"Because You Are On Television Stupid!"

This is a line that I have often stolen from Paddy Cheyefsky's feature film "Network." I have excerpted part of what I wrote 6 months ago.

"The film exposes the power of television and the power of repetitiveness, which are at work today in our country. Although I am aware of being manipulated, I am mostly powerless to overcome it."

I had lunch today with a former associate of mine from CBS. He is at least as liberal in his politics as I am, which means that we are reasonably far to the left. He was lamenting the inaction of the Democrats. He went on to say that the Democrats were hiding and since no one would step up, it is impossible to determine their message and their messenger.

I told him that I thought that their position was almost hopeless at this time for the following reason: The television coverage of the President, Vice President, and those people of his senior staff like Rumsfeld, Rice, etc are now, and have been in the last 5 years, as ubiquitous as the commercials we are forced to watch over and over again. The Republican message is out there incessantly, and there is a "mute button" on the voice of the Democrats.

Yesterday morning, President Bush was speaking at a nuclear power generating site in Maryland. MSNBC, CNN and Fox carried it live; I believe that local stations carried excerpts of the speech and perhaps even Network news programs carried parts of it as well.

What the president said yesterday was of little consequence other then saying how GREAT everything was going, and if only the Democrats would stop being obstructionists, everything would be better still.

I wouldn't be surprised if this message, in whole or in part was watched by 2+ million people on cable, and if picked up by one or more broadcast network another, 10+ million more viewers would have seen it.

Vice President Cheney has been always available to connect the Iraqis to 9/11, so why would it surprise anyone to hear that in polls, 70% of America believed that it was Iraq who attacked us? It was not true, but it was repeated over and over again, just as the untrue "Swift Boat Veterans For Truth" was repeated over and over.

Last night the president was interviewed on the CBS network prime time news for almost the entire half hour. In case this was not enough, there will be more on this Sunday's "Face The Nation." Did it matter that the content was like a re-run of I Love Lucy? Not one little bit! Tough journalism? Not one little bit! It was like a Gunthy-Renker infomercial staged to "sell" the president.

The Republican media machine is at work again, and the Democrats are for the most part helpless. In the "I wish I had said that department" was a Republican strategist who said something like "The Democrats take long winded positions when they have access to the media and the Republicans take positions that can be used on bumper stickers." How true that is.

While I don't have a cure for what ails the Democrats, I do have a few suggestions:

First, they need to find their own Karl Rove and let that person plan and execute a media strategy.

Second, at every opportunity they must espouse their brand new plan to make America safe from terrorists, and to lead the world in anti-terror activities.

Third, they must have a media plan that includes some form of equal time proposal to the nation's licensed broadcasters.

I remain convinced that the truth matters, and the Democrats must "shout" it as often as possible.

Norman Horowitz
Now an older and sadder media person

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