Net gains - The Internet's next step may be electing a president.

Boston Globe ^ | 8/24/2003 | Cory Doctorow

[anymouse]

TIME WAS, we thought that a conclusive demonstration that the emperor had no clothes would be sufficient to overturn his reign. No leader could take power without media support; no ruler could keep his throne without the cooperation of the press. But the consolidation of media in recent years -- a series of intermarriages consecrated by the FCC -- has created a panic among tube-feeding activists like myself. Increasingly, the opportunity to define the "truth" has been concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. What's more, the new Media Hyperbarons are corporations of such colossal wealth and power that they are guaranteed to support the status quo that gave rise to them.

[anymouse]

Free Republic still rules the political roost. Quality and quantity beat random musings of the dillusional left.

[summer]

They have been trying, without success, to get their posters to do more than post a one-sentence rant as a thread. For a short time they required posters to post a minimum of five sentences if they wanted to start a thread. However, that requirement proved too difficult for some posters. It is remarkable how very different these Dems forums are from FR in terms of discussion quality. Just amazing.

[summer]

A great article to read and share with others. :)

[JPJones]

That's changing. As the Internet matures as a place for political action, services like the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Action Center (punch in your ZIP and e-mail your lawmaker), MeetUp's coordinated nationwide kaffeeklatsches for every Democratic candidate (but especially Howard Dean) and MoveOn's thronged mailing list millions (who can conjure the budget for a major media-buy on 24 hours' notice) are providing the bodies, budget and means for advancing proposals and seeing them through to their ends.

This "journalists" obvious omission of FR, proves his point on the mainstream media's incompetence on accurate reporting.

[summer]

You're right about that.

[summer]

Nevertheless, I strongly agree with this conclusion:

Steering is far harder than speeding up or slowing down, but bit by bit, the Internet is learning how.

[KC_Conspirator]

This is one of many articles that were written about how the internet will change politics after Howard Dean raised some moeny through his website. Big deal. You notice that none of these sites ever lead in traffic and almost none of them mention conservative sites (and more popular) like FR. Its kind of like articles that were once written about the internet affecting the media but never mentioned the Drudge Report.