Has Obama or Congressional Dems ever used lefty web sources to do an end run around MSM?

[yurbud]

Someone said in another thread that Eric Holder might be doing the right thing on voter suppression, but the media isn't covering it.

In the early 1990's and before, that excuse was probably legitimate, and even in the run up to the Iraq War, I wondered why so few in Congress asked the right questions, only to find out after much digging that they DID, and with only one or two exceptions, those words fell down the memory hole without leaving the slightest ripple.

Dennis Kucinich, Alan Grayson, and a handful of others seemed to know how to be heard in the lefty web even when the MSM wasn't interested in what they have to say.

Are the others just clueless, or do they figure that those with money and power don't look any further than a handful of papers and cable news for their info, so there's no point in spreading the word through sources that only reach actual people?

I guess this is a web variation on the "bully pulpit and why it remains empty" question.

Why is it largely not done?

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	It is done, but there are few times when the MSM won't carry Congressional Dems or the White House message
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	They think if it ain't in a handful of East Coast newspapers or on the TV, it doesn't count. And they are RIGHT.
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	They think if it ain't in a handful of East Coast newspapers or on the TV, it doesn't count. And they are WRONG.
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	They are mostly old farts who only vaguely know about the internets, think it is a series of tubes, and it would take to long to make all the punch cards to input data.
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	They see the potential value but are deterred by fear of being labeled dirty hippy commies by Fox & Friends in the MSM
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	other
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	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[bbgrunt]

1. they want to have it both ways. They want to be called Democrats while voting Republican

and that becomes very transparent if they get exposure.

[Egalitarian Thug]

3. Now, that's a good point.

It's far too easy to forget who voted which way on what years ago and the number of people with enough interest to find out is insignificant. We've got situation where 100% of the republicans and 60% of the Democrats are on the wrong side of these issues, so very few of them have anything to gain from calling attention to the votes.

One of the best points I'm hearing with more frequency is how many of "our" legislators come into office middle to upper middle class and become rich on that ~%160K salary. They and/or their spouses, friends, and other relatives seem to become remarkably lucky just as the legislator starts looking at the next election.

[yurbud]

8. wow--awesome Sam Adams quote. Do you know the context?

[Egalitarian Thug]

10. Speech at the State House in Philadelphia on August 1, 1776 advocating for independence.

Here's the passage;
From the day on which an accommodation takes place between England and America, on any other terms than as independent States, I shall date the ruin of this country. a politic minister will study to lull us into security by granting us the full extent of our petitions. The warm sunshine of influence would melt down the virtue which the violence of the storm rendered more firm and unyielding. In a state of tranquillity, wealth, and luxury, our descendants would forget the arts of war and the noble activity and zeal which made their ancestors invincible. Every art of corruption would be employed to loosen the bond of union which renders our resistance formidable. When the spirit of liberty, which now animates our hearts and gives success to our arms, is extinct, our numbers will accelerate our ruin and render us easier victims to tyranny. Ye abandoned minions of an infatuated ministry, if peradventure any should yet remain among us, remember that a Warren and Montgomery are numbered among the dead. Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say, What should be the reward of such sacrifices? Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship, and plow, and sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth? If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude than the animating contest of freedom--go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!

For the abridged text go here: http://www.nationalcenter.org/SamuelAdams1776.html

[yurbud]

12. I'm going to put that on pic of him and start spreading it around.

[woo me with science]

4. Yep. I have referred to this as the Third Way messaging problem,

and it's a doozy.

It's a very tricky position to be in. You need to claim to support traditional democratic goals and values in order to appeal to voters, while simultaneously backing corporate, neocon, and police state policies that are diametrically opposed to them.



CAT



DOG



THIRD WAY DOG

[yurbud]

7. the Third Way Dog should be eating the corpse of a real dog

at least that's the DLC fantasy.

[yurbud]

9. unfortunately, those who do that are in most of the leadership positions

[RZM]

2. RW outets are certainly covering it

They've been all over the DOJ and Florida since this started. They seem to think it's beneficial to them to report on this. The RW talking heads on the radio have been emphasizing it as well.

http://www.google.com/#q=DOJ+Florida&hl=en&prmd=imvnsu&ei=DhLNT63PB8j40gGjnJjADw&start=10&sa=N&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=b1aa93e3f4ed24bc&biw=1680&bih=854

This Google search (DOJ Florida) produces a couple hits from Huffington and the Miami Herald, but most are from sites like Townhall, The Blaze, Breitbart, and Drudge.

[yurbud]

5. better than nothing.

[yurbud]

6. 2nd & 3rd hit at your link:

DOJ TO FLORIDA: STOP REMOVING NON-CITIZENS FROM VOTER ROLLS

DOJ to Florida: Don't You Dare Clean Up Your Voter Rolls

That the righties NEED to defend this shows some improvement on the issue.

How much coverage did this get BEFORE the 2000 election?

[brooklynite]

11. because it doesn't work...

...Web-based media is great for engaging people who are already politically active or at least interested. They may re-energize these activists, (raising the question of why they need to be re-energized), but web postings of Grayson, Kucinich et al aren't changing the minds of the predominant mass of low information, low interest voters.

[yurbud]

13. so reaching out to low information voters precludes telling supporters...

what you are doing in detail that the MSM isn't covering?

Or is it that those who don't use these channels have done nothing that doesn't fit the narrow range of actions and ideas we see in those MSM media outlets?