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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

Attention Members of the Gang of 500

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  April 3rd, 2012 at 10:44 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

I really continue to be stunned by the number of reporters I interact with on a daily basis who really have no idea what conservatives are thinking, reading, etc.

I’m always happy to answer those questions. Many of those questions, particularly from print reporters (sorry guys), really seem to start from the premise that conservatives are not thinking about particular topics. Even worse, many reporters regardless of media, seem to think conservatives only thing about things in one way.

One of the great things about the Morning Briefing is that it is not just directed at conservative activists and talk radio, but also at the large number of reporters who read it to get a sense of what conservatives are talking about. But the Morning Briefing really is from the viewpoint of conservative activists.

Reporters also need a conservative public policy perspective.

And for that, I really do encourage reporters out there to get The Transom by Ben Domenech. It’s $20.00 well spent to give you a greater perspective on conservative views.

I was talking to a reporter the other day about Republican tax policy. He’s a brilliant reporter frequently on the news and in print publications. I was stunned by how shallow his understanding of Republican tax policy is. “You can’t cut taxes forever,” he said as if his singular understanding of Republican tax policy came from reading right-wing stereotypes on left-wing blogs.

I paid for his subscription to The Transom. I can’t afford to do it for everyone. But you guys really need to read it if you want an accurate “whole health” view of what conservatives are thinking and talking about from a policy perspective.

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COMMENTS

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  • finbar

    You assume that reporters WANT a conservative public policy perspective.

  • NeoKong

    Not really.
    They prefer their stereotypes.
    It keeps things simple.

    Republicans want to cut taxes because they are greedy, do not care about brown people and obviously want people to starve in the street.

    The other guys like higher taxes because they can help all those dirty people they feel guilty about but never really actually meet…you know..because they aren’t allowed in the building.

    They are the sort of people who think they are changing somebody’s life by giving away old clothes to their house keeper.
    Instead of taking home their leftovers they tell the busboy “No no..why don’t you take it home.”

    They have a strong sense of guilt about their success and try to assuage it by making everybody else help those poor people that make them so uncomfortable.
    I would bet that there are people working at CNN who have seen the same people in the lobby every single day for years and have no idea what their name is even though those same people say hello to them every single day.

    They do not ever want to be in a situation that contradicts there perceived notions because that would mean they wasted so much time being wrong.

  • acat

    Explaining by malice that which can be explained by incompetence…

    Further, shouldn’t we assume that competent liberals in the media would want to know how conservatives really think to make their lies more effective, or to go conservative *just enough* to gain market share? (i.e. Fox News pre-2011)

    Who knows, we may eventually convert one or two …

    Mew

  • acat

    Hope he’s not using real blood…

    Mew

  • texashistorian

    Not sure if Occam applies here, because it really isn’t a big leap to assume that most reporters from left leaning news outfits don’t really care what conservatives actually believe. We have too large a mountain of evidence of willful malice on the part of the news media towards conservatives to ignore. Let’s be honest- it isn’t that difficult to learn about conservatism if they cared. It’s not as if this is anything new, Since Goldwater’s “Conscience of a Conservative” appeared, modern conservatism has been a wide open book for any that could be bothered.

  • acat

    Sure, there’s malice, but for most, it’s just stupidity. Exposing them to conservative thought can’t hurt.

    Further, those who do bear us ill will are the ones who ought to be listening to Rush and reading The Transom … because it’s necessary to know your opponent, at least well enough to see any blind spots.

    Mew

  • YnotNOW

    Because if you think that “whoever” is intentionally against any facts or logic to the contrary, then you cannot argue with them. Meaning there is no point at all in conversation.

    Instead, the default assumption should be that “most people” are open to ideas that they have not fully considered before. Therefore, there is a reason to talk to them. And most of the public (and a smaller percentage of the media) are actually just lazy and have bought into the liberal sound-bites because they never made the effort to understand the issue(s). Some will be hopeless, but others are willing to consider. Which allows the opportunity to make a difference.

    Don’t write off your opportunities.

  • http://impudent.edublogs.org/ kyle8

    we are talking about liberal “journalists” here. Stop and think about the kind of people who go into journalism in college, and then what they learn there.

    These people are stupid and incompetent yes, but I find it much more likely that they are even more so biased and mean spirited.

  • http://impudent.edublogs.org/ kyle8

    They already think they know us, and besides, they think we are evil and stupid and easy to defeat. It ALWAYS comes as a shock to them when we win anything.

  • acat

    While I do agree that some percentage of journalists are mendacious hacks, maybe even a higher percentage than we would find in other career paths, I do not agree that it’s 100% .. and with that in mind, an effort to enlighten is not wasted.

    Mew

  • acat

    And my understanding of Occam says it’s a minority subset.

    Mew

  • http://impudent.edublogs.org/ kyle8

    just sit back and laugh at them as their business model goes bankrupt. Make fun of them in public. Call them out for all their lies, and then call them scumbags.

    It is true that occasionally someone changes stops being a left winger, but those are few and far between,because if you were a smart person, or a genuinely good person then chances are you would not be a left wing journalist in the first place.

  • acat

    Whaddya do if we get a smart liberal media?

    Smarts and liberalism aren’t as mutually exclusive as you’d like… take a look at the percentage of smart liberals who work for tech firms, eh?

    Mew

  • http://impudent.edublogs.org/ kyle8

    only know about their own narrow field of study are often liberals because it requires no thought. But whenever a person begins to actually educate themselves about economics, politics, history, and social issues they almost always become more conservative,

    Likewise as people age they just naturally grow more conservative with only a few exceptions.

    I really don’t think there are many who are all that smart. Of course there are a few that are. Bill Clinton is probably the smartest one I have ever seen, smart, and cunning, But then again, he is much more of a centrist than most in his party.

    But what we are talking about isn’t politicians or academics, we are talking about journalists, and no I don’t think any of them will every wise up. I really do hold them in utter contempt.

    Here is an example. One of the most lauded old left wing journalists was Sam Donaldson. Sam had a gig for nearly twenty years in which he did real investigative reporting on waist, fraud, and abuse in government. Week after week he exposed horror story after horror story. And NOT ONCE did he ever question the size of government or that government should even be doing any of that crap in the first place. Always it was “We are trying to make the government run better”.

    That is stupidity. And when they are not being just stupid they are also being mendacious, just like NBC doctoring those tapes, How did they think they would get away with that?

  • Martin Knight

    Even worse, both feed on each other.

    I happen to think the best way to curb liberal journalist malice is to stop participating in the polite fiction that something like this is some sort of honest mistake.

    We need our politicians to start openly calling them liars and hacks. Screw trying to win them over.

  • texashistorian

    Cat and Now, point taken, we still have to try and reach out. I just believe, working around a mass of libs each day, that they do know better, and willfully mischaracterize conservatism because its easier than confronting the failures and illogic of their own political beliefs.

  • YnotNOW

    but try to hold to the truth that they are not evil, they have been taken captive by an evil ideal / philosophy. If you allow them to remain in that trap, you are not doing them any favor. If you make them confront the fact that their beliefs do not correspond to the Truth, then you have the chance to wake them from their slumber, and free them from their captivity!

  • YnotNOW

    In that Liberals have been taken captive by a philosophy that entraps them and forbids them from seeing the Truth. Liberals think they know their “enemey” because they cannot allow themselves to be open minded about the arguments. In fact, they only consider us the “enemy” because they refuse to go past the stereotypes and ad-hominim attacks.

    That is why we cannot fall into a similar trap. If we have compassion on those who have been taken captive by false ideas, then we have the incentive to reach out to them with logic and reason, because we care about the soul who has gone astray.

    A much more viable viewpoint.