Wag the Dog

Atrios has a good model for the propagation of crazywing talking points into the mainstream. While that may answer the first question posed by Kevin Drum over at Washington Monthly, it hardly answers the second - how do we do the same for our issues? How do we take more control over media perceptions of what Americans care about?

I was just watching CNN, and the topic was Christmas. But the show was not the sort of feel-good holiday piece one expects this time of year, but instead a heated debate about whether the holiday is in danger due to political correctness. It's a wonderful construction, this danger in which Christmas supposedly finds itself. One former mayor of Boston and ambassador to the Vatican spent the time decrying the crazed seculars represented by his counterpart, who merely suggested that there are a growing number of non-christians in America who, just maybe, might feel off-put by christmas in public schools, it being a Christian holiday. The host just asked why Christmas, in the spirit of Christ, can't just be shared by everyone. The ex-ambassador reacted with disbelief at the idea that anyone could be intimidated by millions upon millions of Christians. The poll question was, "Is it time to take back Chrismas?" (I wonder from whom CNN feels it must be taken back, and whether they actually believe anyone so concerned about Christmas' perilous position is watching their network.) Where does such craziness come from? A Bill O'Reilly tirade.

The real issue here may not be how we do this ourselves, but if we can keep this from happening so regularly. It's the same thing that happened with the swift boat adds. There's something broken here, where the ostensibly balanced professional journalists take up the batshit-crazy rants of the right. Roger Ailes is on C-SPAN talking about how CNN and the other news channels are all copying Fox News because it's so popular. I think he's right (whoa, did I just type that?) but I think the solution sought by CNN is pretty dumb, and is the same wrong direction taken by centrist and left politicians in that arena. I don't watch as much CNN anymore because it's gone just as nuts as Fox, but it doesn't even know it's become such a tool. What is conscious on Fox's part is weakness on CNN's, and willful ignorance of its complicity in what's wrong with America is worse than the other's intentional propagandizing. So you've lost me. To boot, right-wingers won't ever switch, because they know Fox to be the legitimate winger network. You can't copy Fox, and you can't copy the GOP; there is no beating the brand.