Hillary Shows Why Democrats Can’t Win Going Negative In Big Media

[Median Democrat]

There has been a lot of talk about whether Obama should go negative and attack McCain. Of course, Obama has attacked McCain, but the real issue is whether Obama should try to go Karl Rove on McCain, and aggressively focus on defining McCain in a negative way. Well, the problem with this suggestion is that Big Media covers Democrats differently from Republicans, because Big Media is biased. Democrats are treated differently.

Remember when Obama was leading in the delegate count? Fox News started giving Hillary more positive coverage, and prominently showing Hillary surrogates like Geraldine Ferraro. Hillary started going negative against Obama using some of the same attacks that are now being used by the McCain campaign. And, it worked!

Support for Obama eroded as Hillary attacked his experience and whether white voters would vote for him, and accused him of sexism. Negative attacks work. However, what happened to Hillary? Big Media ALSO breathlessly reported the theme of how Hillary’s likability was plunging, and how people were starting trust her less and less. Thus, Big Media achieved a 2 for 1. Obama was being weakened, the race was getting closer, and Hillary was also getting weakened at the same time. It was a Big Media Double Play against BOTH Obama and Hillary.

Now, fast forward to the general election. Although Big Media has noted the obvious fact that McCain has gone negative, McCain has largely escaped the type of breathless coverage of polls regarding his likability and trustworthiness that was given to Hillary. Why? Because Big Media treats Democrats and Republicans differently.

If Obama goes negative, Big Media will not replay Obama’s commercials and attacks for free the way they did for McCain. We have already seen this with respect to Obama’s attack ads, which are largely ignored by Fox News. Worse, like Hillary, the focus of Big Media will be on how people view and trust Obama if he goes negative. Thus, even worse than the Obama and Hillary primary, where the media DID play Hillary’s attacks, Big Media will ignore Obama’s attacks on McCain, and instead focus on the fact that Obama has gone negative.

So, sorry, but Big Media is not fair. What works for the GOP will not work for the Democrats, because Big Media is run by five large corporations that are partial to the GOP. This is why the Democrats really need to explore and exploit alternative means for reaching voters in addition to Big Media such as grass organization, alternative media like Youtube, and each Democrat individually outreaching to and educating voters on a one to one basis.

[FreakinDJ]

1. Its not the ads its the media

The "Media" covers the ads and solidifies it in the minds of voters, and we all know who's ads they are covering.

That is why we should use some of the same sleazy 527 deception tactics they use

[Median Democrat]

2. However, Look At Swift Boats - Its Not The 527s - Its Big Media Again

Swift Boat Veterans only bought a small ad buy. Where Kerry got killed was networks like ABC and Fox News playing these ads for free hundreds and hundreds of times, thus forcing other networks to also cover the ads. So, the false assumption is that the major networks would give free airplay to a pro-Obama 527. They have not, and they won't. There are pro-Obama ads being developed by 527s, but they simply do not get the airplay of the Swift Boat veterans.

Democrats and Republicans are treated far differently by Big Media.

[PatSeg]

3. Thank you

All things are NOT equal and anytime the Democrats try to imitate the republicans they'll get torn to pieces by the media.

[Median Democrat]

4. The Challenge For Democrats Is Coming Up With Alternatives to Big Media

Big Media creates a basic structural impediment to Democrats. All media is funneled through five large corporations:

1. Disney (ABC);
2. General Electric (NBC);
3. Times Warner (CNN);
4. News Corp. (Fox); and
5. CBS corp. (CBS).

These five corporations oppose Democratic efforts to protect an indcependent media, and prevent further growth and consolidation. Why is this important? Because these rules prevent the US from becoming like Italy, which is run by media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi, who is the third richest person in Italy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvio_Berlusconi

Italy represents America's future where the line between media and government is erased, and the media moguls are also the leaders of government.

The point of this is that Big Media is not a passive participant. They are an active participant in government, though they tend to be discrete than Silvio. Neither Hillary nor any Democrat can run a Karl Rove campaign, because such a campaign requires the active cooperation of Big Media.

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