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We cannot beat Republicans by relying on the broadcast media or the so called mainstream press- and this holds true for many state and local races as well. The media in this country is so overwhelmingly beholden to the right wing that it's going to take a grassroots effort, just as you describe, to win the presidency and take back the House. We can do this- as the Dean & Clark campaigns are both showing, through organizing, doing voter registration and, I would add, by actively taking on the media whores.
This latter point will actually be easier than one might think- television, radio and the major print media have gone from bad to worse over the last 8 years to 10 years and most people (even people who get much of their news from those sources) have begun to question their veracity on major stories. I see this at work, in grad school and even at grocery stores and on the train. They have concealed, manipulated, distorted and lied to us so often about the economy, the war and other issues that their credibility is pretty well shot.
Moreover, people don't much like so called journalists anymore. I rarely ever heard positive comments on the news media and in the last survey I saw, journalists had even lower favorability ratings than lawyers! I suspect that many of them are coming to realize the jig is about up- witness Russert's comment on bloggers or the recent complaint that Dean doesn't ask journalists any questions about themselves.... Of course, that doesn't mean we can afford to be complacent or let them get away with defining progressive issues or our candidates- as Trippi demonstrated on Saturday. It's just that we're going win the old fashioned way with the aid of new technology- in spite of the ever present right wing propaganda.
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