{"id":6363,"date":"2006-01-17T15:13:46","date_gmt":"2006-01-17T20:13:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=6363"},"modified":"2006-01-17T15:13:46","modified_gmt":"2006-01-17T20:13:46","slug":"a-voice-without-a-forum-doesnt-mean-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/a-voice-without-a-forum-doesnt-mean-much\/","title":{"rendered":"A voice without a forum doesn’t mean much"},"content":{"rendered":"

Responding to the limited media interest in Al Gore’s remarks yesterday, Atrios raised a point<\/a> yesterday that got me thinking.<\/p>\n

I’m not going to claim that CNN was obligated to carry a speech by a former vice president currently not directly involved in politics. But I do think responsible news organizations should ask themselves if there’s actually any way that a prominent Democrat could get a full speech aired live on their networks, especially given the fact that they’ve run Bush’s stock speech in full about 700 times.<\/p>\n

I remember when CNN used to run Newt Gingrich’s morning press conferences every day. That didn’t seem too unreasonable to me, actually, fair-minded person that I am. And, yes, Gingrich was in the majority at the time. But is there no way for the minority to ever have a few moments to get their message out?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s a good question and points to one of the principal problems with the Dems’ message machine.<\/p>\n

Most political observers, particularly on the left, have lamented Democrats’ problems with crafting and disseminating a consistent message that appeals to voters. To be sure, some of the difficulties are internal — the party has been slow to appreciate the significance of message discipline, coordination, timing, etc.<\/p>\n

But regardless of how justified that criticism is, part of the problem is a simple inability to share a message with a broad audience. Any gathering of Dems will inevitably reach a point in which a frustrated activist says, “Why aren’t we out there saying (pick message) about (pick issue)?” In fact, Dems are often doing just that, but frequently no one hears them.<\/p>\n

To be fair, I’ll concede that reporters tend to follow Howard Dean around. However, it’s not because they’re anxious to hear the DNC’s perspective; it’s because they expect him to say something controversial that will ultimately make for an interesting story. In terms of offering Dems an outlet, this doesn’t really count — when Dean gives a straightforward speech, it’s dog-bites-man and reporters tend not to care.<\/p>\n

Another obvious facet to the problem is that Dems don’t control any branch of government. Dems have trouble getting their message out because they’re not in the majority; and they’re not in the majority because they have trouble getting their message out.<\/p>\n

Which is why Atrios’ question rings true. The Dems have institutional problems that can be fixed, but overcoming media disinterest is a challenge for which there is no easy answer. Does anyone have any ideas?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Responding to the limited media interest in Al Gore’s remarks yesterday, Atrios raised a point yesterday that got me thinking. I’m not going to claim that CNN was obligated to carry a speech by a former vice president currently not directly involved in politics. But I do think responsible news organizations should ask themselves if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6363\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}