Then why do I feel right at home?
"A shifting Master Narrative" by Dan Payne | August 14, 2008
Dan Payne is a Boston-area media consultant who has worked for Democratic candidates around the country. He does political analysis for WBUR radio.
EVERY presidential campaign has a central storyline that produces all other stories, says Jay Rosen, professor at New York University. This Master Narrative is how the news media describe the campaign. Always shifting, it goes something like this:
Who shapes the Master Narrative? Three cable news channels, CNN, Fox, and MSNBC, are major influences on the Master Narrative, according to Marty Kaplan, who directs the Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California. Kaplan, who once wrote speeches for Vice President Walter Mondale, told me: "Matt Drudge rules the world." The right-wing aggregator of stories and opinion on his eponymous website, Drudge defines what's news and virtually dictates who's booked on cable TV news shows. His elite audience of reporters, columnists, and producers are eager to be listed on his continuously updated website and admit to checking it several times daily.
Other voices of the Master Narrative include the man with the worst case of attention deficit disorder on TV, the irrepressible Chris Matthews at MSNBC. Mark Shields on PBS and George Will of the Washington Post/Newsweek/ABC are regular contributors to the MN, as are David Brooks and Frank Rich of The New York Times, plus Howard Fineman at Newsweek and Joe Klein of Time. Bill O'Reilly's TV and radio popularity allows him to steer opinion on the right.
I never hear or see these guys, readers, WTF?
No Gandhi. Lest he appear to be going the way of John Kerry and Mike Dukakis, Obama must take the campaign to McCain in strong, sustained terms. He cannot play Gandhi ("In no way was McCain's campaign being racist."). He must hit McCain fast and hard, a la Israel, which strikes back twice as hard as its attackers, to get them to stop. Politics, like war, is a self-policing business.
Oh, so POLITICS is like ISRAEL WARFARE, huh?
Yeah, that makes sense -- especially in ZIONIST-CONTROLLED AMERIKA!!!!!!!!!!
A "self-policing" business, no less -- unless you are not a friend of USrael!!!!!!
Déjà vu all over again? The Master Narrative shifts over time but can be hard to change once it sets. Obama's soft response to McCain's attacks has raised déjà vu fears among Democrats. Will we look back at this period as the time when yet another Democrat lost control of his storyline?
Translation: McCain is your NEXT PRESIDENT!!!
Go eat that one up, left-wingers!!!!
--more--"
