Ann Coulter and Political Debate Part III: The New Conservative Media
See Anno Domini for Part I and Part II
Conservatives have spent much of the last 10-15 years criticizing the "MSM", or mainstream media, and touting the rise of their new alternative media outlets. No longer are Americans restricted to listening to Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather. No longer is the New York Times considered the most reliable source of political reporting. No longer is the National Review the only place to find rebuttals to the nightly parade of liberal media bias. Fox News, talk radio, and the rise of the blogosphere has rightly been celebrated. The liberal monopoly on information simply does not exist anymore.
But let's do a little self assessment. Ross Douthat reviewed Brian Anderson's "South Park Conservatives: The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias" in the Winter edition of the Claremont Review of Books. In his review, he critically evaluates the new media and makes some points worthy of attention.
First, he notes that the new conservative media "is ideally suited to rapid-response punditry and rallying the base, but it's not really an alternative to the major cultural institutions-the big dailies, networks, universities, and Hollywood studios." Douthat points out that conservatives have really only achieved partial success in challenging these institutions. After all, the best universities in America are still predominantly liberal, and the vast majority of movies coming out of Hollywood are openly antagonistic to the values most conservatives hold. Douthat notes, "The '60s Left actually took over academia, remember, whereas the 21st-century Right seems content merely to lob stones through the university's more vulnerable windows."
He is right. While conservatives have made some progress in all of these areas, and these culture-forming institutions no longer are the unavoidable disseminators of information, one can hardly describe any of these currently as even tilting to the right. The fact is, for all the progress the new media has made, the Left still has control over the major culture-forming institutions in America.
Douthat's most important critique, though, is of the new media itself and its role in forming conservative thought. He warns that the Right is in danger of "cocooning." Just as liberals seem to by and large have abandoned original thinking and cling to the same failed ideas of 20th Century socialism, he warns that the Right "has its own mini-establishment, which likewise runs the risk of becoming less a forum for original ideas than a museum case for stale assumptions." In particular, he argues that this can already be seen in the "echo-chamber tendency in the right-wing bloggers." As a blogger myself, I agree (though I think the left-wing blogs can equally be criticized in this regard).
Let's bring this back to Ann Coulter, who I think is a type for Douthat's warning to the Right:
"Confident that the Right has won the war of ideas, too many conservatives don't bother to grapple with liberalism as it actually exists, preferring instead to train their fire on straw men and minor-league extremists. And secure in the knowledge that the hated MSM will always misinterpret the world, conservatives-including, by his own account, the current occupant of the White House-often close their ears to things that the liberal media gets right, preferring to filter their news through more congenial outlets."
Right on. Fellow conservatives, let's not get so arrogant to think that Ted Kennedy or Hillary Clinton never have anything valuable to say. Let's not rest content with slogans like "Lower taxes" or even "Pro-life." We must think hard about what a conservative vision for government actually looks like; for we certainly haven't seen it yet. What ought to become of our bloated federal bureaucracy? What, fellow pro-lifers, about in vitro fertilization, or the hundreds of thousands of frozen embryos already in existence? What about the gay couple that has been raising children for years?
These are hard questions, and we must keep listening and keep grappling with these questions in an honest way. Let's not become like the liberals who now have no solutions and can do nothing but rest nostalgic for 1960s anti-war demonstrations and 1930s socialist solutions to national problems. Let's not stoop to the level of liberals who only respond to conservative ideas with venom and irrational dismissiveness.
Douthat closes, "[H]aving spent a generation complaining about liberalism's less-than-intimate relationship with reality, conservatives need to think hard about whether they're in danger of spinning themselves into a similar cocoon."
Conservatives have spent much of the last 10-15 years criticizing the "MSM", or mainstream media, and touting the rise of their new alternative media outlets. No longer are Americans restricted to listening to Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather. No longer is the New York Times considered the most reliable source of political reporting. No longer is the National Review the only place to find rebuttals to the nightly parade of liberal media bias. Fox News, talk radio, and the rise of the blogosphere has rightly been celebrated. The liberal monopoly on information simply does not exist anymore.
But let's do a little self assessment. Ross Douthat reviewed Brian Anderson's "South Park Conservatives: The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias" in the Winter edition of the Claremont Review of Books. In his review, he critically evaluates the new media and makes some points worthy of attention.
First, he notes that the new conservative media "is ideally suited to rapid-response punditry and rallying the base, but it's not really an alternative to the major cultural institutions-the big dailies, networks, universities, and Hollywood studios." Douthat points out that conservatives have really only achieved partial success in challenging these institutions. After all, the best universities in America are still predominantly liberal, and the vast majority of movies coming out of Hollywood are openly antagonistic to the values most conservatives hold. Douthat notes, "The '60s Left actually took over academia, remember, whereas the 21st-century Right seems content merely to lob stones through the university's more vulnerable windows."
He is right. While conservatives have made some progress in all of these areas, and these culture-forming institutions no longer are the unavoidable disseminators of information, one can hardly describe any of these currently as even tilting to the right. The fact is, for all the progress the new media has made, the Left still has control over the major culture-forming institutions in America.
Douthat's most important critique, though, is of the new media itself and its role in forming conservative thought. He warns that the Right is in danger of "cocooning." Just as liberals seem to by and large have abandoned original thinking and cling to the same failed ideas of 20th Century socialism, he warns that the Right "has its own mini-establishment, which likewise runs the risk of becoming less a forum for original ideas than a museum case for stale assumptions." In particular, he argues that this can already be seen in the "echo-chamber tendency in the right-wing bloggers." As a blogger myself, I agree (though I think the left-wing blogs can equally be criticized in this regard).
Let's bring this back to Ann Coulter, who I think is a type for Douthat's warning to the Right:
"Confident that the Right has won the war of ideas, too many conservatives don't bother to grapple with liberalism as it actually exists, preferring instead to train their fire on straw men and minor-league extremists. And secure in the knowledge that the hated MSM will always misinterpret the world, conservatives-including, by his own account, the current occupant of the White House-often close their ears to things that the liberal media gets right, preferring to filter their news through more congenial outlets."
Right on. Fellow conservatives, let's not get so arrogant to think that Ted Kennedy or Hillary Clinton never have anything valuable to say. Let's not rest content with slogans like "Lower taxes" or even "Pro-life." We must think hard about what a conservative vision for government actually looks like; for we certainly haven't seen it yet. What ought to become of our bloated federal bureaucracy? What, fellow pro-lifers, about in vitro fertilization, or the hundreds of thousands of frozen embryos already in existence? What about the gay couple that has been raising children for years?
These are hard questions, and we must keep listening and keep grappling with these questions in an honest way. Let's not become like the liberals who now have no solutions and can do nothing but rest nostalgic for 1960s anti-war demonstrations and 1930s socialist solutions to national problems. Let's not stoop to the level of liberals who only respond to conservative ideas with venom and irrational dismissiveness.
Douthat closes, "[H]aving spent a generation complaining about liberalism's less-than-intimate relationship with reality, conservatives need to think hard about whether they're in danger of spinning themselves into a similar cocoon."
posted by Anonymous @ 1:21 PM
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