CT Blue

A few more thoughts about Wednesday’s debate.

First, I find it surprising that anyone finds it surprising that ABC sought out the flag pin lady. I knew it as soon as I saw her. That they left such easily followed footprints is just a sign of their arrogance, but also, I believe, of the fact that they don’t understand a new reality borne of the internet.

Could it be that this debate represents a watershed moment? Last night I wrote about the fact that I tend to avoid watching these things because of the impotent rage I feel as I watch the gross stupidity fostered by the broadcast media. But things may be different now. Individually, we are impotent to stop this sort of thing. In fact, just a few years ago there was literally no way for us to any one of us to know that we weren’t the only ones who were aghast at the way in which our media was cheapening our political discourse. There was no way for us to communicate with or connect to one another. But that has changed. We the people can now fight back. The playing field isn’t level, but it’s a lot closer to level than it was just a few short years ago. Sure this debate hit rock bottom, but it is just the natural culmination of the medias capture by the Republican party, which as Josh Marshall points out, no longer needs to Swift Boat. The press now does it for them, in the guise of anticipating the next Republican attack.

But public disgust is now harder to ignore. It is, as Gibson said so erroneously about the idiotic flag pin question, all over the internet. We are no longer reduced to screaming at our televisions. We can push back, en masse, and they have to listen. They don’t like it, and they pretend not to hear, but they do.

Which leads me to this final point. Go to Move On and sign the petition. If they get 100,000 people to sign, they’ll run commercials attacking the media for their mindless parroting of trivial Republican talking points.

Obama, by the way, seems to have tumbled to this as a talking point of his own (see my previous post). Here’s hoping he’ll push hard on that. His audiences will respond favorably, and he might force the media to back off just a bit.