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Dan Chavez One of the tasks we, as dedicated opponents of the "mainstream" media, should do is to visualize the future that may come into being as a result of their downfall. Wider vistas and increased opportunities will be available, not only to the new media venues that are only now springing into existence, but also to those of us who were formerly effectively marginalized by the old, liberal media and denied a voice by a journalistic monopoly that has for the past decades dominated and set the boundaries of public discourse in our land. There will be some that will say, "Wait a minute! Our battle is not yet won; the liberal media is still powerful and firmly entrenched. What do you mean by anticipating a future beyond their defeat when the battle is not yet won?"
But decades ago, only a small minority of those who disliked the liberal media were able to see beyond their anger to visualize and work toward a future-now-where alternatives to the swill of the liberal media is easily accessible. Those who, in those past times were able to articulate and conceptualize these alternatives today have every reason to feel gratified. If, instead, they had given way to despair and pessimism, keeping their anger and frustrations to themselves rather than being motivated to seek alternatives it is very likely that their victories might never have occurred, or taken a much longer time, which is more likely, given the mass disgust at the liberal media that existed even in past decades. The most important quality those early pioneers in activism against the mainstream media possessed was vision, the ability to see beyond the existing state of affairs toward something better. This is the most potent tool in our arsenal to use against a failing, but still powerful enemy. Failing, just as the giant sloth's and mastodons did when caught in the tar pits at La Brea. Failing as evinced by shrinking market shares and the flailing around, also called mergers and takeovers, done by large wounded beasts. As activists against the mainstream media the signs and portents of victory should be plain and clear to us. Our vision of the future could include hearing the voices of a larger number of differing viewpoints, viewpoints currently termed politically incorrect, in the past simply ignored. And a diminution of the power and influence of those whose voices are now heard loudest, not because of force of numbers, but because of their ties to and political alliances with the mainstream media. Read Dan's previous columns:  |
To these I would say, look back to the dark ages of the 60s and 70s, when just three TV networks dominated that medium, when popular disgust at their biases was still largely on the level of private conversations between friends and family members and expressed in other ways by small numbers of dissidents who, because they had no way of reaching out to larger numbers, were rendered fairly powerless - Dissidents who, because they reflected the views of a large number of people, had support once they were able to reach these people via the radio, their own printed publications and new technology.