LAS VEGAS -- The big winners of the 2010 midterm elections were, in this order: the House Republicans, the unsinkable Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the media.
Huh? The media? That "lamestream" crowd? Really?
Well, yeah. In a group of high-profile Senate races involving tea party favorites, the strategy was to vilify and freeze out the press, to speak selectively and only when absolutely necessary for the sake of fundraising to the local Sean Hannity wannabe or the real Sean Hannity if he'd have them.
Not only did it fail, but the campaigns of Sharron Angle in Nevada, Joe Miller in Alaska and, to a lesser extent, Christine O'Donnell in Delaware are case studies as to how not to treat the lowly wretches trying to communicate your views to the masses. Angle and O'Donnell lost; Miller got just 34 percent of the vote and is awaiting a count that will show whether incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski got enough of the 41 percent that were write-in votes to retain her seat.
Of course, plenty of conservative candidates get along with the press and the outcome of the three races is not simply the consequence of avoiding reporters. Still, the way these candidates behaved clearly impacted their image and their ability to reach an audience beyond their core supporters.
"There is this kind of message being sent out to a certain kind of true believers that the media is bad, you don't have to talk to the media, nobody believes the media," said Anchorage Daily News Executive Editor Pat Dougherty. "Well, people do believe the media. If you conduct your business thinking that the news media isn't a valuable part of this process, I think you will pay a price for that."
While the power and influence of the likes of CNN, NPR or The New York Times may be undermined by Limbaugh-esque attacks on "the liberal media elite," the notion that media credibility is in tatters in local journalism is false. Most people admire the cheery local news personalities they see at car dealership grand openings and on Fourth of July parade floats.
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