Oregon Activist actually took the words right off my keyboard. Join the persuasion army. If you want to change America it's gonna take some knocking on some doors and some kissing of some babies. "The Revolution will not be Televised!"

Heres a quote from An American President

"We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things, and two things only: making you afraid of it, and telling you who's to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections. You gather a group of middle age, middle class, middle income voters who remember with longing an easier time, and you talk to them about family, and American values and character, and you wave an old photo of [Obama in Muslim Garb]"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44R5BapEdYY

There IS a way to win against the MSM. Remember Dan Rather's story on the fake Bush documents? You don't have to get anyone fired to put a torch under an editor's ass. See my post, next after raider99's. And raider, thanks for bringing up a good point. I was working on my post when I saw yours.

For offenses committed by the Associated Press, Eric Kramer, a 10-year veteran of the AP, recommends contacting one of the AP board members he lists in his post at:

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/07/horrified-by-ap-bias.php

Thank you for this diary--you took the thoughts out of my brain. The MSM is presuming to speak for the netroots now that they've figured out we exist, and we're just another piece of the narrative, another potential weapon to use against our candidate. I'm tearing out my hair thinking...how do we STOP this?

I also take the same position you do; I don't blame the people who've been manipulated by the media. I used to be one of them. I don't hate Republicans. Most of them have been duped.

Seriously, this has been my own little issue of personal obsession...media narratives, and how to "game" them, how to predict them, get out in front of them, neutralize them, whatever it takes to get back to the issues, because when people vote on the issues, progressives win big time.

It's looking like we'll see a repeat of '04, or at least a trial run to see if it sticks: not only is Obama a flip-flopper, he's a party-liner! Number One Wishy Washy Liberal!

What to do, what to do...I was thinking about a mass petition that would force the networks to run a story like "Netroots reaffirms support for Obama" but that might just keep a dead story living and kind of smelling funny.

I hope Obama was serious about "bringing a gun to the fight", and I don't mean in terms of shooting the Republicans so much as calling out their tactics by name. It's been effective in the past, and it will get coverage. "This is what the opposition is going to do. Here is why it's stupid and wrong. Only, I'm Barack Obama and I will say this will elegance and charm."

I'm also hoping that no one is paying attention right now and the buzz moves on to Veepstakes (urg, "veepstakes", see how they eat your brain?)

(I posted something like this on Ripper's Reuter's thread, but wanted to bring it up here, too. We were talking about the idea of organized, constant phone banking to hold the MSM responsible and disrupt their flow of lies, etc.)

If the individual approach to holding the MSM accountable works better than organized protest, perhaps we need one central clearing house of the stuff that happens on the MSM, with video and quotes plus names and numbers so that individuals can have the information they need and make the relevant calls. It's like setting up a phone banking effort, but the results will be from individuals, in their own words and from their own phone numbers.

And if you can't replace them buy them.

"Can we somehow drown out the din of the talking head/sock puppets of the MSM? Can we deliver a message that reaches people still susceptible to the lies, distortions and name-calling?"

I think the best way to drown them out would be to expose them for the sellouts that they are. The lines of debate are usually so artificially predetermined and limited there are rarely any worthwhile thoughts or discussions anymore.

I'd like to see an investigative journalist dig deep into media and talking head relationships and boil it all down in a comprehensive article. I'd also want to know about CEO-board relationships and corporate interests. I'd like to see analysis about which people usually have the last word on editorial decisions and why. How about identifying the leaders most of the talking heads parrot and where they get their cues? A journalist could also assess the relationship between any financial interests and news and discussion content. A concise summary of how all this fits together might catch on and produce a credibility blow that awakens too trusting Americans. I don't think people would stop watching, but at least nobody would take them as seriously.

For a little on media methods, and who influences the talking heads and others, see this informative interview with Murdoch:

http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2007/05/16/murdoch/

The inteview is about Murdoch's commendable decision to make News Corp a carbon neutral company. Murdoch talks about his change of heart on global warming once his son convinced him it was real and he realized going green in his content and his corporation would be profitable. He essentially says that once HE decided global warming was real (and profitable), he decided to allow his network to clue the public in and give global warming more space and credibility in the news and other shows.

The interviewer asked brilliant questions, so through his answers, one can catch a little glimpse into the systematic way Murdoch coordinates content across many shows, and the news. One can see how easy it is for media to manipulate public perception of issues like global warming.

Here is an exerpt from the intro:

"...Messages about climate change will be woven throughout News Corp.'s entertainment content, he said, from movies to books to TV sitcoms, and the issue will have an increasing presence in the company's news coverage, be it in the New York Post or on Hannity & Colmes. Yes, as Murdoch told Grist in an exclusive interview on his climate plan, even Fox News' right-wing firebrand Sean Hannity can be expected to come around on the issue..."

Murdoch interview responses that caught my attention:

Can you give some examples of how you'll infuse this issue into your programming?

answer Oh, the opportunities are endless. We own SPEED [a cable channel focused on cars and motor sports], for example -- that's got 60 or 70 million homes it goes into. We can get a lot of green programming in there. We're going to encourage this effort among the writers on all of our entertainment programming, whether it's sitcoms or movies or reality shows. Then there's the online arena, where we have MySpace, where we've already launched a channel dedicated to climate change. MySpace has got 175 million profiles on it, and that represents huge reach among the grassroots.

question Do you worry that it will seem awkward to wedge the climate issue into your programming?

answer No, we've got to make sure it doesn't happen that way. There's got to be a certain degree of gradualism -- it has to feel natural, it has to make sense. Can a hero drive a hybrid car? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. But what about a biodiesel SUV?

But do you see Fox News and your newspaper outlets covering the climate issue differently as a result of this program?

answer Well, certainly giving it more attention. There will be more articles, more references, but the same broad range of opinions.

Some of the commentators on Fox News have expressed skeptical views about climate science -- take Sean Hannity, for instance, or Bill O'Reilly. Have you heard any reaction from them to this program, or any backlash within News Corp.?

answer I haven't discussed it with them yet. And, no, I haven't heard any talk about it. Probably Sean's first reaction will be that this is some liberal cause or something, you know? But he's a very reasonable, very intelligent man. He'll see, he'll understand it. As will Bill -- he just likes to get debate going between people. And that has its benefits -- someone says "No there isn't," someone says "Yes there is," and they have it out for

Now if we could also do something about the propaganda at highly politicized churches! Or maybe just encourage people who want knowledge to turn to transparent, non-partisan, non-religious, non-profit organizations with expertise relevant to the issue at hand.

I think I have an option to consider. I live in a community that has voted Democrat for as long as I can remember. Yet we now only have one newspaper that is right wing leaning. Our only talk radio is Rush Limbaugh. There is maybe 2 million living in this metropolis but our voices are not being heard.

This is my idea: The scumbags who started the Obama smears that he is unpatrotic, a muslim, and more reached a great many in our society.

I suggest a number of prominent bloggers from various sites have a meeting and create a one page attack on the MSM on how they are on a concerted effort to dumb down Americans and that the 4th estate has been taken over by one ideological group. That contrary to what they are saying the media is not left leaning.

This one page document with an ALERT, WARNING AMERICANS ARE BEING BRAINWASHED, that gets created is then shared with all the readers at their sites. Each of the readers can then copy this into an email and start sending it out to everyone in their address book and asking each to pass it along.

This would really shake up the media as the email goes viral. This would be a full on frontal attack against the media. It would be important to identify what there response would be and address it in the email upfront so they would not be able to discredit it as left wing nonsense.

It should also tell those reading this email to share this information with anyone they know who does not yet have a computer with internet connections to reach those who only watch the MSM to get news and information.

The email could be printed and passed out at coffe shops and on street corners to spread it even farther.