a few great blogs from the gadflyer, a site I visited for the first time today:
first, comments on Tom Shales’ shellacking of Michael Powell in the Washington Post. Here’s an excerpt:
In the one area where there is a legitimate need for the government to regulate broadcasters – making sure there is a diversity of owners/voices on the limited broadcast and radio spectrum – he looks the other way while media conglomerates like Clearchannel Communications gobble up as many stations as possible. And when they are finished gorging themselves on those, he tries to change the ownership rules to let them feast insatiably on some more.
At the same time, in the one area the government clearly has absolutely no business regulating – content – Powell is suddenly omnipresent. Or at least he is when it comes to imposing antiquated “decency” standards that make breasts, bare backs, and vice presidential language the gravest threats to America’s children, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.
The second article is from Paul Waldman, who writes about the battle between the GOP and the Democrats for the hearts and minds of American voters. Waldman nails something that I’ve been trying to write about in this blog: that the Democrats need to learn to fight the public relations battle before they do anything else. Here’s the good stuff:
Amen.
Finally, Paul Waldman points us to Christopher Hayes’ New Republic article, Lessons Learned About Undecided Voters. Take a look at Waldman’s summary for a few snippets from the article. Here is one interesting quote from Hayes, who spent the last seven weeks of the election working in Wisconsin, trying to convince undecided voters to vote for Kerry:
Hayes also has a good bit on how, in the mind of the undecided voter, Kerry somehow took the blame for some of Bush’s mistakes, while Bush was let off scott-free by many voters.
I do have to say that Hayes’ observations ring very true with my canvassing experiences.
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