| Over the last few years, a lot of progressive money has gone to build "progressive media" through the Center for Independent Media - and specifically through projects like the Colorado Independent. So it's strange to me that that money is now being used to tell progressives that they are "insufferably strident" in their demands that congressional legislators vote in a mildly progressive way.
As you can see, the top-line story in the Independent this morning is headlined "Math Doesn't Add Up In Progressives' Complaints," and it features Wendy Norris citing Ron Brownstein's Atlantic.com article as proof that voters should not ask Democratic senators to take public positions on major bills like EFCA or - gasp! - actually support those bills.
Mind you, this tripe from the Independent is underwritten by progressive money. |
| The Independent was set up, of course, to do the kind of serious reporting that other Colorado publications weren't doing (and I should say, the reporting from people like David O. Williams on serious issues like energy has been absolutely fantastic). But as the Independent has been downsizing, that's not happening as much. Instead of citing public opinion data on specific issues - data that shows the public strongly supports major progressive issue positions - Norris spends her time like the worst of the laziest journalists out there, simply citing polls about how people label themselves as "proof" that progressives are being unrealistic to ask legislators to support majority positions.
As I wrote a while back in the Washington Post, polls that simply ask what people call themselves - liberal, conservative, moderate, etc. - only surveys brand names, it doesn't give you any data about where people stand on issues. And when you look at where they stand on those issues, what you see is a fairly progressive America - even in red states. That's why people like Mark Udall and Brian Schweitzer campaign for office as progressives - because they know even in so-called "red" states that's what people want on issues.*
What particularly bothers me about the Independent's piece isn't the warmed-over conventional wisdom from a lazy journalist - that's unfortunately par for the course in the media industry these days. What really gets me is that this crap is coming from an institution that bills itself as a progressive alternative, and is funded with movement progressive money. Yes, movement progressive money is going into endeavors that are telling progressives not to make demands on their legislators. It's really fucking incredible - and I'm not even going to focus on the unnecessarily ad hominem personal insult toward me.**
I mean, didn't the 2008 election teach us once and for all that progressivism is not only good policy, but good politics, even in red states? Do we really need progressive media outlets spending their dwindling resources telling progressive voters to shut the hell up? Are we really being "insufferably strident" by simply asking our legislators to take public positions on issues?
* By the way, I'm always astounded by the hubris of journalists like Norris to bill themselves as political/campaign experts and tell folks what is and is not politically possible/electorally pragmatic in a given state. I mean, I try my best not to do this, and I make that effort having actually worked years in actual campaigns in actual red states. And so the fact that journalists with no campaign experience bill themselves as campaign/political experts just strikes me as particularly idiotic.
** As a sidenote: I don't understand why Norris put "national syndicated columnist" in quotes - as if A) that's not true and/or B) that's worthy of some sort of ridicule. I worked really hard to get the column gig, and I do my damndest to make it the best I can every week - I'm not sure why that's worthy of ridicule from "progressive" media outlets. |
