| First off, Paul started with the obvious-whatever may be down the road, things haven't changed yet, as "all of those same old tropes"-maverick, straight-talk, POW, uncorruptable, yadda-yadda-yadda, "All that stuff keeps getting reported over and over."
The promise, of course, is that things will change once the Democratic primary ends. Which Paul said could actually happen-at least somewhat, if the media is "prodded." Taking a page from the right wing's book, if we can bitch and moan enough-"working the refs", we can maybe get them to write something just to make us shut up.
"If their professionalism is being attacked, and they're being constantly criticized, they may want to prove they are tough and independent," Waldman said.
In particular, he advised us to not just analyze the "the good stuff they write about him," but "also all the bad stuff they ignore."
He mentioned the example of McCain's recent implication that The Iraq War was fought over oil. "He's going to continue to say those kinds of things," Waldman assured us.
"I can't imagine he's going to go more than a week or two without saying something outrageous," he added, and "every time that happens" bloggers should be writing about it. [A tought after the fact-maybe we need to develop some tracking tools, logos, graphics, etc, to make this more colorful and exciting. Of course, YouTube clips will always be a big help. Blooper Reels 'R Us!]
While reporters' big picture love affair with McCain is unlikely to end, Waldman said, "On specific stories, they can be prodded into changing the way they look at things." [Drip, drip, drip... this isn't water tourture... drip, drip, drip.]
One particular thing to focus on, Waldman said, was the coordination of crazy character attacks. There's a three-pronged strategy at work here, he argued, one from "absolute crazies," a second from the rightwing noise machine, "saying things just a tiny bit less crazy," and third, "you've got the campaign itself," which of course the press assumes is beneath McCain to engage in.
Consequently, this is a very important intervention point for bloggers. "Every time McCain does that, it needs to be identified," Waldman stressed.
When the call opened up for questions, I asked about the slight openings we have seen-the Hagee endorsement, the Times Isseman/lobbying story-and what sorts of lessons we can take from them to create bigger openings. Waldman distinguished between two different situations-one, typified by the Times story involves their willingness to do actual investigations.
But in the case of the Hagee story, there really wasn't any investigation needed. It was all about stuff that was in the public record. And in that case a lot of bloggers writing about has helped, even if the story has been vastly undercovered, it has not disappeared, and may well continue to resurface. "That happened because a lot of bloggers have been focused on it," Waldman said, "That was just persistence....If you keep at it, and keep talking about it, eventually they will take notice."
I also asked about the age factor. Not that it's about age, per se, but rather the question of McCain's performance, and the fact that age might actually be a charitable way to explain some of the things he says.
"It's tricky to talk about," Waldman said, and then pointed out that the late night talk show hosts were doing jokes about McCain's age-which was also their fixation when Dole ran in '96.
So this is already serving to get the idea "out there," as pundits are so fond of saying.
"The thing about those senior moments," Waldman said, "In many cases there is no [other] plauisible explanation." Especially given that, "One of the things is the press is never going to accepts is that he doesn't know very much."
Even though, of course, he's actually said so in some cases-such as the economy.
Naturally, the contrast with Obama's youth and his message of change and orientation toward the future helps underscore this weakness of McCain. It may be too soon for a specific strategy here. "I don't know what advice Iwould be giving to someone who's givne to be writing about McCain for the next 6 months," Waldman said, but there's definitely a vulnerability here. It never hurst to have Jay Leno making jokes to highlight something.
I've got to run now, so I'll leave a little bit to include in my post tomorrow about the new chapter. All in all, the call served to underscore that bloggers working together can have an effect on campaign coverage this year. We can help make it a little more "fair and balanced," in spite of itself-particularly if we pay attention to one another and share our good ideas. |
