Friday, January 4, 2013

Laying The Groundwork

Glenn Reynolds had a recent column in the NY Post where he suggested that GOP backers could spend their political dollars more wisely by investing in women's magazines and websites.

For $150 million, you could buy or start a lot of women’s Web sites. And I’d hardly change a thing in the formula. The nine articles on sex, shopping and exercise could stay the same. The 10th would just be the reverse of what’s there now.

For the pro-Republican stuff, well, just visit the “Real Mitt Romney” page at snopes.com, or look up the time Mitt Romney rescued a 14-year-old kidnap victim, to see the kind of feel-good stories that could have been running. For the others, well, it would run articles on whether Bill Clinton should get a pass on his affairs, whether it’s right that the Obama White House pays women less than men, and reports on how the tax system punishes women.

This stuff writes itself, probably more easily than the Spin Sisters’ pabulum. And opening up a major beachhead in this section of the media is probably a lot cheaper than challenging major newspapers and TV networks head on.

The only losers will be the political consultants who ate up so much of the GOP’s cash this time around.

Are rich Republican donors smart enough to do something like this? Well, we’ll find out.


One of the frustrations that keep me from absorbing too much of the main stream media is precisely the sort of unbalanced reporting that Glenn suggests is going on.  Society and cultural stories that highlight the "cool" factor of everyone on the left.  Stories that suggest that everyone on the right is an old, white guy with no sense of humour.

NPR became unlistenable in the months leading up to last fall's election.  The one bright note is that NPR is survivable now that the election is over and there isn't a need to sell their left leaning audience on a left leaning Presidency.  Auditory comfort food for the left is apparently now a lower priority.

As Glenn suggests, engaging low information voters in the media format that they currently enjoy should become a priority if we are ever to recover our Constitutionally limited government.

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