Great essay.
The media mentioned in the article is the complicit media. After the debate, ‘the media’ were burying Trump.
And to Trump’s credit, he had his connections come out swinging about the obviously prejudiced moderators of that debate. And to underscore their prejudice, ‘the media’ networks proclaimed Carly Fiorina the winner, a candidate who hadn’t even been in the debate.
But Trump and Trump’s connections received serious support from one source....the new media. Free Republic, for example was proclaiming the extreme prejudice even before the debate was completed. But, As is the nature of the new media, it doesn’t influence all at once, but it takes a few news cycles, maybe even a week for them to fully permeate any discussion.
Free Republic was part of that, and the number of freepers initially giving Trump the benefit of the doubt, and then giving a full and fair hearing was a super-majority of the site.
And these thousands emailed, tweeted, texted other thousands, and the reframing of that debate was solidified. Obviously, other conservative sites had their part (not RedState which should be deleted forever from favorites lists for Erickson’s fabricated, menstrual lie.)
But, let’s be honest. We had a voice. Why did we have a voice? Because Free Republic exists. It exists because of our donations. Those who haven’t donated should do so. Do they really want to give up their voice?
Click link to donate: https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/
I’m going to get to the point here. Only about 2% of the people who use this site donate to it. I have noticed a lot of people who use the site who brag that they just sent $100 to Ted Cruz or Trump or Walker or whoever and then when you check the donor list they are not listed either as a monthly donor or a donor to the current Freepathon.
That is really sad. Literally if everyone who used this site regularly just donated $3 in the first week, the Freepathon would be over that week.
Unfortunately this site has more than its share of freeploaders who use this forum to brag about their support of conservative causes and conservative candidates, but don’t lift a finger to help this site. On this site Freepers not only have the opportunity to express their opinion about conservative issues, but they have the opportunity to have their opinions read by thousands of people including members of Congress, the media, the President of the United States and all the candidates running for the office.
Where else can someone with nothing more than a keyboard and an idea be so influential.
The next time you see someone on this site that brags that they just sent $100 to Ted Cruz because of something he said, they need to be asked if they have sent even $5 to Free Republic.
Maybe the only way to get the message out to these Freeploaders is to make them feel guilty.
This site cannot exist without the support of the people who use it. The importance of Free Republic cannot be overemphasized.
Well said, xzins. Thank you!