Republicans and Bush, in particular, thrived under the Ari Fleischer school of media management. An old story I read somewhere recounts how Ari, working for a congressman, dealt with a sticky situation. A reporter called to ask why Ari's boss had voted for a certain bill. Fleischer denied the vote. The reporter, flummoxed, said he'd confirm the vote and call back.
Fleischer's boss had voted for the bill. But having confirmed the vote, Fleischer made sure not to take that reporter's call again.
Simple and genius. Lie, force doubt into the reporter's mind, and change the subject as quickly as possible. It worked for Bush in 2000, and a complacent media went along for the ride.
The media stuck with the Bush bandwagon through the first three years of his term, through a disastrous war and one tax-cut-motivated lie after another (tax cuts create jobs! said the Republicans after presiding over the loss of 2.4 million jobs).
But something funny happened in 2003. The media landscape shifted. Suddenly, the Internet became a 24/7 oppo research and fact checking tool. The Republicans remain wilfully ignorant of their online would-be allies. The Democratic Party -- outgunned, outmanned, outfinanced, and out-of-power -- was not so myopic.
Hardly a day goes by when I don't see a blog-inspired email blasted out by some party functionary, be it the DSCC, DCCC, DNC or affiliated organizations. Those institutions -- the very core of the "Democratic Party Establishment" -- are linking to blogs at increased rates. And the results speak for themselves.
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