The Media Landscape 2008

Washington Times' Tony Blankley Excoriates Media for Not Swiftboating Obama
Read Blankley's column here. Blankley was a promoter of the Swift Boat lies during the 2004 campaign.

Blankley's two columns are revealing. During the 2004 campaign, the Kerry campaign was run by vacillating people like Bob Shrum who didn't want to take on these operatives head on--their lack of action was an unmitigated disaster. Also, Media Matters for America had just been established. The mainstream media took a he-said-she-said approach to the lies put forth by the Swift Boat operatives.

Although the hard right's media apparatus is still dominant, the media landscape has changed significantly in the last four years. Media Matters has gained a significant audience. Keith Olbermann is on the air and holding the media's feet to the fire. The Huffington Post is providing stiff competition for Drudge. Fox News is rightfully becoming marginalized by increasing numbers of Americans.

A good example of these changes are the way that the media have responded to fringe writer Jerome Corsi, the co-author of the Swift Boat book, Unfit for Command, and who in 2008, wrote an anti-Obama book. This year, Corsi has received the scrutiny he deserved and his lies were not allowed to be recycled through Fox News to the mainstream media.

There's a lot of work to be done but we've come a long way in four years.