it has to be a sustained effort. I've seen Rudy do the same thing with Wolf Blitzer et al - the impression left with the viewer is that this guy doesn't take any sh*t, and that the media are pinheads. And yes, it can work. Its better then having Lindsey Graham appearing with Hillary, he talks like she has him on a leash - that tactic sure doesn't work.
Some progress has been made in discrediting the mainstream media over the past years - I give all the credit to talk radio, and most of it to Rush. But their influence is so far reaching - a person may well have turned off CBS/NBC/ABC/CNN, but as I said earlier, when they get into their car and listen to a music station - the news at the top of the hour pumps the same crap to them, because the media matrix sources all of its stories from the same place - the New York Times.
Take the Presidents meeting with the Pope. Here as much if not more time was taken up in the Popes statement acknowledging Bush's stance on abortion and by inference gay marriage. Will that ever find its way into the media? If the entire cabinet were to do nothing else for the summer but hit this point home it would either get buried or it would be spun to the same negative effect. It would be "separation of Church and State!" "Those hicks are off washing themselves in the blood of the lamb again!" And no doubt commentary would soon follow that they are manipulating the poor old doddering Pope.
You cannot win an argument with a sophist, you can only expose his sophistry to others.
The Graham's of the world seem to do this no matter what the GOP leadership says. The fact is that the GOP "majority" is quite tenuous, witness McCain's "Kyoto treaty" bill that he is sponsoring with Lieberman.
There is not that level of party control, and, to be frank, many in the GOP do not seem to understand just what the Liberal agenda is really about. They have had the Hill for most of a decade and they still cat like a cowed majority. Why did they not rally around Gingrich when he needed their support? How is Bush supposed to enforce this sort of discipline?
As for Rush, well he could end up in jail. I am not a big Rush listener but it seems fairly obvious that there is no national outcry here when the Dem attack machine is just as obviously viciously going after any dissent.
That is just my point: These people are just not decent people, the only difference between them and the Nazis is they current lack the power to implement a totalitarian state.
Again my point is that it is a cultural crisis and at the root of that is the question of whether or not Americans can come to understand how corrupt the media is and how it has corrupted our collective perceptions of the world and our very psyche. You will not win by arguing with it on its own terms, or so it seems. Reagan did not even try.
The NYT is not the only primary source but one cannot get around their corruption. Look at the NY Sun which was set up to debunk it. The Times gets caught up in lies weekly and yet it still get away with it. There is no outrage.
How do we reform this short of pulling down the 1st Amendment? With our pocket books, I guess. By ignoring them I guess. Rational suasion with the media seems to be impossible. It is not really a forum for discourse but rather a platform for agitprop. The American people must come to see this or we are lost.