Friday, August 26, 2005

Ezra Klein: More on Media Bias

Ezra Klein: More on Media Bias: "The real problem isn't the long-time hackery of the press corps, but the fact that we've lost three elections in a row now, never put the time into building a progressive media movement, and have let Republicans kill Labor. We've got no base to strike back from.



"We have to make one. That's what this is all about. All the blogging, the Air America's, the Phoenix Project, the magazines, the conference calls, the Center for American Progress, all of it. It's about getting to a place where we don't have to wish the press would do more, because we can take what they do and make it into more. But that's our job, as activists and partisans. We know the press sucks. They've been doing that for years now. That's what my whole last post was about; hell, that's what this whole blogging thing's about. But they're not sucking particularly bad right now. They're just being their general, bumbling selves. We have to stop wishing they'd rise up, shake off their shackles, and do our jobs for us. Because, in the end, there's no substitute for winning. Not even a strong press corps."



Ezra is the best young (very young) commentators out there.



And, this is critical to understand. Wishing for the Perfect Storm is often wishing that the Press would do "our job" for us. A political storm involves people mounting the barricades, so to speak, and few of those people will be journalists. (Though some may, in fact, be journalists or have some kind of Media platform. Shouting "J'Accuse!" from your backyard is not going to cut it.)

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