New Progress for Progressive Media

By Don Hazen, AlterNet. Posted April 18, 2006.

When the Washington Post recently announced the hiring of right-wing Republican operative Ben Domenech to blog on the Post website, it was literally a matter of hours before an avalanche of negative information regarding Domenech's bigotry and plagiarism was uncovered and widely distributed by a team of progressive bloggers. Domenech, ostensibly brought in to provide "balance" to watch-dog columnist Dan Froomkin, quickly resigned. Chalk up another progressive blogger victory in the rough-and-tumble world of media politics.

When Air America Radio launched, skeptics predicted that the progressive talk network would remain isolated in big cities in blue states, and be crushed by the long established right-wing talk. A relatively short time later, Air America is operating in more than 75 cities, covering 60 percent of the country and often scoring ratings victories over the right-wing shows. The experience so far demonstrates that, with sufficient funding, there is clearly a market for progressive talk.

There was little expectation that any progressive media strategy could put a dent in the seemingly invincible image of global behemoth Wal-Mart. Yet the release, effective publicity and innovative distribution of Robert Greenwald's documentary Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, along with the close cooperation of activist groups, put the corporate giant on the defensive as never before. A series of Wal-Mart PR fiascoes quickly ensued, along with a scramble to try to fix policies and a dropping stock price.

There are many more such examples that showcase the newfound muscle in progressive media in the Bush era. The dynamics have changed. A fresh breed of smart, relentless media operatives, using the internet in creative ways, have put new pop into progressive media.

But alas, that is not the full story. As Rick Gell points out in his accompanying article, while progressives have certainly made progress, it does not yet equal success. There is a giant hole in the TV world, where progressives are virtually invisible and donors seem unable or unwilling to do battle in the commercial world of advertising and investments. Much of progressive media remains "alternative" media, speaking mostly to its secure audience while some of its political clout is hindered by the legal limits of most organizations' nonprofit status.

So there is much to be encouraged by, and much to contemplate. But no matter how the challenge of progressive media gets weighed or examined, a serious investment of capital and chutzpah is necessary if progressive media is going to provide the counter balance to the right-wing media machine that will be revved up for fall elections in 2008 and beyond.

Post-Kerry handwringing

After John Kerry's shattering defeat in the 2004 election, organizers, political leaders, pundits and funders all agreed that without a significant boost in progressive media capacity to provide a counter to the highly partisan right-wing media, the chances for liberal and progressive issues to gain traction and for Democrats to return to power, were questionable.

When compared to the radical conservatives and religious fundamentalists, the progressive media sector lacked clout. Post-election, the right enjoyed a huge talk radio advantage and ownership of dozens of right-wing oriented local television stations. Fox News dominated cable news, while large-circulation dailies like the New York Post, the Scaife papers and the persistence of the Rev. Moon-funded Washington Times provided a powerful megaphone for right-wing ideas. Meanwhile, religious broadcasters rapidly penetrated into numerous cable networks, perhaps surpassing mainstream corporate media as the most potent threat to a democratic media.

In addition, conservatives in 2004 appeared to have a better understanding than Democrats and the Kerry campaign of how the media environment has been transformed by the internet. Republicans and the right wing recognized that it no longer made sense to plow tens of millions of dollars of resources primarily into television commercials and New York Times ads while ignoring the rest of the media ecology, especially at the grassroots level.

No example of the right's "new media" savvy was more telling than the Swift Boat Veterans' attack on John Kerry. The right wing played the internet card brilliantly, effectively smearing Kerry and putting the Democratic candidate -- a war hero running against a phantom soldier -- on the defensive. Meanwhile, rather than counterbalance the attacks with the facts, the corporate media basically helped publicize the Swift Boaters' scurrilous campaign.

Seventeen months later, as the '06 campaign is heating up, it's a good time for an updated assessment. How much change has there been in the progressive media apparatus? Are progressives making real progress in the battle of language, ideas and audience-building? With this president's current dismal popularity scores, can progressive media seize the ripe opportunity for political change, and create more space for populist issues and Democratic candidates?

Don Hazen is the executive editor of AlterNet.

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