We all know how the media spins and spins immediately after debates, right? That is to say, by the time the debates end, the person we thought was the winner becomes the loser instead. As it was, remember how we would scratch our collective asses and try to figure out what had just happened?
Well, there is something that we can do about that....something like what was done in reference to Ms. Palin prior to her big debut interview: We must get our questions that we want asked out there in the world of media. We must be assertive in our demands that we, the people, have a say on the questions, and even the spin that comes following it. We have to communicate, for the world to hear, those questions that we are interested in hearing about. Get them out into the forefront, premeditatedly, long before the debates take place.
How is that done?
The first debate is on Foreign Policy, far as I know.
We get the email addresses to the debate moderator and we start writing the questions we want asked the most.
Jim Lehrer- jlehrer@newshour.org , executive editor and anchor of PBS’s “The NewsHour,” will moderate the first presidential debate on Sept. 26, at the University of Mississippi, Oxford, Miss. We want questions on the Iraq war, the faulty intelligence, and what was said prior to the war starting, and what ended up occurring. That is one that will favor our guy, for sure. We also want to make certain that questions about the surge will be asked in context of what other elements besides it brought Iraq to a relatively better place than where it was at the time.
We want to get these questions out to:
Josh Marshall talk@talkingpointsmemo.com
Andrew Sullivan andrew@theatlantic.com
Mark Ambinder marcambinder@theatlantic.com
Keith Olberman countdown@msnbc.com
Rachel Maddow rachel@msnbc.com
Eugene Robinson robinsong@washpost.com
Frank Rich frankrich@nytimes.com
E.J. Dionne Ignatiusd@washpost.com
Ed Schultz ed@edschultzshow.com
Randi Rhodes randi@novamradio.com
Stephanie Miller stephanie@stephaniemiller.com
Thom Hartmann thom@thomhartmann.com
Mike Malloy mike@mikemalloy.com
Steve Clemons steve@thewashingtonnote.com
Bbb Herbert bobherb@nytimes.com
Joe Klein http://www.time.com/time/letters/email_letter.html
Howard Fineman webeditors@newsweek.com
David Remnick (the New Yorker) david_remnick@newyorker.com
The New York Times Editors letters@nytimes.com
The Washington Post www.washingtonpost.com
and whomever else can push our pre-debate points,
some which you can locate using these handy tools:
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/dbq/media/
or http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/flowerchild/gGBqLt
or http://www.democrats.org/page/speakout/letterstoeditors
We want them to start discussing the issues that we are interested in seeing come up in the debate. We want to be the ones to set expectations. What we don't want is for the Debate questions to be a complete surprise to us.
We can also include communications to "Not friends of ours" supporters who will be weighting in immediately after the debates.
Folks like
Tom BrokeJaw http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6872152/
Chris Matthews hardball@msnbc.com
Mark Halperin (no direct, but address him and use letters@time.com)
Chuck Todd chuck.todd@nbcuni.com
Everyone at CNN is listed individually on this page: http://www.cnn.com/feedback/cnntv/ So, to stay one step ahead of those who don't give a shit about us or America, we need to loudly and publicly start no later than NOW, calling into talk shows, writing LTTEs, and writing a deluge of emails in order to generate the interests in what we find to be important.....and really, really concentrate on getting our questions into the public arena. The media pundits must know what we are expecting, and they need to especially know that we are tired of debates in where pundits are allowed to transform whatever moment they see fit as the "gaffe" moment, etc.....
Then of course, throughout the debate, we must fire off letters to the networks and cable "News" channels, all the way till past spin zone time.
Sure, the debates will be a lot of "fun" to watch while commenting here at DU, but we really have to be much more organized and much more effective than that. We can make a difference, if we hold important that doing this work will help us regain control over our own destiny. We have got to engage to make "them", the media, understand clearly that they are not in charge of our history, and they will not be the ones to determine the winner based on their made-up shitty criteria.
We need all DUers as well as other bloggers to participate in this project. The point is to prep the debates so that there is as much pressure put on those who normally "we must obey", as there is on our candidates (Obama/Biden). We must do all that we can to put them on notice; because they must know that NO, we are not having any of it.....NOT THIS TIME!
(Reprinted from my 9/14 post with more details
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x7070901 )
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