Reply #4: It's all in the message

[jcab]

I was listening to Thomas Frank on DemocracyNow on thursday (http://www.democracynow.org/2011/4/14/roundtable_assessing_obamas_budget_plan_state) who reinforced this point by outlining how the right can mobilize support and fashion a collective narrative. Coming from the business world their organisers are well versed in how to draw in views, adopt a policy position and then stick to it, something the left are too fragmented and unfortunately to unskilled to achieve.

A solution to this may be to have a source that people can rally around, in the same way as Fox is for the right, which doesn't seem to be emerging unless someone can inform me of one ?
An obstacle to this appears to be the emergence of too many such sources that don't achieve critical mass and aren't able to exert a gravitational pull by becoming a defacto source of the message.
A halfway-house may be aggregator sites like The Huffington Post or NewsTrust, drawing in views, offering some solutions and fashioning a level of consensus.
The shortfall is that the lack of over-riding policy prescriptions, leaving users to make up their own mind. This is by no means a bad thing, but it does mean each user can't appreciate the unity behind policy prescriptions and respond adequately to calls to engage.
A danger from this of course is centralised control of the message, running counter to the use of the internet. Can you trust the ones fashioning the message to not be making concessions and not have not been compromised.

This leaves me with the feeling that a site like DemocracyNow is a great way of collating news stories under editorial control, but that fashioning the stream of policies and coordinating civic action requires a site that dilutes the holy grail of impartiality by aligning with political leaders such as the progressive caucus, becoming in essence a mouth-piece for a collective viewpoint.

Either that, or level the playing field by legislating against alignments like the Fox/Republican marriage. However, we all know this is a non-starter that the nexis of politicians, fund-raisers and lobbyists are well structured to resist.