I think this post, written by Salon’s Peter Daou, captures the essence of a movement that is sweeping the liberal side of the blogosphere. In the past few weeks, liberal blogs have organized campaigns against Chris Matthews, Tim Russert and the the Washington Post (two former staffers for Democratic politicians and a left-of-center newspaper). These left-wingers are trying to do to the mainstream media what they have been trying to do to the Democratic Party: Push it left.
One of the leaders in the left-wing blogging community — Markos at the Daily Kos — has just written a book about the effort to make the Democratic Party more liberal — Crashing the Gate — which according to Democratic strategist Joe Trippi, “the Democratic establishment ignores… at its peril. For everyone who believes that the Party must reform itself and return power to the grassroots, this book is a must read.”
Trippi, you might recall, managed Howard Dean’s campaign for President. Liberal activists on the net loved Dean, and to them he was a signpost pointing in the right (or left) direction — unapologetically left-wing, uncompromising, yet unfortunately for them, unelectable. Nevertheless, his popularity with the online liberal activist crowd helped him become chairman of the Democratic National Committee after the 2004 election.
This same group of liberal bloggers wants to take the playbook they used to move Democrats left and apply it to the media. Conservatives might seem baffled, perhaps asking, “The media, composed overwhelmingly of Democrats, isn’t liberal enough for them?” Well, if the Democratic Party isn’t liberal enough, then the media with its small contingent of Republicans obviously needs a major leftward adjustment.
This is not a development conservatives should take lightly. Already the Post has proven much more responsive to these liberal critics than conservative ones. I can’t imagine, for instance, that if I had called the editor of WashingtonPost.com a “full-on, four-flushing idiot” I would have been invited to chat with him about anything, let alone given the amount of attention he’s devoted to placating the whining of Jane Hamsher. (Although anytime he wants to chat with me about the Post’s stunningly unethical reporting on the governor of Maryland, I’d be happy to explain the whole thing to his readership.)
If they can put a man like Howard Dean in charge of the Democratic Party, they might decide that defending Michael Moore from Chris Matthews is not enough and demand that Matthews be replaced by Michael Moore. Then again, would that actually be a bad thing for conservatives? I mean, look how well Dean worked out.