Don’t lay the blame of the gutless, spineless republican failures on the media. This crap is self-inflected.
My intent in my post was not to lay blame on the media.
Only to point out that for the past five years, the Republicans have effectively and deliberately been 'branded' as clueless laize faire oil corporate suck ups by the 'reporting' AP branch of the media .....
When in fact many Republicans politicians do in fact go into their home communities where they speak to crowds, to small Chamber of Commerce type organizations and present good market-based, conservative solutions and ideas.
Again, my point is that the bulk of the public does not know of or read about these speeches or happenings because the reporting media distorts or will not report the events.
Pure and simple, it is political war by omission, rather than commission.
It is extremely hard, if not impossible, for a good conservative Republican to effectively showcase his or her agenda without the benefit of some honest reporting.
Yes, there are newsletters and emails, but they are not nearly as effective or wide reaching as a good "impartial" newspaper or TV story.
The large networks such as FoxNews (rarely) cover local political speeches unless they are controversial or sexy.
Look no further than last week when Obama claimed the US has 57 states, or when Obama claimed repeatedly that Afghanistan speaks Arabic (they speak an entirely different language)
If a Republican had made any similar mistake, it would have been ridiculed repeatedly by reporting media across the nation.
As it was, only Hannity reported it briefly, and Limbaugh perhaps once.
The GOP has been effectively branded as uncaring, corporate suck ups who could care less about the little guy.... and they haven't yet figured out how to get some honest reporting.
Disagree. Why did J.D. Hayworth lose in '06?
Why did Rick Santorum, perhaps the best spoken most conservative Republican in the nation, lose by nearly 20 percentage points in '06?
In my estimation, and I followed the "reporting' media very closely, was the lack of any honesty in reporting what Santorum actually said or stood for.
Likewise, there was absolutely no scrutiny.... no analysis of the positions (lack of positions actually) of the Democrat opponent.
Add in the effect of 20 years of MTV, BET, and public school/university propoganda.... and the Republicans are starting 25% behind before a race even begins.
While I agree with your sentiment that Republicans often self-inflict, the media none-the-less plays a HUGE role in forming and shaping public opinion of both Democrat and Republicans, conservatives and liberals.
Consider the news (or lack of news) of today, May 17, 2008.
Barack Obama is running millions of dollars and multiple TV and radio ads in Kentucky, specifically proclaiming himself to be the "Christian" who "wil use his Christian values as President" and who is very active in his "Christian church in Chicago."
The media's response???
(Crickets chirping)
When a Democrat claims himself a Christian, then bravo.. wonderful, tremendous.
When a Republican speaks of Christian faith, it is evil, controlling, bigoted, an attempt to create a Theocracy in America.
If a Republican candidate, for President or otherwise, used that Christian language it would cause two weeks of headlines, with teeth gnashing, etc.....
Recall the consternation and condemnation in 2000 when GWB talked about how his faith made him a better person, when GWB said Jesus Christ was one of his favorite philosophers.
Heck, you'd have thought he just proclaimed himself to be a child molester.
The TV, Cable, and newspaper media went nuts.
All of which proves what HUGE HUGE role the media plays in forming opinions. The Republicans start each and every election deeeeeep in the hole.