John Aravosis at AMERICAblog slams the NY Times Adam Nagourney for partisan editorializing in his supposed news report on the impact of the internet on politics: “Internet Injects Sweeping Changes Into U.S. Politics.” Throughout the piece Nagourney seems to reserve criticism for the Democrats and their use of blogs, but Aravosis is particularly annoyed by one glaring mischaracterization:
Bloggers, for all the benefits they might bring to both parties, have proved to be a complicating political influence for Democrats. They have tugged the party consistently to the left, particularly on issues like the war, and have been openly critical of such moderate Democrats as Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut.
Uh-huh. As Aravosis correctly points out, to characterize Sen. Lieberman as “moderate” is to imply that the rest of the Democratic senate caucus is substantially left of center. In fact, Lieberman is a conservative Democratic… by his voting record and public statements, the most conservative Democrat in the Senate. It is Lieberman, Aravosis says, who is out of step with the mainstream, not the bloggers who criticize him:
Tug the party to the left? You mean, the 60-some percent of the American people who agree with Democratic/progressive blogs that the war in Iraq is a disaster are now “lefties,” all 60-some percent of them? That is simply absurd.
But I think Nagourney has myopically missed a larger point. No doubt us liberal bloggers have created more heartburn for the Democratic establishment than our right-wing counterparts have for the Republicans… but that is because we’re more relevant. The conservative blogosphere mostly operates as a redundant organ of a well established right-wing media echo chamber, whereas the liberal blogosphere — the “netroots” — is making up for decades of Democratic neglect, by organically building an entirely new media infrastructure, virtually overnight.
Essentially… the right wing blogs are just another hammer in the GOP establishment’s toolbox, whereas the liberal blogs are not only providing a new and powerful media tool to the Democrats… we’re in the process of taking over the party.
The GOP has their corporate controlled media and their right-wing talk radio, so while the blogs are useful, they’re not essential to getting their message out. But us liberal bloggers are quickly becoming indispensable to the Democratic Party. And as we play a larger and larger role in communicating the message, we’ll also inevitably play a larger and larger role in shaping it. Our goal is to help the Democrats win… and then enact the policies we want.
How indispensable have the liberal blogs become? I’ll follow up in a later post, in which I’ll point out another fact that Nagourney missed: how quickly the liberally blogosphere has grown to eclipse the blogs on the right, both in terms of readership and impact… a trend that has not only played out nationally, but quite clearly in WA state as well.
Anybody who thinks that views on the war in Iraq can be categorized in a simple left-right scale is too stupid to be writing for a newspaper like the New York Times. The liberal blogosphere is not pulling to the right or left, it’s forcing overly complacent politicians (of both parties) to start dealing with the reality of our current situation. The unseating of Joe Lieberman in Connecticut is important. The fact that Joe Lieberman believes in Bush’s fairy tales on spreading democracy through the Middle East does not make him a moderate. It makes him unqualified for office. It has nothing to do with left or right. It has to do with reality and whether or not we’re going to have people in Washington DC who are equipped to deal with it.
Goldy let’s face it. The NYT is threatened by bloggers. People like you have done the job the supposed news media didn’t do. You’ve uncovered and reported on stories they are afraid of or want no part of. They fear you. And they should You will disintermediate them.
The blososphere compliments the TV news and newspapers to get the liberal message out to the people. It is yet another great vehicle to reinforce the lies spread by the MSM, NY Times, 60 minutes, Newsweek and other propaganda outlets for the Democratic Party.
RUFUS,
Are you kidding? Do you actually read the liberal blogs? They criticize the traditional media as much, if not more, than the blogs on the right. Every day, blogs on the left are criticizing the New York Times and the Washington Post for sloppy reporting. Every day, they criticize the cable news channels for giving us fluff instead of substance.
What freaking planet are you living on?
“….we’re in the process of taking over the party.”
Please revise and resubmit–ed.
Goldy,
I think the reference to Lieberman being a moderate Democrat is a matter of semantics. I think you are assuming that by the NYT saying Lieberman is a moderate Democrat he stands in the middle of the political spectrum that Democrats represent. However, that is not the definition that corporate media tends to use. Corporate media uses the entire political spectrum when assigning left, right, or moderate. So by saying Lieberman’s a ‘moderate Democrat’, it’s more like he’s a Democrat that is a moderate.
It’s also a matter of the corporate media being lazy. Any politician that votes with the opposite party is seen as a ‘moderate’. That’s how you can get someone as Conservative as John McCain called a ‘moderate Republican’ when his entire viewpoint is just barely to the left of the President’s.
Bobblehead,
A moderate is not necessarily a centrist. A moderate is the opposite of an extremist. In the context of the blogosphere, the “right” blogosphere has become the extremist (and more authoritarian) blogosphere, and the “left” blogosphere has become the moderate (and more libertarian) blogosphere. In essence, liberal has comes to mean moderate and conservative has come to mean extremist. None of these terms have anything to do with economics any more (as they used to).
Joe Lieberman is one of the most authoritarian, extremist politicians in America today. He’s always been this way, but until recently, those kind of views were compatible with what was generally considered the “left” in this country. Not any more. Many of those Democrats became Republicans after 9/11, while many other moderate (and libertarian) Republicans have slowly become Democrats.
MCCAIN BACK PEDALS ON FALWELL
John McCain, now embarked on a quixotic quest for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination, took another lurch to the right today when he backpedaled from his 2000 speech criticizing Jerry Falwell as an “agent of intolerance.”
McCain says he no longer considers Falwell an “agent of intolerance.” He added, “Christian conservatives have a major role to play in the Republican Party.” In addition, McCain has lined up a gig as commencement speaker at the Falwell-founded “Liberty University” in Virginia.
For complete story, which is copyrighted by somebody or other, see http://news.aol.com/topnews/ar.....0009990002
ROGER RABBIT POLL
John McCain is backing off his previous criticism of Jerry Falwell because:
[ ] 1. Falwell’s public remarks have grown more moderate
[ ] 2. McCain is shamelessly pandering to the religious right in hopes of getting the GOP nomination for president
[ ] 3. McCain is suffering sudden-onset dementia
[ ] 4. Both (2) and (3) above
3
“It is yet another great vehicle to reinforce the lies spread by the MSM, NY Times, 60 minutes, Newsweek and other propaganda outlets for the Democratic Party. Commentby RUFUS— 4/2/06@ 11:51 am”
DOOFUS lies every time he posts, but he’s never lying quite so much as when he says the MSM is lying.
REPUBLICANS = LIARS
4
“RUFUS, Are you kidding? Do you actually read the liberal blogs?
Commentby thehim— 4/2/06@ 11:55 am”
What makes you think he can read? Why do you think DOOFUS subscribes to the Talking Books version of HorsesAss?
6
Lieberman is no moderate. He’s barely this side of a winger.
A moderate is someone who:
Loves peace and hates war, but will fight like hell when necessary
Supports the Geneva Convention and opposes torture or mistreatment of enemy prisoners (based on morality and our own self-interest)
Protects constitutional rights and opposes government overreaching
Roger,
I’m not sure RUFUS is lying. I just don’t think he’s smart enough to know how stupid he is. There are a lot of people out there who really believe that the traditional media (from MSNBC to the New York Times to even local news outlets) are providing this “liberal” slant on everything. They will believe that these outlets are intentionally undermining the war effort (for vague nefarious reasons) and that they are in the interest of foreign elements that want to undermine American culture.
It’s idiocy, but it’s common throughout history. Read Mein Kampf if you don’t believe me. That’s exactly what that book was about.
A moderate is someone who:
Loves peace and hates war, but will fight like hell when necessary
Supports the Geneva Convention and opposes torture or mistreatment of enemy prisoners (based on morality and our own self-interest)
Protects constitutional rights and opposes government overreaching
Actually, that’s also a good description of a libertarian, although some libertarians have economic views that are hard to consider moderate.
NY/LA Times, WASH Post, and most commie lib anti Bush papers are worthless rags with DECLINING subscription rates. Thank God for FOX [growing] and Rushbo!!!!!!
13
I believe you! Wingnuts think MSM is controlled by foreigners and immigrants are taking over, but see nothing wrong with selling our ports to an Arab government. As Forrest Gump said, “Stupid is, as stupid does.”
They think anything Republicans do is anointed by God, and everything else is a foreign conspiracy.
JCH @15
Speaking of worthless rags, I see the toilet paper escaped from the bathroom again.
“This time, claiming she doesn’t even live here — as GOP pundit Ann Coulter has been doing on this spring’s college speaking tour when she’s questioned about her February election meltdown on Palm Beach — isn’t going to cut it.
Palm Beach County’s elections supervisor has given the right wing’s unofficial mouthpiece 30 days to explain why she voted in the wrong precinct.
In a registered letter scheduled to be sent to her this week, Coulter is asked to “clarify certain information as to her legal residence,” elections boss Arthur Anderson said
“We want to give her a chance,” Anderson said. “She needs to tell us where she really lives.”
Or else? He could refer the case to State Attorney Barry Krischer for criminal charges, Anderson said.”
thehim,
You aren’t using the corporate media definition of “moderate”. Corporate media has basically three definitions for politics:
Liberal – A Democrat that votes along with the party leadership a vast majority of the time.
Conservative – A Republican that votes with the party leadership a vast majority of the time.
Moderate – A Democrat or Republican that periodically votes against the wishes of their party’s leadership.
I’m not saying their definition is correct or that I even agree with it. Just saying that tends to be the definition they give.
18, RR….The NY/LA Times [liberal rags] are laying off employees. [How can this be??] WALMART is hiring. Liberal rag garbage isn’t selling. WALMART is expanding. This must reallt piss you off!!!! [hehe]
RR, 21, cont…..Maybe all the black Democrats and illegals will buy the NY/LA Times. They won’t because all get their news from the BET channel.
Horse Trailer Carrying Dozens Of Illegal Immigrants Crashes
March 30, 2006, 04:06 PM Horse Trailer Carrying Dozens Of Illegal Immigrants Crashes
Customers and workers at shops along Ajo near Mission thought animals might have been hurt.
It was natural for them to feel this way. After all, it was a 12′ X 8′ horse trailer they saw crash into a light pole, one designed to transport two horses at a time.
Suddenly, they saw heads popping out of the trailer, and they weren’t horses heads.
“They started running out of the trailer,” said Brenda Collins, who was working at a dog grooming shop. “They wanted to come in. We held the door and locked the doors, and they were just running everywhere.”
Agents from US Customs and Border Protection say there were a total of 42 illegal immigrants inside the trailer. Witnesses say there may have been as many as 60.
[More Democrat voters on the way!!!! Third World Democrat Shit Hile, Here we come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]
Crips/Bloods/BET………Lots of new fun black Democrats at play!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
JCH- since republicans control the federal government ( and supposedly the border)why do the let “more Democratic voters” in? Is it because Walmart needs more workers to underpay? Why won’t they consider immigration control legislation which penalizes employers?
Bobblehead @ 6
Nice comment but I don’t think you should spin the NYT article into something they did not say. Here is how English works. When Nagourney uses the phrase “of such moderate Democrats as”, he is using the word “moderate” as an adjective. This means that moderate modifies Democrats and not the other way around as you suggested in your comment.
19
Doesn’t Florida execute people for voting fraud? Or at least put them in concentration camps? Or elect them to Congress, which is the same thing? (Think: Katherine Harris)
Bloggers won’t ever take over the Democratic Party unless they become coopted in the process. That means folks like Goldy are ultimately going to have to decide whether they want to be cigar-smoking insiders or outside agitators. I hope Goldy decides on the latter course of action — it’s much more fun, and almost as economically viable (if you do it right).
The dirty little secret about becoming a Democratic insider is that what goes up can come down really fast. Iconoclasts like Goldy are particularly susceptible to being shot down (because they piss off powerful people who eventually get even). Why set yourself up for a fall when you heart really isn’t into it anyway?
Bobblehead @ 20,
I understand what you’re saying, and I don’t think anything you’ve said is wrong. But in our traditional media, a moderate and a centrist are essentially the same and Democrats and Republicans are representations of the liberal and conservative viewpoints, respectively. Very little of that is true today. The Republican Party today has absolutely nothing to with real conservative philosophy, and very few real conservatives are happy with President Bush.
The reason I care is because a large number of people in these comment threads like to accept the false storylines accepted by the media while using those story lines to justify their own paranoia. Once you accept silly things like “President Bush is tough on terrorism because he’s conservative,” then you perceive things in a different way. The media has been pushing that false storyline because it was easy to understand and it gave them access. Now, because it’s being so blatantly proven false, the media is stuck having to present a reality that proves that they’ve been full of it for years.
Green Thumb,
That’s a really interesting point, and it’s something that a lot of current bloggers are going to have to wrestle with in the years to come. As the people they work with and support (or they themselves) become part of the system, do they become shills or can they remain critical?
K, 20 million Mexicans will do for California [soon to be Baja Norte] what 30 million blacks did to Rhodesia [now Zimbabwe]. Remember how you libs hated Rhodesia!!! Nowthe shit hole of black ruled Robert Mugabe. White private sector Californians need to take their net worth and just leave.
25…..K, In Chicago, [outside the city limits] WALMART had 22,000 apply for 400 new jobs. Mostly blacks looking for a real job in the private sector. And you shit on WALMART. SAD!
JCH- I ask you again, why don’t the republicans do something about immigration if it’s such a problem? Why don’t they favor employer sanctions?
As for Walmart, let them match Costco’s benefits. Let them do as Sam Walton did and buy American.
Immigration is tearing the rethugs apart. I for one am laughing my ass off at this. Faux News doesn’t know what to do. They normally try to blame everything from the weather to the common cold on the Dems but in this case, most if not all the noise is aimed AT republicans BY republicans. What’s a right wing, biased spin machine like Fox News to do? HE HE!
K, Why should WALMART “match” other’s benefits? Because YOU say so? Why not match GM’s benefits, and go out of business? If you don’t like WALMART, just don’t shop there. See…..It’s that simple. In Hilo, HI, we NEED WALMART. They are great neighbors.
JCH, I hope you get your Walmart in Hilo. But be careful, don’t get caught like GWB’s good buddy! Figure out a better scam to steal and shoplift than most of your neozombie ilk use.
Walmart only needs to offer benefits competitive to Costco if they want my business. I have a choice and my money does to an employer who treats their workers fairly.
K, Based on their buying decisions, millions of American disagree with you. Too fucking bad. 36……We HAVE a WALMART in Hilo. It’s packed EVERY day, and saves consumers thousands each year. Many NEED to save those dollars. And K, fuck you. Go shop at a union store.
WALMART: growing. LA/NY Times: laying off hundreds of liberal Democrats. [hehe]
JCH- up to your usual intellegent dialog standards. At least you missed your usual “Tookie” references. I now have better things to do and you no longer amuse me.
Enough for tonight.
You know that you are shopping at a union store if you find an empty beer bottle in the package of steak. Hehehehehe
Damn RUFUS, So that was that dinner your wife served me last Saturday night. Barbecued Beer Bottle……..
Green Thumb @28,
Perhaps… but not necessarily. I’m not talking about populating the Democratic Party leadership and staff with bloggers (though a few wouldn’t hurt,) I’m talking about the blogs becoming an integral part of the media infrastructure through which the party gets out its message, organizes volunteers, and raises money. This will give us a degree of control over the message, independent of the party itself, enabling us to help shape the party’s agenda.
I honestly believe that if ordinary working-class people were given blogs and some guidance on how to use them in order to voice the multiplicity of debate among the people it would be a tremendous benefit for society. Though few of the people who engage the web use blogs on a regular basis, we have the potential to change politics for the good, forever. The great thing about this is you can’t fake it. You know when the amount of good original content is found overwhelmingly to the left of the Mainstream Media consensus that bloggers are moving politics away from insanity and towards more objective truth. If only more folks engage this medium and use it for the benefit of society.
And Feingold’s censure resolution won’t sign itself! Sign up, you punk Senators!
If the Dems we elect in ’06 become corporate bubbleheads, those heads need to roll. This whole thing is about corporations with too much money and too little brain.
45
There’s nothing wrong with corporations. The problem lies with how society defines the corporation’s role in society.
A corporation’s job is to run a business, deliver products and/or services to customers, and make money for shareholders. Period. Corporations are not public-interest or non-profit organizations, nor beneficial charities. A corporation has a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of its shareholders.
The problem is, corporate money and power have taken over politics to the exclusion of individual citizens. How to fix this? Prohibiting or regulating corporate lobbying is problematical because it implies free speech constraints, and also, excluding input from the business community into the political process might result in policies that hurt the economy and cost jobs. Although business considerations obviously shouldn’t be the only considerations that enter into public policy formulation, the economic impacts of proposed legislation shouldn’t be overlooked, either.
The best way to rid the political system of the undue influence of corporate money is to finance ALL political campaigns with public money, perhaps allowing candidates to supplement this with whatever they can raise in SMALL DONATIONS from private citizens. I would allow unions, corporations, and other interest groups to promote their causes with advertising that clearly identifies the advertiser and source of funding.
K, Thanks for reminding me. A little anal Democrat “Tookie Williams” love from some of the gay posters on Horsesass.org may help you get the AIDS virus and/or HIV positive. This will be important when you visit San Francisco or some of the black African nations. You will feel “at one” with the local Democrats.
re 47: I’m sure Dubya’s new chief of staff is more interested in man 0n man prison sex than even you are.
Tell me [JCH], are you more afraid of illegal Mexicans taking away your job or the machinations of ” international financiers” outsourcing your job?
Goldy,
A few more reasons why the liberal blogosphere causes so much heartburn for the Democrats than the conservative blogs cause for Republicans:
1. The Democrats have become very concerned with moderating their image. The Republicans, not so much. They are a conservative party, run by their most conservative members, and are pretty much right there with their bloggers. So many of the Democrats are afraid to be associated with liberalism and feel they would be best off led by the Liebermans of their party.
2. Novelty. The Republicans have had talk radio for some time now and have become perfectly comfortable with its role in spreading their message to their partisans and driving the dialogue to the right. Conservative blogs are very similar, so if you’ve already decided that Rush Limbaugh is helpful to your cause and you don’t need to disassociate with him and denounce him every chance you get to be an acceptable Republican, you probably don’t have to fear Glenn Reynolds either. By contrast, liberal blogs (and liberal talk radio) are very new things for the Democrats, so they’re afraid of them.
Aravosis obviously had some kind of Freudian slip thing going on — what he obviously meant to say was “such moderate Republicans as…”
There’s only one glaring flaw in your reasoning, Goldy:
Because, you know, that works so well for labor and women’s rights groups these days…