I really appreciate that you are continuing to work this idea, Raider. I think it's a good one. There seems to be some scattered efforts along these lines, but with some focus, we could be more effective. I'll be happy to play a part.

raider, I think it's admirable that you've taken the lead and I applaud your efforts (Bernancke be damned).

I also think its important to let folks know that Media Matters has been working on streamlining and upgrading its site, according to the official there I spoke with. Some of those upgrades will be online in the next two months, but that's as much as can be revealed without breaking confidentiality.

Nonetheless, I think it's important to work with a variety of groups to float ideas and see who's best equipped and most interested in making them fly. I also believe the conference would be a great idea, but be prepared to have it taken over by others, including perhaps, the organizations you mention. Poor ideas are bastards, while good ones have many fathers.

One last note. I have trouble with the idea of creating a "super-organization," partly because I think several independent voices work best, but also because they make smaller targets. It's easier for the media to dismiss complaints if they can portray those complaints as coming from a single group.

Great job and thanks so much for all your hard work. (Ripper, too.)

Perhaps if there were assigned 'tasks' we could all do - but in an organized manner so that we are not repeating contacts and missions. We could sign up and sign on to complete task and issue report on progress.

Because we are from 'all over' - our own locale's newspapers is a start as well as local TV and radio news that picks up on national feed and reports the flawed stories.

Just a thought since I've learned by experience that any goal is better achieved with some organization.

What an exercise in masturbation.

Mr. Raider:
What you do is patriotism.
Defend from enemies within.
Godspeed and smother those effing trolls.

Would NewsTrust be of any help?

UPDATE: I have spoken with a public relations person who can get me in touch with Dan Rather. She noted that he is extremely busy, which, while I'm certain that it's true, is another way of saying, "Don't get your hopes up." But I have requested that she send a short synopsis of what we're doing here, and a few questions that he might answer to help us accomplish something. I also asked if I could speak with him for no more than 30 minutes, with some statement to the effect that support for what we're attempting is growing and his participation, however minimal, would be in keeping with his stated goals of media reform and accountability.

I still need to write the "executive summary" or mini-mission statement and come up with some questions, so if anyone wants to pitch in on that, please feel encouraged to do so.

I've been looking for sites that have a similar "mission" to what you're proposing but go about it a bit differently.

NewsWatch.org
It calls itself "The Media Watchdog Web Site." It has links to other sites and stories about media lies and misrepresentations, but they're listed by the editor's interpretations of what the point of the story is.

BuzzFlash.net
I found by it by clicking on "media" on the BuzzFlash.com home page, which I was referred to by NewsWatch.org. Here's how they describe it:

As a pro-democracy news and commentary network, the staff of BuzzFlash.com felt it was important to offer a website where readers decide and vote on what news stories and commentaries are most important to them.

BuzzFlash.net is open 24 hours a day and registered readers can add new Internet stories that they want to share, and vote on what they think are the most important submitted pieces currently on the site.

Of course, consistent with BuzzFlash's mission of making information accessible without regard to a reader's economic status, registration and participation in BuzzFlash.net is completely free.

In short, readers control the content of BuzzFlash.net through adding and voting on stories (the top vote-getters at any given time get promoted to the front page). It is the ultimate in a reader-driven news and commentary site that offers a progressive, pro-democracy environment.commentary of misrepresentations or just plain bad reporting. The quality of the commentary is all over the place, but it seems to be a central site to link to articles critical of the media and its coverage of the presidential candidates and issues in general.

This could be a valuable way of getting more people over to whatever develops out of the discussions here.

MediaPutz.com
BuzzFlash.com also has MediaPutz.com, which selects a journalist each week who has misrepresented the news or given into ego so much that they have lost perspective on the truth of what they're reporting. Perhaps they'd want to expand their "mission" with some contributions from the Internet community and make it more frequent. We could point out the offending journalists as well as the stories.

http://dailyhowler.com/
The Daily Howler is a one-man operation of Bob Somerby. He goes into great detail about what he refers to as "howleers," and provides this definition. "howl·er /haü'-ler/ n 1: a stupid and ridiculous logical blunder."

Is he only interested in logical blunders? What he presents are critiques of misleading articles and programs that often are misleading because they assume something is true when it can't be proven to be true. This is a lot of what you want to address, it seems.

This is what I've found so far. I got onto some of these by going to http://www.causecommunications.com/forgetus/watchdog.html
that has a list of news media watchdog groups.

Has anyone cross-posted any of this at Kos? Or are you waiting to get it a little more developed before you start to 'take it to the masses'.

Just to reiterate my support for this. A little can go a long way, as anyone who followed the recent case of the kid in Denver denied treatment for cancer by his insurance company will know. A few hundred calls from outraged activists later, and they were quickly reversing their position. He got the treatment he needed in the facility in Kasas City.

The key to success in these cases is getting not so much A LOT of people to call and complain, but ENOUGH to call and complain within a small period of time. You also need to find the right guy - someone senior enough to be 'responsible', but not too senior so as to be inaccessible. Then you bombard them with calls over the course of two or three days. It drives them nuts, stops them doing their job, and they relent.

This can work.

I'm excited that so many of you are supporting this effort. It's not completely refined at the moment, but it's getting clearer. What I am concerned about is that it is simply the cause du jour and that we can't continue to grow it into something with its own viral identity.

However, I think if we stick with it and keep working on it, and keep talking about it, ultimately more people will notice, and someone with some influence will take it to the next level. Meanwhile, I'm doing what I can, though my own work is suffering terribly. Still, I'm in a relatively slow period, so it's all good.

So getting other people involved is great. Getting the ideas and enthusiasm out there to people who can notch it up even further is great. And I'm not really in charge of this. This is all of our concern, so if you think there's someone who should know about it, please tell them. Bring them here and give them the links and ask them to join in, advise, write about it, or whatever you think will help.

THIS JUST IN: Ripper has a nice disposable email account we can use just for sharing our contact info. Anyone who wants to be involved in CarolBG's google spreadsheet, or work together outside of TPM, please send name, aliases and email to:

eddiestinkypants@att.net

And, no, I'm not going to ask Ripper the significance of this email address.

Wonderful, Raider. I don't think I know anything helpful to the effort, but I do follow orders well and have a Lexis-Nexis account that I'll be pleased to put to work for the cause, if that would be helpful.

Sorry if this is very dim, but what about Dan Froomkin and the Neiman (Nieman?) site he works with? He is very accessible; we correspond from time to time.

not a blog but - CJR?

-Their critique of the WaPo atory on Obama's loan was devastating.