How do we derail the "Straight Talk Express"?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

I just got done reading David Brook's excellent book, "Free Ride", about how the national media treats McCain in contrast to other politicians and I have seen lots of evidence in this campaign so far in terms of the media coverage he has received that suggests that they still very much idolize him, which could conceivably (god forbid) help lead to his victory over Obama in November despite his quite obvious shortcomings and I started wondering what can the Democrats, and more importantly, what can WE do to help ensure more balanced coverage of the Presidential race or at least somehow blunt the effectiveness of the media bias towards McCain? I know Media Matters, FAIR, Alter Net (among other organizations) are doing what they can to help expose McCain's follies and flip-flops but is anybody listening and if not, what can we do more of to get the real word out on McCain? The book suggests that the local Arizona media's "love affair" with McCain ended quite some time ago (I think he pissed off one too many reporter) and that they no longer look at him through "rose colored glasses" but the MSM, as Chris Matthews famously pointed out, is still his "base". Is there anything that we can do more of to help expose who McCain is and what he REALLY stands for and expose the MSM's obvious bias for McCain? Any ideas?

[TooBigaTent]

1. Since the corporate media have McInsane's back, trying to get any coverage of the

true disasterous nature of the candidate and his campaign will be futile. Only those tuned into what is really happening will find out.

The alternative is to go after the candidate himself. Attack, attack, attack. Eventually he will blow a gasket (or an artery) and our problem will be solved.

Trying to fight them on their terms is just plain stupid.

[lame54]

2. .

[NattPang]

3. Yes, there is something we can do.

If we would organize as intensely as we did against FISA
and show the same outrage that we showed
against the New Yorker Magazine cover.

But that is the kind of energy that we will need,
to write letters, make phone calls, etc...

And no, we can't wait until too late.
and it is almost that.

So let's see if we start dividing up the time
that we spend on blogs with a good amount of time
communicating to the media, the media watchdogs,
and with each other (progressive media).

The outcome of this election
rests in our hands.

[babylonsister]

4. He's doing a bang-up job all by himself with his flubs and flip-flops, but

he is the media darling so they're not covering his screw-ups as much as they should be.
Three things are going to make a difference. Obama is about to get "A LOT" of press for his trips abroad, hopefully mostly good though that remains to be seen. Second, the DNC promises to be a bit more sintillating than the RNC, so there should be good press there as well. Finally, I predict that once the debates get going, the differences will be marked and the 'press' will have to take note of them.

I've also read that McCain's campaign is giving very few press avails now, unlike a few weeks ago even. That's bound to annoy some 'journalists' who aren't getting the access they've gotten used to. That might reflect in their reporting.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

7. Definitely

McCain (and his surrogates) seem to be doing him a lot of self-inflicted damage lately but, as you pointed out, the media isn't pouncing on it like they should (in an ideal world). Myself, I can't wait for the debates where we will almost certainly be seeing Obama running circles around McCain. Of course, his performance in the debates isn't going to mean anything if the MSM, if they're still his "base", spins the debates in McCain's favor like they did Gore and Kerry's debates with Bush but OTOH I couldn't imagine most people who watch the debates would not be able to discern for themselves the differences between them. I almost wish we could get the debates started NOW!!

[depakid]

5. Campaign ads attacking McCain and Gramm on the economy

IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS.

The corporate media will never report fairly or accurately about Republicans- so it's up to the campaign and its surrogates to hold them accountable for their egregious behaviors and policies.

(Of course, this strategy would work better if so many Dems hadn't enabled, legitimized and voted for these policies in the 1st place).

[seasat]

6. The media loves a narrative so lets create one.

The media will only bail on McCain if they can find a more interesting narrative in his failure. They love to see a celebrity undergo a meltdown. Look at all the attention paid to Brittany Lohan Cruise et al. If I could direct the attack against McCain, I'd try to create a word association that indicates he has an explosive temper and could go through a meltdown any time. It would have to be stealthy and use multiple media sources. You could associate a word like "unstable", "meltdown" or "unbalanced" with him. It could be done through coordination in the liberal blogosphere, letters to newspapers, internet comments on news sources, Google bombs, search engine optimization, and comments to calling shows like on CSPAN. This narrative would also have to be reinforced by surrogates to the campaign.

If McCain's temper becomes a media narrative then they'll jump at every little sign of a meltdown. You'd get comments about his campaign being in disarray because McCain had another meltdown. His sometimes off the cuff comments would get taken as the sign of his temper. The media would much rather discuss something like this than do a policy analysis of the candidates.

The Obama campaign may be trying to do something like this already. I've noticed that they're using the word "confused" in reference to when McCain flip flops or sticks his foot in his mouth. It plays towards a negative stereotype of McCain's age without coming out and accusing McCain of dementia. It calls into question his mental capacity as a leader. Maybe we ought to start following their lead if they are using that word association and start aiding creating a media narrative about McCain being confused. He's certainly provided us with enough material.

Chris Bowers over at Open Left has promoted a tactic to push up negative McCain stories in media search engines. He proposed optimizing search engines by linking McCain to 9 different news in internet postings. It's a way we can promote negative stories about John McCain that are from more main stream sources when someone does a search for his name. I pepper my posts with links to McCain's support of social security privatization. They've already successfully moved these stories up in rank when you Google McCain or John McCain.

[anonymous171]

8. Get an exact replica of the "Straight talk" bus, except label it the

"DOUBLE talk express." Obama's campaign should pay someone to drive around in it and to hand out flyers detailing McCain's many flip-flops.

[scheming daemons]

9. Just get out of the way.... it is derailing itself....