Three Lefts Make A... Anyone?

Not too far off from an essay in which is Czar showed how liberals continually move the goalposts out of a mistaken belief in their own popularity, Walter Russell Mead at The American Interest recounts the same history of the Wisconsin recall elections, and clarifies how the liberal media continues to misunderstand events on the ground to their peril.

Mr. Mead:

To the extent that they think about it — as opposed to simply letting their little lights artlessly shine — liberal journalists seem to think that acting like cheerleaders strengthens their team. It doesn’t. That more conservative candidates and causes face hostile media scrutiny that liberal lions don’t makes the conservatives tougher and more battle tested. It can ground their political calculations more securely in reality; if there are any gaping flaws in conservative arguments, programs or personnel, they can be reasonably sure that a vigilant mainstream media will point them out in great and loving detail.

This is exactly right. What doesn’t kill ya makes ya stronger.

The Czar will add one more bit of unfolding: intense media scrutiny of conservative causes better informs the public as to the details of the conservative idea. In other words, the more attention the media gives to Palin, Bachmann, Romney, and now Perry, the more people will learn about their ideas and click with them. Look at how Paul Ryan’s popularity shot up as a result of the media attempting to scare seniors that he was some Dickensian landlord. People read about his ridiculous, farcical proposal and began to agree with its contents. The more research they did, the better it looked.

This seems to be more true now than ever—the internet in particular has been devestating to the liberal media because conservatives have such a strong, smart presence here. Each week, more “typical” (i.e., slightly right-leaning) Americans get their news from conservative sources on the web. Just like you, cousin.

Not that the Czar needs to help the liberal media cause, but this could be fixed. The problem is the nonsensical pretense among the media that the media is unbiased. Because of this assurance, they purport to show you details of conservative thinkers in raw, unflinching detail, rather than simply advance leftist causes. As a result, people see the details and think “Yeah, that makes sense,” rather than the hoped-for “Good lord, what racist tomfoolery!”

If the media wanted to hurt the conservative goal, maybe they could just own up to their bias and add “...and here’s what’s wrong with that idea” like the New York Times sometimes does. Then at least liberals would be clear as to what they should despise without further analysis.

But as long as the media continues to proofread conservative messages, introduce undecided or under-informed Americans as to the sordid details of those ideas, and let them validate their assumptions with fairly simple research, the collapse of the left-wing media nightmare will continue unabated.

Heck, it might even be televised.