My first reaction to this blatant attempt to put an anti-Bush spin was "What did anyone expect?"

But as for how to react:
-->Change the channels and cancel the subscriptions;

-->Bomb the idiots with letters and e-mails to the editor;

-->Write scrupulously (sp?) dispassionate Op-Ed pieces refuting the local paper's resident spinPundit's BS piont-by-point every chance you get and just keep shoving them down your local rag's throat,
and send the same pieces to their main competition.

Might not work, but it's a start. I had to beat on my local rag's editorial page editor like this for a while before he finally relented and started printing some of my submissions.

It's so exhausting.

I endorse start a letter writing or oped writing campaign. The VRWC is full of talented, articulate, literate people who have solid facts and history to back them up. This link is to oped editors of the top one hundred newspapers by circulation. Email for letters to the editors is also included. We are losing a propaganda war although we are right and the fate of the nation, and world, is at stake. This is a war that can be fought from home. I suggest we all exit our comfort zones here to battle the media on their own turf, for the troops, for our children, and for our ancestors. The election is weeks away. We can tip it or at least should be able to say we gave it our best shot.
I tried a contest for snarkiest letter to the editor but nobody listens to me but they listen to you Bill. Go for it.
It's time to attack. The trolls were just practice.

This does not touch me, as I rely exclusively on Allahpundit and IMAO for news updates. What is this Washington Post of which you speak?

Bill: no pain, no gain.
(hides behind rock for coming cliche abuse stonage)

How about we include the editor's email when we post an idiotic newpaper article?

Not bad, not bad. Should be S.O.P.

Bill:
I suggest a few things:

* Contact the ombudsman. I've e-mailed him occasionally, and he's usually good about responding.

* Contact the style section and encourage them to (re)-discover political Weblogs. Couch in in the context of "how others view news" or "my own portable op-ed." The new wrinkle is that you can show how various echo chambers react to the story; you, for example, blog a gasket. Kos and Atrios get self-righteous. This dweeb gets REALLY self-righteous. SWSNBNoL starts comparing it to anal sex. Blogs for Bush gets huffy.

--|PW|--

Did you see the latest from Putin?

Putin backs Bush, essentially.

Bill, they want you too feel too exhausted to speak up anywhere but your own blog.
And...2nd or 3rd tier? You are always welcome to stop my blog any time you want to discuss it on a blog that is above beneath any possible tier structure.

Putin backs Bush, essentially.

Ezackly.

You said it best, Bill -- it's exhausting. And they just beheaded the other American; wonder how that'll play.

You deleted my post! What did I do to deserve this censorship?

Your post was on another thread, Gordon. Now apologize.

That depends on what your definition of "thread" is.

We have to actively fight back with all of our energy and resources. If I (who am clearly NOT the brightest, best writer, best researcher or best historian in the blogsphere)can publish opeds in Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Egypt- then you smart people can easily battle in the war of ideas. We need a stategy and a general. Its time to mobilize as an organized force: Their goal is to kill us and destroy America. Almost the entire world and half America is allied with the Wahhabi Zealots. Its been left to us to win this war and it can't be done in the comments section. It must be done in the wider world and the media. It is a history battle for freedom and we all can be in the fight and never leave the comfort of home. Together we can tip world ideology. (Sorry Bill for highjacking the comments but I believe in this strongly.)

TC Leather Penguin has it right.

No apologies necessary, and people are struggling to get the ideas out (we are championed by Instapundit, for example), but nothing really dents the media or shames them. I cover protests where 30 reporters cover 30 protesters, perhaps a protest of the news outlets would draw attention?

Gordon - comment thread - you commented under a different post.

Bill, the fact that you are such a good writer and reporter is what kills me: you make more sense than the top ten newspapers put together. If you ever need any clerical help or gunt work to promote an oped contest or rally the Blogsphere, I'm at your service.

Awww shucks, Jane. Thanks.

Mulling this one over; some organized effort would be the only effort worthwhile.

Shucks my foot. In the marketplace of ideas, the critical judgment of the blogisphere has generated loyal followings for those bloggers most talented and hard working in defense of America.

The web of small and medium bloggers is strong as well. A community has developed that can raise $85,000 for Spitit of American and will get Sgt. Hook his shoes. The community itself is brilliant.

My premise is: with the guidence of a respected blogger/s *cough*, this community can deliver a big punch to bin Laden in the war of ideas from the comfort of home.

As you say, "some organized effort would be the only effort worthwhile." That requires a strategy and a leader. I think we could tip the election. Someone *hmmm* trusted just needs to figure out how to attack.

And blog it or conviene a summitt. Our power as an aggressive force united and focused is unknown. I would imagine it is substantial.

Quote: "I want Dana Milbank and Deb Reichmann stripped naked and flogged in a public square..."

I don't. It's too kind.

I want the entire "news" budget of the NYTCBSNBCABCWPetcetera listed as campaign contributions to the Democratic Party under McCain-Feingold. Every penny.

Regards,
Ric Locke

You have the right idea in writing letters but you're writing to the wrong people. The Wapo, NYT and alphabet networks don't give a rat's patootie about your opinions and desires. Their sponsors do. Invest the time and effort in this campaign where it will do some good. Did Ford run a big ad in the Wapo that day? Write them, explaining why you're buying Chevy. Did all the car companies have ads? Write them all, expain why you're making your car last four years instead of three.
Did Gillette have an ad on the 60 minutes lovefest with Clinton? Write them and tell 'em you're buying Shick.
The only way we'll effect a change in the partisan media is to hit them the only way they care about, in the pocketbook.
How long would the shareholders of the corporation that owns CBS put up with Dan Rather if the revenue dried up?
Whether or not you like Micheal Savage or Doctor Laura, turn on their TV shows, oops! You can't. A very small minority of the population, the militant gays, forced them off the air with a sponsor boycot.
Every month I buy thirty or forty stamps, depending on the other bills. Every month I watch the alphabets note the sponsors, look up their snail-mail addys and write them a letter.
By myself I'm just another crank to be ignored. with a little bit of leadership from you, Bill, and you other Bloggers, I can become one of many, many thousands.
Otherwise you can try to fight this fight with nothing but your dick in your hand.
There's a helluva lot more of us than there are militant gays, take their weapon, pressure on sponsors and use it.

hmmmm, a good angle, but it seems like it's too splintered. Voicing displeasure with a single media outlet is hard to be effective (so many of them), targeting sponsors (when there can be 200 really BIG ones in any given newspaper, for example) might not be a concentrated application of resources. And when it works, it needs someone like Bill O'Reilly pushing it.

It'd be a neat thing, I think, if somebody with a lot of money started taking out ads on network newscasts and essentially running their own news stories on it.

So pick a top thirty, Bill, or a top ten. Did the militant gays have Bill O'Reilly?
There aren't two hundred advertisers on an alphabet Newscast and many of the sponsors are duplicate, right? If, say, Ford gets five thousand or so letters about 60 minutes or Peter Jennings, they might think twice about the NYT or Wapo, while they're at it. Hell, just pick one media source, pound their sponsors until they see the light and then go on to the next one.
We aren't going to win this fight sitting around with our thumbs up our asses, talking to each other about how unfair it is, are we?
We're always talking about the power of the Blogosphere, how we raised $85,000.00 in just a few days to get that broacasting gear to Iraq, forty-eleven thousand frisbees and school supply kits, Sgt Hook is soon going to be up to his ass in shoes, fine. We can mobilise just fine for somebody else and you're saying we can't generate a few thousand letters? Hell, I have the main body of the basic letter stored in my hard drive. All I have to do is fill in names, dates and the particular story that's got my jockey shorts in a knot. Five minutes per letter, hit the print button and on to the next one.
Every day I spend some time running through a dozen or three Blogs, it seems like every day is Carnival of the Cats, or Council of Watchers or Time Wasting Tuesday or some such with everybody and their mother-in-law, linking to a theme. So let's have another theme day, maybe Take Back The Airwaves Thursday. Or I can just soldier on by myself, get my pension check, pay the bills, buy groceries and then, with some of what's left, buy stamps, envelopes, paper and printer ink cartridges.
We don't need O'Reilly, we need you. We can do this, one show and one network at a time. We take on just one show, just one, and win, the next victory will be easier. Then we take on just one newspaper.
It's like eating one whole barbecued steer. Invite enough people and there won't be enough meat.

Interesting angle indeed. I never even thought of the money angle. The question is where would the attack be most effective; where are they weakest.
I still like the idea of taking the cluebat to some element of the media. Perhaps a six hour MSNBC pile-on. They say they read the email. We could all send the same message and freak them out. And cc Microsoft.

Below is the strategy page I wrote out. It's rather large, but take a look at it.

http://vivalablog.blogspot.com/2004/06/plan-for-victory.html

I think I've managed to condense all the points I've heard over the years into one document, but let me know if there are any I've missed.

Bill, send letters to their advertisers. Find the ads closest to the objectionable articles, then send letters to the CEOs of the relevant companies. Tell them that their product is being associated with bogus journalism. The CEO will not read it, but someone will. Enough letters and the company will talk to their agency, who will eventually talk to the newspaper. The newspaper can not survive if the advertisers leave. On the other hand, if you send a letter to the editor, then the letter will be used to forward the editors agenda. Letters to the advertisers will, in the end, prove more effective.