Liberals and the Internet

The conventional wisdom on the left about liberal vs. conservative media is pretty simple. Conservatives, who have refined top down messaging into an art that da Vinci would have been proud of, are the kings of more traditional forms of media. Gate-kept media, like talk radio and cable television. On the other hand iberals, who are anathema to that kind of lockstep, have thrived on the Internet, where participation is entrepreneurial and the messages that emerge are the winners of a battle of ideas. But is that true?

Jonah thinks not so much:

In 2000, John McCain was hailed as a genius for raising a lot of money on the Web. Four years later, Howard Dean was a revolutionary for the same reason (while spectacularly losing the nomination). Today, Barack Obama is dazzling the pundits by raising huge amounts on the Web.

What do these campaigns have in common? Brilliant Web gurus and shiny Web 2.0 warp drives? No. They have candidates with broad appeal among affluent, Web-savvy leftists who tend to contribute money via the Web. Ask yourself: if Sen. Christopher Dodd appropriated Obama's or Hillary Clinton's Web operation, would we now be talking of the Dodd juggernaut?

Lastly, the netrooters claim that the Web is hostile to established power. They also claim that we're on the cusp of some grand progressive era in which the differences between the U.S. and Canada will be some spellings and the use of "eh?" Well, if that turns out to be true (I doubt it), then you can be sure that soon enough we'll be talking about the right's dominance of the Web. Again.

He raises some good points, but I think misses some others. For instance, web pioneers--like pioneers on the radio and cable--never meant to supplant or overtake the traditional media, which still drives coverage and in many ways is responsible for anointing front runners and hamstringing underdogs. What they did mean to do (and I think they've largely succeeded) is offer a countervailing force to conservative messaging, provide some weak-kneed candidates with a bit of backbone, and generally extend the boundaries of political conversation. It's not a perfect system, and it's not as powerful as the conservative establishment, but it's still impressive.

So if the nascent new liberal movement really begins to shape things, will we see the right wing begin to dominate the Internet? I sort of doubt it, and not just because of what the conventional wisdom says. The fact is that conservatives have an extremely strong media infrastructure. If it fails them, it's not because of a structural problem, but because their ideas have lost traction with people. At the dawn of a liberal ascendancy, I think you'll more likely see conservatives change their political priorities, and then throw members of the old-garde under the bus and replace them with some new faces.