milestone with CBS's canceling of "The Reagans."

CBS blinked.

We hit a milestone in the culture wars last week with the internment of the threatened Ronald Reagan hit job. For once, perhaps for the first time, one of our pre-eminent cultural institutions conceded that the great unwashed had it right. Instead of wrapping itself in the First Amendment right to be irresponsible, the network looked for the least graceless way out.

[prairiebreeze]

This is the kind of story that would normally be consigned to page A14 of the New York Times, as indeed it was. But instead of dying there, it's been kept alive by other news outlets, notably Fox News.

I hope it continues to be kept alive. My impression is that it's cooling off though...even with FOX. Hope I'm wrong.

Prairie

[swilhelm73]

The key to the collapse of the leftist monopoly isn't FOXN, though that has been helpful. We are sitting in front of the medium that brought it down - the internet.

No, most people aren't going to read FR.com, AS.com, NRO.com, etc, but enough people are getting and recieving straight information through the internet that it has formed a critical mass.

Consider, as a similar stories the fact that most Americans know the media has been trying to paint a very different picture then what is really going on in Iraq, and that after three years of manufaturing scandals, the leftists have yet to make one stick on the President.

The leftist gatekeepers no longer are...they now are merely one more source of information, and one that most Americans view with deep suspicion.

[KC_Conspirator]

Close observers of Capitol Hill, too, are amazed at the "legs" being displayed by the disclosure of a Senate Intelligence Committee memo on how Democrats can use hearings to embarrass the president. This is the kind of story that would normally be consigned to page A14 of the New York Times, as indeed it was.

I believe the Rumsfeld memo was front page news at the Slimes, even though there was nothing bad or incriminating. It should be the lead story, but I doubt that any of the big three covered it.

[Bonaparte]

"All the more so since he remains alive but unable to respond."

You can always count on the left to attack the helpless. From Reagan to Pinochet, from Elian to Terri.

[hedgetrimmer]

More Dinos, fewer Rinos. Thats my advice.

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

The Reagan broadcast suggests that market forces may be more powerful than democratic ones.

Huh? Market forces are largely democratic. Maybe this should have been

The Reagan broadcast suggests that market forces may be more powerful than Democratic ones.

[Plutarch]

The Ford Foundation funds a gaggle of Islamic charities...

It is only a small step for The Ford Foundation to fund a "charity" that will support the insurgency against the U.S. in Iraq.

The best, and perhaps only, way for the Left to regain the Presidency, is for there to be more U.S. KIA.

Can we put it past them?

[OESY]

The key to the collapse of the leftist monopoly isn't FOXN, though that has been helpful. We are sitting in front of the medium that brought it down - the internet. No, most people aren't going to read FR.com, AS.com, NRO.com, etc, but enough people are getting and receiving straight information through the internet that it has formed a critical mass.

The key question in my mind is, Whether websites like this can be used to efficiently and effectively to marshal a critical mass at the decision point when a policy recommendation, media coverage, etc., is truly objectionable -- because it is wrongheaded, unfair or dishonest? The corollary principle is that it cannot be overused.