Posted by
Sanity 102 on Saturday, January 26, 2008 2:00:33 AM
In their heyday, Ingraham, Hewitt, Rush, Hannity used to tell their listeners that the old media was afraid.
New media (aka radio talk show and Fox) was challenging their supreme ability to manipulate public opinion.
Of course they didn't say "manipulate public opinion"...I think they called it "getting the truth out". But the fact was that each host had about 3 hours to push and maneuver "public opinion".
And let's be honest, we all fell for the "them" against "us" song.
Reagan went from a likeable old man to a god-like statesman--and everyone of the new media seemed to have worked for and knew the man personally.
"Amnesty" (except for the 1986 one that Reagan got conned into supporting) meant anything less than rounding up Mexicans and shipping them across the southern border.
They even changed the meaning of "conservative" to mean less conservative and more Libertarian, extreme, intolerant and farther to the Right than a Reagan that appealed to Democrats would have dared to go to.
For near 4 years, these people have worked tirelessly to carve their little niche of power among what they consider the REAL media. They have done it at the sacrifice of Bush and Congress...and now they appear ready and willing to sacrifice the only party serious about winning the WOT.
What they have forgotten is what they all told us during the Rathergate incident...
"Old media", they said with a gleeful rubbing of their hands, "doesn't realize that they no longer hold the power of distributing information...that thanks to the internet and bloggers in pajamas...people can find opposing view points and make up their own minds."
It sounded so free...so American...so intellectually inspiring.
Now, years later, the new media is seeing their mountain of influence fall by the wayside of bloggers pushing for an ex-preacher they never annointed and a man they hate with the kind of hate Liberals reserve for Bush and Chaney.
They are like the Dan Rathers who thought their word was golden...that no one would DARE question their elitist opinion...after all they were the "smart guys"...the ex lawyers who went to ivy league schools. And like Rather, they have their audience who will go on believing that there was truth in the lie that was told.
And some hot shot guy and gal, more in tune with middle America, will take their place. They will rise up and gain influence and come to believe their own press agent.
Until like Rather and Hewitt, they overstep.
Freedom of the Press, we have been told, is essential to keeping the government from tyranny. Perhaps time has added that bloggers are essential to keeping the media in check.