Clearly the news media, even in a state as Red as my home state of Nebraska, has thrown its hat in with the liberals. We conservatives need to see to it that there are conservative alternatives to these left slanted news stories. I think we need to bully reporters and editors to print and report stories of failed liberal policy. Now that we are in the minority in congress, the Democrats need to find out the real cost of power.

We need to reclaim our local newspapers. One paper and one news outlet at a time. We need to volunteer stories to the local paper, in fact, I think most of the writers on RedState could moonlight as reporters, given their writing ability dwarfs the average reporter at the average rag.

Where Republicans used to be strong was in the local media in the country at large. The big-time papers have always had a liberal tilt to them. (Save the WSJ.) We need to reclaim the reporting in our local broadsheets by helping them do their work.

We need to find someone to engage in actual investigative journalism regarding the corruption of the Democratic Party in Congress. We need to send countless letters to the editor decrying the scandal of Charles Rangel, et. al. in order to bring them to account for their actions. We need to engage in our own citizen journalism. I am relatively young, so I use lots of alternative media. However, most people still get their news from the traditional media outlets. While the alternatives, like Red State and Rush will continue to aid us, we need to empower a new generation of old shoe leather reporters to bring our stories to the fore.

This will require work. There is no doubt that the New York Times and the Washington Post will continue to suppress any news that benefits the conservative cause. They will also be cheerleading nearly incessantly for the newly minted “Obama Rex” in the White House. Instead of wasting our time merely offering opinions, we need to do good old fashioned journalism, reporting on all sides of the story. Clearly, there are stories which will bode well and against our cause. We should embrace them all. I think the editors of Red State did an honorable thing in going after Ted Stevens this fall. He had been convicted, and he has been evicted from the Senate. However, there should be a companion piece showing the reactions within the two parties when corruption is uncovered. Nearly in all cases, the Nixons, Stevens, and Cunninghams of the world are cast out into the wilderness. While the Democrats have no such sterling record. William Jefferson and Charles Rangel are only the most recent cases. Real reporting on what they have done, and what they are supposedly guilty of is severely lacking. I posit that the reason is that too many young journalism students are so ideologically to the left, that they cannot bring themselves to be critical of their own. These issues need to be brought up on the web and also in print. The traditional media won’t do it, so we need to. No spin, just the straight dope.

I think the people of this country are center-right. If that is true, there will be a news market for actual news displaying the faults and problems with liberalism. We also need to think about sending viewer created content to new media, like Current TV. While it is a niche network, for hippie style lefties of our modern day, we should not dismiss its impact either. Where are the conservative young people highlighting the ineffectiveness of modern urban schools? Where are the short documentaries displaying government regulation and cronyism leading to fewer economic opportunities. The left grew quite savvy in its use of all media to highlight the failures of the Bush Administration (both real and imagined), why don’t we do the same to them? Create the YouTube video demonstrating the oppressive and irresponsive nature of government. Make a pod showing the lack of viability of a single payer one-size fits all healthcare system. Show its problems in Canada.

As an English Teacher, I have changed my curriculum and will teach George Orwell’s 1984 and Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead in my literature classes. Part of the reason we have lost the youth vote this election (though not the only reason) is that we have lost our ability to instruct. The youth of this nation yearn for and require stability. That stability is rooted not only in the Founders and the Constitution, but in the cultural traditions of our great nation. We need to become teachers again. Ronald Reagan didn’t quit in 1964 after the Goldwater fiasco, he kept teaching. We need to do the same. We not only need to show why the left’s program isn’t working, we need to offer a relavent plan; a plan rooted in the traditions that make America the shining city on the hill. I won’t go into those policies right now, after all, you haven’t got all night, but we need to begin teaching anew.

Journalism relates to teaching in that it transfers information. The more informed the voter, the better Conservative candidates perform. We need to take this mission to heart, in all media forms, to reinvigorate our conservative principles in a new generation.