How Conservative Media Lost to the MSM and Failed the Rank and File

**The Night Owl** · 11-07-2012, 05:18 PM

Possibly the best post-election analysis out there...

How Conservative Media Lost to the MSM and Failed the Rank and File
NOV 7 2012, 6:30 AM ET

Nate Silver was right. His ideological antagonists were wrong. And that's just the beginning of the right's self-created information disadvantage.

Before rank-and-file conservatives ask, "What went wrong?", they should ask themselves a question every bit as important: "Why were we the last to realize that things were going wrong for us?"

Barack Obama just trounced a Republican opponent for the second time. But unlike four years ago, when most conservatives saw it coming, Tuesday's result was, for them, an unpleasant surprise. So many on the right had predicted a Mitt Romney victory, or even a blowout -- Dick Morris, George Will, and Michael Barone all predicted the GOP would break 300 electoral votes. Joe Scarborough scoffed at the notion that the election was anything other than a toss-up. Peggy Noonan insisted that those predicting an Obama victory were ignoring the world around them. Even Karl Rove, supposed political genius, missed the bulls-eye. These voices drove the coverage on Fox News, talk radio, the Drudge Report, and conservative blogs.

Those audiences were misinformed.

...

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/...d-file/264855/

Maybe it's time to turn off the Rush Limbaugh?

**The Night Owl** · 11-07-2012, 05:41 PM

Nice job, mods. Moving my post nicely illustrates the problem outlined in the article. You guys seem to think you need to insulate yourselves from guys like Nate Silver and Chris Christie when really you guys should be listening to them.

**Rockntractor** · 11-07-2012, 05:43 PM

Originally Posted by The Night Owl

Nice job, mods. Moving my post nicely illustrates the problem outlined in the article. You guys seem to think you need to insulate yourselves from guys like Nate Silver and Chris Christie when really you guys should be doing the opposite-- listen to them.

Get the fuck out of here!

**The Night Owl** · 11-07-2012, 05:45 PM

Originally Posted by Rockntractor

Get the fuck out of here!

I'll interpret your comment as a request (and respectfully deny it).

**Lager** · 11-07-2012, 07:11 PM

He conveniently ignores major polls that also showed Romney close or ahead, and I think it's hyperbole to call this a "trouncing" anyway. I'm probably getting close to growing weary of pundits on all sides myself. But the same denouncements he has of Hannity et al, can be applied to Matthews, O'donnel, Maher, etc. so he gains no moral high ground. Maybe conservative media amplifies Obama's faults, but there's also a strong case to be made that mainstream media amplifies his attributes.

**m00** · 11-07-2012, 07:16 PM

Originally Posted by Lager

Maybe conservative media amplifies Obama's faults, but there's also a strong case to be made that mainstream media amplifies his attributes.

I was reading an article on the Slate where it said (based on a serious study of positive v negative articles) that the MSM is far more left-wing than FOX is right-wing.

JB · 11-07-2012, 07:24 PM

Originally Posted by The Night Owl

Maybe it's time to turn off the Rush Limbaugh?

Perhaps folks need to turn MSNBCABCPBSCBSNPRNBC off.

**The Night Owl** · 11-07-2012, 11:19 PM

Originally Posted by m00

I was reading an article on the Slate where it said (based on a serious study of positive v negative articles) that the MSM is far more left-wing than FOX is right-wing.

Fox News is the most popular cable news channel. Doesn't that make them the lamestream media, as that one lady likes to call it?

**Rockntractor** · 11-07-2012, 11:27 PM

Originally Posted by The Night Owl

Fox News is the most popular cable news channel. Doesn't that make them the lamestream media, as that one lady likes to call it?

At times it does, they pull a lot of their stories off the same wire everybody else does.

**The Night Owl** · 11-07-2012, 11:29 PM

Originally Posted by Lager

He conveniently ignores major polls that also showed Romney close or ahead, and I think it's hyperbole to call this a "trouncing" anyway. I'm probably getting close to growing weary of pundits on all sides myself. But the same denouncements he has of Hannity et al, can be applied to Matthews, O'donnel, Maher, etc. so he gains no moral high ground. Maybe conservative media amplifies Obama's faults, but there's also a strong case to be made that mainstream media amplifies his attributes.

I think the problem is that righties began believing their own mythology regarding Obama-- for example, this idea that Obama is a dumb guy who can't function without a teleprompter.