Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my FoxFan list. *Warning: This can be a high-volume ping list at times.
Posted on 09/04/2004 2:43:22 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
Saturday, September 4, 2004
By Les Kinsolving
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
NEW YORK – Assorted pundits enjoy quadrennial denunciations of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions – because they no longer provide any suspense and extended balloting for who will be the nominee.
But these are the only national gatherings of elected leaders and delegates of our two major political parties. And they are also the only times that all of our nation's media come together.
For many of this country's left-wing-dominated Big Media, there is an acute and often apparent discomfort in being under the same roof and in the same convention sections as "The Rest of Us" – including what might be described as The New Media Thrust.
This includes those like Washington's new Weekly Standard magazine – which is distributed daily at this convention and which featured a report headlined:
HOW THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA WERE FORCED TO COVER A STORY THEY HATED.
That story, on the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and how they exposed Sen. John Kerry, is, along with the same-sex marriage issue, one of the two hottest issues of this presidential campaign.
Editor Jonathan Last of the Standard reports the following – which, with national reports of big daily newspaper-circulation frauds on Long Island, in Dallas and in Chicago, is a strong indication of a media revolution. He reports:
"An informal network – the New Media – has arisen that has the power to push stories into the Old Media. The combination of talk radio, a publishing house, blogs and Fox News has given conservatives a voice independent of the Old Media.
"Talk radio kept the story alive on a daily basis. … Network television and most cable news shows stayed away from the swiftboat story as long as they could.
"The swiftboat story first surfaced on May 4, when an op-ed by John O'Neill ran in the Wall Street Journal, in print and online, and the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, to which O'Neill belongs, held a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The event received scant notice by traditional media. CBS News mentioned it briefly and tried to tie the group to Bush. The Washington Post and New York Times had short items about it, as did the Boston Globe. The most in-depth coverage came from the Fox News Channel. On the May 4 edition of Special Report, Carl Cameron reported on the press conference, aired some of the Swifties' allegations, and then reported that certain of these veterans – Grant Hibbard and George Elliott – had previously supported John Kerry, immediately casting doubt on them.
"The story went away for a while, but was always lurking in dark corners of the Internet, on websites like KerryHaters.blogspot.com. And clearly the big media weren't blind to it. 'There are a few who served with him who dispute his record and question his leadership,' Peter Jennings noted during an ABC News broadcast on July 29. 'We'll hear from them in the weeks ahead,' he continued, moving abruptly on to a pre-taped package on Kerry's Vietnam heroism.
"The next big break for the Swifties came on Aug. 4, with the release of their first TV ad. Fox News covered the ad closely. The next night, 'Hannity & Colmes' featured members of the swiftboat group as well as veterans who supported Kerry.
"That same day, some print media outlets covered the ad buy, but not the substance of the ad's allegations. On television, only one broadcast network mentioned the spot: CBS spent two sentences on the 'harsh' ad, in order to air John McCain's denunciation of it.
"On Aug. 6, NBC also reported on the 'harsh' ad, but only as a way of segueing into a segment on '527 groups,' independent political organizations funded with soft money. On MSNBC, Keith Olbermann mentioned O'Neill's forthcoming "Unfit for Command." Since it's published by the conservative house Regnery, Olbermann reported, 'You now bring in the whole mystical right-wing conspiracy jazz.' The night before, Olbermann had repeatedly referred to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth as 'Swift Boat Veterans for Bush.'
"But the big news on Aug. 6 was that Regnery allowed people to download the 'Christmas in Cambodia' section of O'Neill's book. While Olbermann and others were worrying about mystical jazz, the New Media swung into action."
The book, Unfit for Command, is now No. 1 on both the New York Times best-seller list as well as Amazon.com.
And this swiftboat issue is huge in this campaign thanks to the New Media of which talk radio and the Internet are leaders.
The MSM can no longer control the discussion and that is a fact they must face....The quality of the facts, though hammered, disputed and discounted by the Kerry campaign and their media followers is out for all to see...Thank you Swiftboat Veterans for Truth..
Thank you Veterans of the Vietnam war and WELCOME HOME!
The MSM thought to censor the nominating convention season by not covering. Their strategy backfired.
There was an alternative.
The people simply went to the new media outlets to get their information.
MSM pushed millions into the waiting arms of FoxNews last week. I'll bet lots of those folks liked the style and the coverage that they saw and will become regular viewers.
I think the MSM is in shock...I hope it weans viewers away from the liberal only media..I watched a lot of the convention on CSpan because they carried it all...I may hate the "dem balance" on Fox at times, but at least it has the Republican or conservative view,too.
The internet is still the best thing that ever happened to me as far as getting information and a diversity of opinion.
I agree about the internet.
If I want the real scoop on what's going on, I come to Free Republic.
It has the best, most glaringly honest dissection of news anyplace. FR loves facts over opinion and has a huge number of qualified researchers who dig and dig and put up stuff that the MSM has no idea of.
And opinion!!! Opinions better align with facts or FR will make you wonder if you'd better go back to school.
Best news and opinion is right here.
The New Media. I like that. The "Old Media" seems to be having a few problems getting anyone to watch. FOX News hammers CBS & ABC...and all of the cable stations... WAY TO GO FOX!!!
Unsolicited endorsement of wbal.com and WBAL which carries the Orioles baseball games, (an annoyance to me when Rush's show is on.)
Kinda ironic, isn't it?
My son forced his old computer on me..got me hooked up with dial up and I was lurking in no time..having lurked at my daugther's house when I visited her....Now I have a new computer,fast cable connection and wonder WHY I was so loathe to get on line!(I admit, I thought the computer would look too ugly where the desk is...grin)
Aint you glad you're online? And aint you glad you're a Republican? (The best is yet to come.)
Oh my, yes!
One of the interesting things to come out of this convention is that the mainstream media is becoming less mainstream. With Drudge getting 7-10 million hits per day, shows like Rush getting 15 million listeners and now Fox out drawing the networks during an important news story it seems the old media will have a very hard time either pushing or hiding a story.
It has literally been years since I have watched a network evening news program. I, like most Freepers I'm sure, think the stories seem terribly stale after they have been debated here for hours long before Dan, Tom and the Canuck get to apply their spin.
JH2:
I've said it before, and this piece confirms my belief, that we here at FreeRepublic play an instrumental part in forcing the LMSM into at least a semblance of honesty, at least to the extent of forcing them to cover issues. I believe FreeRepublic can play a role in preventing John Kerry from becoming the President, and, if we work hard enough, we can drive him from public office into abject humiliation. Now, if only we had been strong enough in 1992, we may have been able to prevent Clinton from occupying the Oval Office and, who knows, maybe 9/11/2001 would not have happened. Long live the power of the alternative - soon to be mainstream - electronic media.
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my FoxFan list. *Warning: This can be a high-volume ping list at times.
Thanks for the ping!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.