Peter Daou has an elegant explanation of how the right-wing media is slandering the political left (although he as much a victim as anybody else — he can’t quite bring himself to call them right-wing). This article is required reading for anyone interested in the truth.

In response to the article, Peter received a lot of comments asking “what needs to happen?” I’d like to offer a few suggestions here:

First, everybody should boycott Fox News. That includes Democratic politicians. They should openly boycott the channel for being a Republican party mouthpiece. That would go a long way towards opening up the discussion about the responsibility the media has.

Second, our leadership needs to aggressively respond to the press. Not to the talking points or the Republican narrative–those can be addressed as part of the response to the press. The responses will vary, but they should have a common narrative of their own that questions why the reporter is spouting Republican talking points or repeating negative memes ad naseum.

In the case of untruths or inaccuracies (since nobody seems to be able to say “lies” anymore) the reporter needs to be called out for not knowing what the hell he or she is talking about. It’s their job to know the facts regarding a given situation before they start spouting off on it. So they’re either misrepresenting things to their audience or they haven’t done their job and are uniformed. They should have that pointed out to them at every opportunity.

Third, some of the Democrats need to start shifting the conversation radically to the left. Sitting in the middle arguing with the Right redefines the middle towards the right. The Republicans know this. They each have moderate positions for one or two legislative items and far-right positions for others. The pattern is too regular not to be largely coordinated.

A group of Democratic legislators should start calling for the impeachment of Bush. Now. Today. Get that meme out there and let it start playing out. Then they need to aggressively challenge anybody who slanders the position. The more “moderate” Democrats can say they don’t have an opinion on impeachment or that “it’s too soon to talk about impeachment” but at the same time reinforce the idea by saying “but he/she raises a good point — and if the warrantless spying turns out to be illegal he should be impeached.”

In other words, the Democrats need to start playing the same game that the media and the Republican party have been playing for years. Done aggressively enough, and with enough of the Democratic leadership participating, the situation could be corrected in short order. Ultimately it comes down to what I’ve said over and over, the Democrats need to a) pay attention to this issue and b) fucking grow a pair of balls.

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To: viewerservices@msnbc.com, hardball@msnbc.com

MSNBC,

Fox News is so right-wing it gives me a headache to watch it (although Fox & Friends gets my blood going in the early morning). I find CNN to be a bit dry. That leaves MSNBC, which I watch frequently. I work from home and I usually have the channel on in the background for all or part of each day.

The last week has seriously damaged my faith in the network and that can largely be attributed to Chris Matthews. First came the homophobic slurs that he traded with Imus. I’m heterosexual and I was deeply offended by both hosts’ comments.

Then he went on to compare a liberal filmmaker to Osama bin Laden on his own show. I’m no fan of Michael Moore, but I am a liberal. I wear that term with pride — it shares the same root as another word: liberty. I felt as though I was personally being compared to Osama bin Laden.

Chris Matthews isn’t the only one on your network to make that comparison either, which is in part why it felt like a personal attack. Other hosts on your network have made similar comments and they are causing me to lose faith in the network as well.

It should go without saying that Imus isn’t helping. Tim Russert seems to be linking black congressmen with anything crazy said by a black citizen, which is either blatantly racist or just an attempt to smear them by association. Or both. And the fact that Tucker Carlson even has a job on your network is cause for consternation.

I’m not sure where I’m going to turn to for my news at this point, but if I wanted to watch Fox, I’d watch Fox. I don’t think it is in the best interests of your network to try and become “Fox Lite.”

Regards, Chat Clussman

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