NPR: Political Left Launches Its Own Attack

[133724]

Remember when she accused a "vast, right-wing conspiracy" of attacking her husband during the Monica Lewinsky scandal?

Years later, she was still talking about it.

At a meeting of liberal activists in 2004, Sen. Clinton described the power of the right. "It didn't happen by accident," Clinton said. "It happened because people with a very particular point of view — they didn't like labor unions, they didn't like civil rights, they didn't like women's rights — they came together, literally, starting 50 years ago. They created think tanks. They invested in endowed professorships. They set up other media outlets. And so, they very slowly, but surely, tried to change American politics. And you've got to give them credit. They've done a good job."

At around the same time, Clinton was making that speech a Democratic activist named Simon Rosenberg was traveling around the country showing wealthy liberal donors a PowerPoint presentation called " The Conservative Message Machines Money Matrix" — a schematic look at how the conservative movement functioned from the Heritage Foundation to the National Rifle Association.

...

Conservatives still dominate talk radio — Rush Limbaugh reaches 15 million people a week. But progressives appear to have an edge on the Internet, maybe because Democrats are more comfortable with the anarchic quality of the Web than Republicans.

The Web sites of Democratic candidates and causes get hundreds of thousands more visitors than their conservative counterparts.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11181167&ft=1&f=1012

[gatorboy]

1. What does 133724 mean?

[Gabi Hayes]

2. ''Attack?'' what attack? what does that title mean? WHERE in the

body of that article, by Mara Liasson, btw, does even the concept of 'attack' appear?

perhaps 'response' might be a better choice of words, especially considering the content of the article, which mentions how the right wing has controlled the political dialogue throughout the last thirty years, by dint of deep pocket sponsorhip of spurious RW 'think tanks' and talk radio, as well as flooding the TV market with wingnut ideologues, posing as unbiased commentators (my reading of her underlying words, but you get the idea)

Attack?

[JHB]

3. "unified, well-funded and determined"

Well, they were accurate on one count. The other two, we're working on.

[old guy]

4. Progress has been made no doubt,

but it still does not outweigh the propaganda of the major networks and papers. They are the main conduit and unless they start changing and present the facts instead of right wing spin it will be almost impossible for many to see or read the truth. As an aside; Is the 15 million listeners a total for the week or a figure for each day for Rush? If it is a weekly total it is not that impressive. The same 3 million for 5 days really doesn't impress. Just wondering.

[KneelBeforeZod]

6. Rush's ratings ...

My understanding of Rush's ratings are this ...

- 15-18 million distinct listeners (i.e. not including repeat listeners) in any one week.
- 10-12 million distinct listeners during a three hour show (not the whole show ... 12 million total for any part of the show).
- 3-5 million listeners at any one particular time.

That means he could reach as much as 8-10% of the population in any one week. In the 2004 presidential election ... just over 120 Million people voted. Assuming all of his listeners vote (which is probably a reasonable assumption) 18 Million listeners a week would constitute 15% of the voting population.

I wouldn't underestimate his influence.

Z

[old guy]

7. Thanks.

Aren't most of his listeners Kool Aid drinkers anyway? They are past saving at this point IMO.

[Bitwit1234]

5. The Democrats need an organization

peopled with people who do not want and will not run for political office. They can then get down to it. They can provide the public with all the crookedness, corruption and methods and actions of the republican politicans. They can tell the public how lobbyist and corporations are tearing our country apart.

We do not have anybody, anybody at all willing to take on the republicans. THAT IS WHAT WE NEED. We should have our own cable and TV network news shows. Were we tell the truth to the public. I don't mean lie and spin like the republicans do. Tell the truth. If a democrat does something wrong tell it. And always give the democrats side of stuff, something that is not done on TV and in the press today.

WE NEED A LEADER WHO IS NOT AFRAID OF THE REPUBLICANS ...A GROUP WHO ARE NOT AFRAID TO SPEAK OUT....AND WE NEED THEM NOW. Don't you all agree.

[KoKo]

8. From the article: "Harry Reid consults with them regularly"

Which Liberal Blogs does Reid consult with? :eyes:


In addition to raising a substantial amount of money, liberal loggers have become a powerful constituency inside the Democratic Party. Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) consults with them regularly just as he would with leaders of labor unions or civil rights groups.

[Gabi Hayes]

10. these....the really really BAD ones

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1139652

[KoKo]

11. lol's...thanks for the post... !

[AX10]

9. We need more funds and more unity.

Our machine is not as strong as the right wing machine, though it is now competitive. We need to get our voices on more radio stations and need to get LINK TV into more homes.