Spin wars

Here, Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard suggests that a lot of the bluster over the so-called conservative alternative media is just that - bluster. Despite a few small victories, he says that the examples of Cindy Sheehan, Joseph Wilson, John Murtha and their individual 15 minutes of fame show that the mainstream media is still boss.

However, contrast that with this piece from Daniel Henninger of the Wall St. Journal. He says that the conservative movement, including the White House, allows itself to be too much influenced by the mainstream media, and implores it to go directly to the people and not worry so much about what the press thinks.

From a Canadian perspective, I think far too often the conservative movement in particular looks at the press as a whipping post for all of their own shortcomings. Liberals (I mean large-L liberals, because there are indeed conservatives in the Liberal party, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise) don't do that. They don't spend their time moaning and groaning about how the CBC didn't cover them fairly or what have you. There are a lot of Liberals who view the press in adversarial terms as well, but the difference is that they don't blame them for every misfortune.

It's time for politicians of all stripes to take power back from big media. A first step would be to stop thinking of the media as being more important than they really are and remember that at the end of the day, it's the voters who matter first and foremost.