Dick Morris on the End of Big Media’s Political Influence
Dick Morris is credited with getting Bill Clinton re-elected in 1996. Here is what he told Christopher Lydon about the power of weblogs and the essence of the Internet in an interview earlier this week:
“Where did the anti-globalization movement gets its strength from? Certainly not the mainstream media! Where did the right wing get its strength from? And the anti-Clinton stuff? Where is the Dean candidacy from?
“If you just read the New York Times and Washington Post you get blindsided by all this stuff. It’s the new age in which everybody is a publisher of a newspaper and they can circulate it to anyone who’s interested in reading it. And that period of freedom–that free exchange of ideas, unmediated by who has a station license or can afford paper and ink–really I think is just the essence of the Internet era.”
Morris adds: “The essence…is not that it provides a new set of eyes and ears, but that it gives the voters a mouth, which they’ve never had in the media. The impact of that is absolutely historic.”
December 20th, 2003 at 5:30 pm
Maybe too many people “becoming aware” of a good idea can hamper it’s chances of ever benefitting anyone.
When tough decisions are made by a few, a whole nation can be against those that are threatened simply because it may involve change{never a easy thing to accept, especially when it can impact personally on your livelihood}.. The transition of the horse and buggy to the automobile,…eg.I don’t think the blacksmith was tickled with the prospect of seeing the demise of his stock and trade.
Or the invention of the cardboard pocket matchbook… “Hey,Everybody! I’ve just invented this easy method of creating fire.”It will be cheap,small, portable ,available anywhere and people of all ages are permitted to use it.
It can light a candle,start a campfire or stove and contains many instant mini fires until empty.
It just has to be approved by the FDA,Underwriters Laboratories and and get by scores of regulatory agencies to make it available to the general public.”
And the Ancient Chinese were the first to discover this convenient tool for lighting fires, including dynamite.
If there was public knowlege of such a product about to appear on the store shelves there would be so much opposition from the health and safety “crowd” the average guy would be borrowing a lit newspaper from the neighbours.
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December 21st, 2003 at 9:46 am
Hi Maxwell:
The power of the Internet and weblogs is that any topic gets aired from all sides and no one controls the information. In the end, each of us can make his or her own informed decisions. Will there be unexpected consequences for good and ill as more of us become self publishers as you note? Of course, but that is true with all technological advances.