Either Guns or Media

I've been making a lot of noise here and on other blogs in the comment sections about becoming a more aggressive brand of liberal. Trying to un-do the CW established by Conservatives that all Liberals are weak is not an easy task. Must be done 'delicately' as the Wicked Witch of the West says. But fuck that.

After my rants, I get asked - "well, what's the plan, Che?"

Good Question! At first I drew a blank. Knee jerk one-off sniper shot or direct confrontation didn't look like it was going to work more than once. That is not the way to get things done or change much of anything. Militias... well, more of the one-and-done crowd so no lasting effect there either. Just more people in the line of fire and that's not a good thing ever.

The one and done would be fine if I was like Jack Ruby and only had months to live, but unfortunately only the good die young and it looks like I am going to live a looooong time.

So - let's take a look at the Media: Print, Radio, Cable/TV, Web.

In the words of Noam Chomsky, “He who controls the media controls the minds of the public”.

I agree. The numbers don't lie. Fox News has the highest ratings of all the cable and network news shows and recently was voted "Most Trusted Name In News". I almost can't type it I find this so digusting.. (eww.. get it off me!).

Now, how do liberals turn that juggernaut around? Well... again there is the "guns" solution. (note: I still am looking for that balance from when I was a non-violent liberal to the more aggressive liberal and sometimes tilt to the more violent side just because I am still trying to get used to it. You will too! Don't give up, it just takes some time and practice.)

But again that method is found lacking because they'll just hire someone to take Aile's place if a piano somehow mysteriously squashed Mr. Ailes from 20 stories up just as he was coming out of his office.

Money. I guess it all comes down to money. Let's get a Blogtastic fund-raiser together and buy out Rupurt Murdoch! Shouldn't take more than $2.5 Billion or so. Let's get cracking! What's that you say? It would take thousands of years to raise that much money on the web from individual donors? Hmm...

What else you got? Well... there's Matt Taibbi: 

Excerpt: Most of these reporters just want to be inside the ropeline so badly, they want to be able to say they had that beer with Hillary Clinton in a bowling alley in Scranton or whatever, that it colors their whole worldview. God forbid some important person think you're not playing for the right team!

Meanwhile, the people who don't have the resources to find out the truth and get it out in front of the public's eyes, your readers/viewers, you're supposed to be working for them — and they're not getting your help. What the hell are we doing in Afghanistan? Is it worth all the bloodshed and the hatred? Who are the people running this thing, what is their agenda, and is that agenda the same thing we voted for? By the severely unlikely virtue of a drunken accident we get a tiny glimpse of an answer to some of these vital questions, but instead of cheering this as a great break for our profession, a waytago moment, one so-called reputable journalist after another lines up to protest the leak and attack the reporter for doing his job. God, do you all suck! "

Thanks Matt... (I want to have his children).

Seems to me that if we can't get to our elected officials through the beltway forcefield that protects them from constituents, and we can't really protest anymore because the media won't cover it anyway unless you're conservative and wearing tea-bags; maybe we can get to the actual news organizations themselves and get them to print/tell/show the truth? It seems like this is the most vunerable, er.. I mean approachable (still practicing) population out of the big three we wish to change. So Anonymous, or whatever your name is - this is the plan:

An aggressive movement to provide news organizations with progressive news and hold news rooms accountable for the "facts" they publish.

We all have cameras, we all write (most of you quite well I might add), we all know what the truth is. Take it to your local Print/Radio/TV news station and see what happens. They are struggling right now and if you can give then a free lede... they'll be all over it. I have found that if your composition is strong and your word choice above 12 grade level vocab, they will print you even if your subject is controversial, so check your grammer and spelling.

You'll also have to give your name.

This is the sticky part. I love being the greendayman on the net and it's easy to write whatever I want but when it's your hometown paper, the same one you advertise your business in, and they publish your three column rant on "Getting out of Iraqistan - the Quickest Way to Cut 1 $Trillion from the Budget", my customers would not be amused. But if we all did it, and there were hundreds of these columns out there, maybe folk would stop and say... hmmm, maybe there is something to this. It would be worth it.

The local stuff isn't quite so glamorous as the national stage where the big dogs roam. There is no reason not to call them. We're always calling our congressman or representitive who we KNOW is bought and paid for by some aspect of the private sector. So our words, letters, rants, etc. fall on DEAF EARS. At least in my state of Maine. Olympia and Susan are good automaton republicans. I beat my head against that wall for years!!

So. Let's get the media. This is my plan. Why not?

Fallback position - a return to the Fairness Doctrine.

This is nothing new, but... up to now our stuff is all passive, informational - good, excellent reporting but doesn't change a thing. I vote for aggressive. It's really our only shot.

I've been hearing that we're all doomed or we're all fucked or we're all banana bread for the last week or so. I rail, piss and moan that we need to do something.. well ladies and gentlemen of blogsylvania, here is the plan. We visit local newsrooms, district newsrooms, national newsrooms get ourselves on public opinion boards, really push back hard on national news organizations and work very hard to craft a version of the Fairness Doctrine that will pass. Corporate will try to stop us at every turn. We can't stop corporate but we can inform the network owners, anchors and staff that they are killing people with their lack of reporting. It can be done.

It can be done.

Can you say, "Barack Hussein Obama"?

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UPDATE: God help every one of those lying fucks including Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity et. al if I ever am diagnosed with cancer.