STRATEGERY: BUSH CHEERS DECLINE OF MAINSTREAM MEDIA, RISE OF ALTERNATIVE PRESS

drudgereport/strategery ^ | 2/28/2006 | drudge

[Geronimo]

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX FEB 28, 2006 09:00:01 ET XXXXX

BUSH CHEERS DECLINE OF MAINSTREAM MEDIA, RISE OF ALTERNATIVE PRESS

**Exclusive**

ROVE SLAMS DAN RATHER: NOT A 'SERIOUS' REPORTER

President Bush, for the first time, is hailing the rise of the alternative media and the decline of the mainstream media, which he now says “conspired” to harm him with forged documents.

“I find it interesting that the old way of gathering the news is slowly but surely losing market share,” Bush said in an exclusive interview for the new book STRATEGERY. “It’s interesting to watch these media conglomerates try to deal with the realities of a new kind of world.”

[STRATEGERY was ranked #5 on AMAZON.COM's sales chart early Tuesday morning.]

For example, journalist Dan Rather left the anchor chair at CBS News after Internet reporters revealed he had used forged documents to criticize Bush’s military record in September 2004. The forgeries, which Bush now calls a conspiracy, ended up helping his reelection campaign, he acknowledged in the Oval Office interview.

“It looks like somebody conspired to float false documents,” the president tells author Bill Sammon. “And I was amazed about it. I just couldn’t believe that would be happening [and] then it would become the basis of a fairly substantial series of news stories.”

He added: “Then there was a backlash to it. I mean, a lot of people were angry that this could have happened. A lot of Americans are fair people and they viewed this as patently unfair. So in a funny way, I guess it inured to our benefit, when it was all said and done.”

The episode, known as “Memogate,” inoculated Bush against further scrutiny of his National Guard record for the duration of the presidential campaign.

“It also, frankly, gave us an opportunity, frequently, when things came out in the media that we didn’t believe or didn’t like, to say, ‘It’s another CBS story,’” said Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, who was the president’s campaign manager. “I mean, it gave us a serious response to bad news.”

Although Memogate was initially expected to harm the president, it ended up backfiring spectacularly on the press.

“The guy that it hurt most was Dan Rather and the executives at CBS,” White House strategist Karl Rove said in an interview for STRATEGERY. “It further disgraced a network which is third in ratings and, if you look at the demographics of their consumers, it’s like 70 percent Democrat.”

Rove said Rather’s eagerness to broadcast obviously forged documents proves he is “no serious reporter.” As for Rather’s insistence, to this day, that the documents are real, Rove said: “That’s really bias.”

Memogate has helped accelerate the decline of the mainstream media, generally defined as CBS, NBC, ABC, The New York Times and other establishment news outlets.

“I think what’s healthy is that there’s no monopoly on the news,” Bush said. “There’s competition. There’s competition for the attention of, you know, 290 million people, or whatever it is.

“And the amazing thing about this world we live in is that there’s a kind of free-flowing, kind of bulletin board of ideas and thoughts out there in the ether space, sometimes landing on somebody’s desk and sometimes not, but always available. It’s a very interesting period.”

Having long been pilloried by the mainstream media, Bush now finds the rise of the alternative media nothing less than revolutionary.

“It’s the beginning of the twenty-first century; it also happens to be the beginning of—or near the beginning—of a revolution in newsgathering and dissemination,” he said. “Not in newsmaking—that tends to be pretty consistent.”

Rove considers Memogate a watershed in the rise of the alternative media.

“The whole incident in the fall of 2004 showed really the power of the 'blogosphere',” he said in his West Wing office.

“Because in essence you had now, an army of self-appointed experts looking over the shoulder of the mainstream media and bringing to bear enormously sophisticated skills,” he added.

Still, Rove cautioned that the Internet’s political potential has a darker side.

“There is so much ugliness and viciousness and fundamental untruths that the blogosphere transmits,” he lamented. “It also is a vehicle for ugly rumors, for scurrilous personal attacks, an avenue for the creation of urban legends which are deeply corrosive of the political system and of people’s faith in it.”

Rove said Rather and his producer, Mary Mapes, were gunning for the president and trying to help his challenger, Sen. John Kerry, by broadcasting the forged documents in the heat of the presidential campaign.

“From her body language and his body language, their enthusiasm for this story was in large measure fed by the belief that they were playing a constructive and perhaps determinative role in the presidential campaign,” Rove said of Mapes and Rather.

“They made a decision in this instance – I think quite prematurely and quite unfairly – to pursue a story that attacked the president,” he added. “And I thought it was, to me, one of the most incredible examples of how fundamentally unfair it was.”

Rove expressed astonishment that CBS ignored the warnings of document experts hired by the network to authenticate the National Guard memos.

“It goes back to the failure of the mainstream media, in this instance, to honor their own experts,” he said.

Rove is not the only senior Bush adviser who considers the mainstream media biased against the conservative president. White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card was outraged that the TV networks refused to declare Bush the winner on Election Night, even after all the votes were counted in the pivotal state Ohio and it became obvious Kerry could not win.

“Some of the talking heads,” Card said, “were rooting for a crisis in Ohio. It wasn’t just that they were afraid to admit we had won.”

Card became particularly incensed when Bush’s Ohio lead reached 120,000 votes, which was mathematically insurmountable.

“Nobody wanted to call it so that we had won,” he said. “It was like, c’mon, are they just afraid to say it?”

Developing...

[Beagle8U]

" Most of the small dailies appear to be in trouble, too. Yet not one of them seems to have hit upon a way to improve revenue (excepting the smaller weekly papers that largely are still doing OK depending on local economies)."

The local paper in my area is doing quite well, and the reason for that is the Internet.

You can read most of it online, but they claim what is selling their papers is the fact that they allow local bloggers write one editorial per month.

You don't get paid for them, but you do get to spank liberals!
Once a month I get to slam them like a $hit house door, and once a week I can have a short blurb printed.

The ongoing wars with Conservative/liberal writers are selling local papers, and the paper gets the stuff for free!

Its fun and I enjoy it, the paper doesn't need to pay as many journalists, and those that don't bother with puters have started buying the paper to read what their local version of "Rush" thinks about local issues.

*** I'm no Rush, I was referring to all the local writers.

[Not A Snowbird]

That quote is hardly "cheering", but he's right and the MSM will have a fit over it.

[bray]

Another oldie:
The Stone Age Press has become nothing more than a giant Echo Chamber where all the reporters write for each other. The group think has become so predictable that if you read or hear one reporter you’ve herd them all. Where has all the original thought or creativity gone in an industry that is based on painting history with words? There are two main forces blowing through PravdABDNC that are stifling all diversity of thought. The first is the absolute bias towards the DNC and the other is the fear of going against their Establishment.

Is there any wonder that the Conservative writers continually have best sellers while liberals only have cellars. America is starved for writers they agree with, yet they are continually insulted by reporters who show nothing but contempt for them and their way of life. This is no way to expand your business or even keep the customers you already have. This Country is divided 52-48% Republican, yet the scribes of history are 90% Democrat. How can they report about a Conservative Country when they have no desire to understand it?

How has this Industry become so disenfranchised from it’s customer base? Simple really, the reporters write for each other and know that if they all agree then virtually nobody can be wrong. Take for example the election, even though GW had always polled the lead, the press hoped that Kerry would close at the end and take Florida. To predict otherwise would put you in the minority and if you were wrong you would have to explain why you went against the common group thought. If you were right then the group will just say that it was an upset and cover their error. Since everyone is in agreement there is no threat to lose face and maintain your expert status since you were all wrong together. If you are wrong by yourself you have more explaining to do.

This is how the Stoned Agers have maintained such catch phrases as Bush Lied, WMD, pre-emptive 18 month rushed into, go it alone coalition. This allows lies to be maintained with none of the established reporters willing to buck the tide even had they wanted. All of the awards and front page stories are given to the scribes who are the most established and those are the ones who do not take risks. Now all of the front page reporters are complete DNC spokesmen which leaves a vacuum of divergent thought. Everybody wants their little awards and will do what it takes to receive those awards. You sure won’t soon see Ann Coulter’s name on those little dust catchers.

The major drum & bugle we are going hear over the next couple years will be that Harpy clinton is an automatic for President. None of these ancients will go against the group-think since it will put them out on a limb along with the caster nation of their peers. Nobody will give an honest evaluation of her lack of warmth/humility or shrieking skills. Imagine her telling self deprivating humor? So we will hear nothing except what a great candidate/screecher she is. The fact is that she is a lousy candidate, a poor debater and sagging in the polls. She very may well lose her Senate seat in a “huge” upset. You read it here first and the Old York Times, have they endorsed yet; will make excuses.

The lack of diversity and creativity will be the death of these Dinosnores. With a sophisticated audience and a shortened attention span these old formulas no longer work. When most information was stored and researched in books, attention spans could tolerate boring one sided drivel. With the advent of 24 hour news and the internet we no longer have the time or patience to tolerate their droll.

What was once an industry supposedly filled with truth seekers is now a megaphone of the DNC. That and the lack of an original thought over the past 20 or so years and you have the Stone Age Press up to it’s nostrils in the tarpits of histoir. The literal bankruptcy of that industry would bring about a truly Free Press that not only has the political freedom but an intellectual freedom that has long been forgotten. It is not pretty to see these pretty boy reporters in their death shakes as they invent scandal after scandal in a transparent attempt to return to their glory. This phony arrogance is driving more and more customers away from their crumbling monopoly.

You can bet that the Buggy manufacturers had the same condescending smirks on their faces as the Model T splashed mud on their freshly polished shoes.
Enough braying.

Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters

[Grampa Dave]

Memo to the MSM: Buh-bye! hahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahhahahahahahha!!!!!

"MSM Requiescat in fracta!"

[SittinYonder]

You can read most of it online, but they claim what is selling their papers is the fact that they allow local bloggers write one editorial per month.

Interesting. I assume it's a daily newspaper ... do you know their circulation?

[Grampa Dave]

[Grampa Dave]

This tragic scene will be replicated across our nation as the fish wraps lay off more worthless mediots.

Of course this tragic scene and future ones are Bush's fault.

[driftless]

I used to be a big reader of the big city dailies and even bought two Sunday ones. I barely peruse any of them anymore. I get most of my news on Fox or the internet. I will read them if they're in the lunchroom at work. I still purchase the St. Paul Pioneer Press three days a week because it's cheap and it has the N.Y. Times crossword...despite the hike to fifty cents a paper. I do subscribe to National Review and the Weekly Standard. For a leavening of semi-liberal crapola my wife subscribes to U.S. News and World Report. I also get Tiempos Del Mundo a spanish-language weekly and she still gets two small town weeklies as well as the big local daily in our area.

[PackerBronco]

When [your PBS stations] start their fund drives in the Spring, turn them off.

What and miss 1960's retreads like "Peter, Paul, and Mary" in concert? If PBS doesn't provide that kind of quality entertainment, who will?

[Beagle8U]

"Interesting. I assume it's a daily newspaper ... do you know their circulation?"

Yes, its a daily paper. I'm not sure what the circulation numbers are, but it covers several counties and the Editor has told me it is going up because of the bloggers that they print.

If I forget to submit something each month I get an email from the editor reminding me...lol

Stop and think about it, If you can take a few minuets to post here for free, wouldn't you be happy getting you views printed locally for free?

[buck61]

Thanks, you are very observant.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I get National Review and (horrors) the New York Times Book Review. This little weekly has some of the best book reviews anywhere. They often have a prominent writer or public figure do the reviews.
I also enjoy Classic Bike, a monthly devoted to Limey bikes, published in England. Occasionally, I read articles from the Atlantic and New Yorker, if I can weed past the lefty politics in these mags.

[cubreporter]

I'm an ordinary citizen of these United States and for years we have been saying the news media as it was is finished. Even wrote to rather, brocaw and jennin's and told them so. Anyone with half a brain could have seen this a long time ago. Good riddance to them all.

[CedarDave]

I wonder if Drudge will "release" the part of Sammon's book about how FREEPERS at FreeRepublic uncovered Dan Rather's duplicity w/forged documents.

Is that story actually in the book?

On another topic, Sammon was on F&F this morning and when pressed about Hillary's veracity and hypocrisy by bouncing around all sides of an issue, said he had not observed her to be lying or "disingenuous" (his word). Obviously he doesn't want to be added to her hit list, now or in the future if she gets to the WH.

[Carolinamom]

You'll find Sammon's account of the Freepers and what they uncovered on p.144 of his book, "Stategery". And he names names!!

[EQAndyBuzz]

"If the big dailies continue to lay-off and go out of business, where will bloggers and forums such as this one get their national and international news?"

Almost every news outlet uses the AP as their primary source of information and skews the story to fit the political agenda.

Nothing will change other than more weeklies will take the same information and change it so it reports the truth.

[bray]

What and miss 1960's retreads like "Peter, Paul, and Mary" in concert? If PBS doesn't provide that kind of quality entertainment, who will?

Looks like Mary has been singing for donuts!

Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters

[FreeInWV]

"GWB may be a freeper. LOL"

No chance of that. If he had read what some people wrote about his choice of Harriet Miers, he would have likely dropped a daisy-cutter on Jim Robinson's house.

[Geronimo]

I'm an ordinary citizen of these United States and for years we have been saying the news media as it was is finished. Even wrote to rather, brocaw and jennin's and told them so. Anyone with half a brain could have seen this a long time ago. Good riddance to them all.

As well as being a gathering place for conservatives to express their political views, Free Republic has since its founding day tirelessly sought to expose the bias of the MSM, it is one of the reasons I'm still here after six years.

I used to string for drudge when he had 70k hits a day, it was a very small percentage of the population then who used the internet as their primary news source. To see Rather forced out was a champagne moment for me, to see the demise of the readerships of the NYT and WashPost are truly wonderful, they are beneath contempt in our eyes but now that the rest of the country is catching on to their bullshit we can consider one of our founding missions a huge continuing success.

When the POTUS is talking about the demise of the MSM in favor of the internet and blogoshere we have reached a watershed moment, the sad irony here of course is that the MSM will refuse to make a single comment on any of this story...lol

[Steve_Seattle]

It seems to me that the Seattle Times and the Seattle P.I. are locked in a death struggle, and that only one will emerge. The Times may rue the day they entered into the JOA; the P. I. has used that to destabilize the Times. It seems to me that the Times has turned left as a survival tactic, thinking that whichever paper nails down the Left will be the winner. I think the Times is playing catch-up. In the last year, they have been viciously anti-Bush, matching anything the P. I. can dish out. I cancelled my subscription when they jumped on the Cindy Sheehan bandwagon.