The sheer genius of Obama's web page just hit me tonight.

[dixiegrrrrl]

I check it every other day or so.

Tonight it hit me how damn smart it was of the Obama team to put up
"The Office of the President Elect" website. ( change.gov).

He can send out and control all his news.
Every staff hire, every decision, movement, meeting and now weekly press radio/video is there for all to see, from ONE source-Obama's.

He becomes "legitimized" as the President Elect by keeping his voice and promises heard.
He also continues his campaign of ideas, contrasts his behavior and promises to the
ongoing but not soon enough outgoing lame duck Admin.
He is cutting them off at the knees and they are helping by being increasingly invisible.

In short, between now and the Inauguration, Obama is presenting himself to the public as the Presidential voice, letting people get used to hearing and seeing him in that capacity, and at the same time, bypassing the useless MSM.

Genius.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. This confirms what we already knew...

He is astonishingly brilliant!

How lucky we are...

[shanti]

4. indeed!

after 8 years of mediocrity, it's a refreshing CHANGE! :hi:

[canichelouis]

14. Yes, he's astonishingly brillant

in choosing the people who surround him.

The mark of a great leader.

Fresh air.

[Muttocracy]

2. I'm pleasantly surprised the admin let him have a .gov address! and I agree completely. nt

[localroger]

17. The admin doesn't control .gov

.gov TLD's are administered by the GSA, which is independent. What are they gonna say, "sure you're gonna be our boss in a couple of months but meanwhile you can't have a TLD for your transition team?"

[nc4bo]

3. !!!!!!

My hubby and I just had this very same conversation about an hour ago!

I told him that Obama is making taking the M$M right out of the equation. He's speaking straight to us. Hubby agreed.

THE no spin zone!

I LOVE it. F, the M$M. Step around, over and through the gossiping, right-wing neocon gasbag machine.

POW!!!

[Arugula Latte]

7. That was one of the best things about this election --

Somehow, we made an end-run around the media. They were sputtering because they couldn't control the spin.

[Egnever]

10. Agreed

We won this one despite the constant blather from the media. What a sweet win it was.

[LuckyLib]

18. Indeed. And the media can create any reality they want. Folks will look to the Obama presidency as

for that "straight talk" they can trust. MSM soon to be irrelevant.

[jwirr]

5. Hopefully this kind of open government will continue right into his

whole term. There is nothing more irritating than being closed out of your own countries decision making process.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

6. Obama's use of "alternative media" sources has been nothing short of brilliant

particularly his use of the internet and other technology (i.e. iPhone, XBOX).

I believe a "shout out" to (President-In-Exile) Al Gore is also in order for having "invented" the Internet :evilgrin:

[Recursion]

8. Ding ding ding ding

He is as skillful with the Web as FDR was with radio or Reagan with television.

Seriously, this guy is good. I'm just glad he's on our side; the last one wasn't.

[Odin2005]

9. This is going to be a presidency that is transformative like no other since FDR.

Already I am simply stunned the ammount of similarities between FDR and Obama I'm seeing.


"There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny."

--Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936 Democratic National Convention

[lamp_shade]

11. Best part? Until posted on his website, we can pay no mind to "rumors".

[Hippo_Tron]

12. I will be very interested to see how much the traffic on whitehouse.gov goes up under Obama

[cooolandrew]

13. It's new kind of polticcs in more ways than can even imagine.

[lunatica]

15. It was bound to happen

Dean was the first to grow an internet grass roots and it worked as a practice run to find out what didn't work and what did. Obama is intelligent and visionary enough to capitalize on what has great potential and to abandon what is outdated.

I think what drives him to the internet is based on the fact that he wants our participation as an active and interactive part of the changes. The reason television doesn't work is because it's non participatory. It's them choosing the message and talking at us while we are forced to sit passively. Al Gore has been talking about this for years. The tv medium of getting our news is becoming obsolete.

If he just wanted to have the power like the neocons he wouldn't be trying to include us this way. What we need to do is learn to capitalize on the opportunity to be a force. It may be a little confusing at first because in some ways we've been conditioned during the last 8 years to being ignored and even outright dismissed as relevant. But I think Obama truly wants our participation. And that truly is change because there can't be an iron grip of control if everyone has power. It's a whole new normal.

[Cha]

16. Precisely! I knew and told peeps from

the beginning that Obama will win in spite of the media and he will work straight through the corporatewhore$$.

And then, there's this "Ombudsman" Deborah Howell from the Wash Post writing an article about "conservatives dropping their subscriptions" because they dared to write facts about sarah fucking palin.

DeepModem Mom (1000+ posts) Sat Nov-15-08 06:14 PM
Original message
I'm boiling angry! The Washington Post ombudsman needs to hear from our side.
Do you remember the Washington Post's coverage of the Monica episode, printing unsubstantiated leaks and gossip on the frontpage day after day after day? Do you remember Ceci Connally's demonization of Al Gore as she covered his 2000 campaign? Did the Post adequately call out the Swift Boat lies in 2004? Has any of this "bias" been addressed in the pages of the Post?

If our guy got a fair shake in the Post in 2008, it's about time!!!

* WP: Remedying the Bias Perception
By Deborah Howell, Ombudsman
Sunday, November 16, 2008; Page B06

Thousands of conservatives and even some moderates have complained during my more than three-year term that The Post is too liberal; many have stopped subscribing, including more than 900 in the past four weeks. It pains me to see lost subscribers and revenue, especially when newspapers are shrinking. Conservative complaints can be wrong: The mainstream media were not to blame for John McCain's loss; Barack Obama's more effective campaign and the financial crisis were.

But some of the conservatives' complaints about a liberal tilt are valid. Journalism naturally draws liberals; we like to change the world. I'll bet that most Post journalists voted for Obama. I did. There are centrists at The Post as well. But the conservatives I know here feel so outnumbered that they don't even want to be quoted by name in a memo....

Tom Rosenstiel, a former political reporter who directs the Project for Excellence in Journalism, said, "The perception of liberal bias is a problem by itself for the news media. It's not okay to dismiss it. Conservatives who think the press is deliberately trying to help Democrats are wrong. But conservatives are right that journalism has too many liberals and not enough conservatives. It's inconceivable that that is irrelevant."

Here are recent news decisions that brought conservative complaints; readers can judge for themselves:

· The Post put on Page 1 two long stories about "Troopergate" -- the allegation that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin fired her state's public safety commissioner because he wouldn't dismiss her ex-brother-in-law from his state trooper's job. One of the Page 1 stories was eight paragraphs long, under a one-column headline on an inside page.

· The front page of the Oct. 10 Metro section featured a story and photo about Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) as a "giant-slayer" who had "won plaudits" for his work as head of the House Democrats' national campaign committee. The story only briefly mentioned his Republican opponent, Steven J. Hudson. A campaign story on both ran inside the paper.

· A Post Magazine spread on Oct. 5 about Michelle Obama, with a cover picture of the Obamas, was timed to the release of a book by Magazine writer Liza Mundy. There was no cover for John and Cindy McCain.

· Robin Givhan's Oct. 23 column exploring the disconnect between Palin's fancy duds and her hockey mom image ran on the Style cover just above an upbeat story about Jill Biden, the wife of Vice President-elect Joseph Biden. Conservatives thought the placement's message was "Bad Palin, Good Biden."

Combine these with the drumbeat of polling stories saying Obama and the Democrats were likely to win, a few Tom Toles cartoons and TV critic Tom Shales's debate reviews -- both are liberals who are paid to offer opinions -- and conservatives decided that The Post was cheerleading -- especially since they felt the paper hadn't sufficiently scrutinized Obama.

(NOTE: THIS IS ALL THEY'VE GOT? WHAT WHINING!)

The opinion pages have strong conservative voices; the editorial board includes centrists and conservatives; and there were editorials critical of Obama. Yet opinion was still weighted toward Obama. It's not hard to see why conservatives feel disrespected. Are there ways to tackle this? More conservatives in newsrooms and rigorous editing would be two....

Rosenstiel said, "There should be more intellectual diversity among journalists. More conservatives in newsrooms will bring about better journalism. We need to be more vigilant and conscious in looking for bias. Our aims are pure, but our execution sometimes is not. Staff members should feel in their bones that unfairness will never be tolerated."...

One more factor will kick in soon. After Obama is inaugurated, he will be the authority the news media challenge. It happens in every administration.

(NOTE: NOT IN THE LAST ONE, MS. HOWELL -- NOT UNTIL IT WAS TOO LATE!)

Deborah Howell can be reached at: [e-mail] .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x7875096

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

19. O and his people understand things that other politicians

haven't even tried to think about. He is a 21st century man and will be a 21st century president, and not just in the calendar sense of the term. He will be the first interactive POTUS.

[4lbs]

20. If any of you get a chance, watch his Google Talks appearance from last year.

He says how he wants government to be more efficient and transparent to the average citizen.

He plans to open up a lot of meetings for LIVE viewing on the Internet.