alternative hippopotamus

progressive cyberdadaism from our nation’s capital

October 6, 2006

The New Propaganda

by AltHippo @ 12:03 pm. Filed under Uncategorized, propaganda

I certainly learned some things from this Washington Post article on the new media. For instance, Dick Cheney listens to Don Imus in the morning. Which makes sense in that Imus, like Cheney, is “barking dog mad” (MoDo’s words). Lynne Cheney likes to read Matt Drudge. Of course she also likes to write soft-porn novels. Pornography in, pornography out.

By coincidence I was discussing this very same topic with Elizabeth Edwards last night. One of the perks of living in DC is that when folks come into town you sometimes get a meet and greet. So, I mentioned that the Washington Post has been friendly to the right-wing blogs, not-so-friendly to the leftie blogs. She already knew this, and acknowledged that the right has a message machine that the left has not put together.

Back to the Post. This is the first time that I’ve read this clear a description of how the RNC’s media strategy works:

At the Republican National Committee, leaking items to the Drudge Report is an official part of communications strategy.

During the 2004 campaign, current and former RNC staff members said, opposition research nuggets on Kerry were almost always leaked first to the Web site. Sometimes they were trivial — such as the fact that Kerry got expensive haircuts at the Christophe salon — other times they were controversial quotes from his days as a Vietnam War protester. All together, these and other items contributed to Kerry losing control of his public image.

Ken Mehlman, the RNC chairman and head of Bush’s reelection campaign, said his operatives leaked to Drudge because it inevitably drove wider coverage, including to old media organizations: “He puts something up and they have to follow it.”

From Mehlman to Drudge to Instapundit, NRO, Powerline, and Malkin. It’s disgusting, but it gets the job done.

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2 Responses to “The New Propaganda”

  1. Bulworth Says:
    October 11th, 2006 at 3:47 pm

    “By coincidence I was discussing this very same topic with Elizabeth Edwards last night.”

    Alt Hippo, you are shamelessly name-dropping.

    Damn, I missed out.

    Did she make a DL appearance?

  2. AltHippo Says:
    October 11th, 2006 at 4:24 pm

    No, she was in town and wanted to meet with some bloggers. She did mention meeting the DL national folks, though.

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