This took me three attempts to write because I was literally speechless.
Every once in a while a Democrat spills the beans and says what they really believe. Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) on why she thinks the Dems lost.
BLITZER: What do you think? Loretta Sanchez, what do you think?
SANCHEZ: I agree with Jesse. I agree with my colleague. I believe that we made mistakes. The media certainly is not in our hands any longer, and, in particular, radio talk shows where that is completely in the opposition’s hands, and they use it effectively against us.
BLITZER: But, Loretta, when you say the media — when you say the media is not in your hands, are you saying that ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN are hostile to Democrats?
SANCHEZ: No, that’s not what I said. I’m saying that — if you would let me finish — that the majority of people are now receiving a lot of their information out of radio. And the radio isn’t in the hands of the Democrats anymore.
Many years ago, the Republicans made a very effective play. They sat down. They made a strategy. They decided they were going to put big thinktanks around, that they were going to fund them. They decided that they would buy radio, that they would use that to talk to people. And people drive in their cars, they’re listening to the radio all the time. They’re getting a lot of information that way.
You know, networks are losing — you know, they’re getting less and less viewership.
Read that again, it is amazing.
She laments that people get their information from sources (ie rado) the Democrats no longer control like they do TV. Blitzer even makes sure the TV nets are still OK in her opinion — which they apparently are.
If only people would get their news from TV, which the Dems still control, then Democrats could get elected, she says. But, damn us, we listen to radio and we get something other than the Democrat dogma. Damn us!
Those Republicans use radio to “talk to the people” and we can’t have any of that!
What this really shows though, is her world view. There is no free market. Conservatives are not popular because the free market chooses to listen to conservatives. Rush Limbaugh does not attract dozens of millions of people to his message or his style of delivery. No, those people only listen to him and other conservatives because the Republicans “bought” radio and the Dems “made a mistake” by not buying it first. As if you could “buy” a free market.
The media is not, in her mind; a free market, an arena of ideas, it is a pawn to be captured for political power.
What a great “brand” for the Democrats.
“Democrats: We can’t win unless we control the media.”
An amazing admission.
Yep, Paul, you are so right in your analysis and perception of these statements. Sanchez and Blitzer and the rest of Democrats, it’s remarkable how PREJUDICED and one dimensional they are. Streisand referring to “witches” in today’s political wins (to Streisand, that means us Republicans), many if not most in the film industry promoting a one-note slam dance, missing the point entirely that free enterprise selects against their products, against what it is they are, well, selling.
I’m in a hotel room for the Holidays (a few weeks in total, actually) and all I can tune to on the cable is MSNBC, TNN, CNN, ABC, CBS, ESPN, CNBC, PBS and it’s remarkable how highly opinionated is what they present. Let’s see…I’ve tuned into MTV a few times out of boredom before sleep and Eminem’s “MOSH” is playing there every time.
This isn’t what the majority of Americans cares to watch, has time to view, much less patience to listen/view, and when there are other options, like Talk Radio or a more expensive cable channel lineup, they go there. I do. Without the internet, I’d be suffering.
Oh, and the one HBO channel shows the nightly “WIRE” and a few sex industry ‘exposes’ but no SOPRANOS rebroadcast (Season Four is now being rebroadcasted and I’m missing it!).
This Dem believes it’s a matter of being able to control the media. She makes a good point. As Ann Coulter once said, if the Liberal-Left ever told the American people what they truly believe, the people would rise up and drown ’em. Just look at what Hillary’s doing: lately, she actually sounds like a conservative. But the catch is if she’s such a conservative — as the news media would have you believe — then what the hell are Lefties like Barbara Streisand and Alec Baldwin doing with her?
Why does the Lib radio hosts on Air America fawn all over her? The Democrat Party does have a big pair of b*lls. They actually tell Americans they plan to pull the wool over their eyes and then they do it.
One of the best things about not living in CA anymore is not being represented by Loretta Sanchez and certain others.
This, coupled with the guy who was whining about kerry only winning the highschool dropout vote by 1% (gore won it by 15%, the guy said) is all great news.
The dems don’t get it. And they don’t get that they don’t get it.
Cool…
The best way to deflect an outright lie is to continually repeat it to the point it becomes “the truth”. During this last campaign season I always wondered how the Democrat party could refer to President Bush as Hitler and the Republican party as Nazi’s. Controlling the mass media, in all forms, and pontificating relentlessly to the public, saying we believe or we’re idiots? Demanding we believe their dogma or else? The Democrat party (Democratic is no longer valid) has embraced naziism, socialism and communism yet continually ponders how they didn’t fool all of us. Most Conservatives and Red State residents are wary of government in general. When government starts sounding like the panacea the Democrats want us to believe it is, they drive us even further away.
Had this not been the significant election it was, my first instinct is to vote against every incumbent. We all see that absolute control corrupts absolutely. Sanchez is a living example of what’s wrong with government in this country. To few people represent the many. Rather than serve two years and go home to allow someone else to “serve” the people. we, the voters, allow dynasties to form and flourish. We allow these people, Republican or Democrat, to lead lavish lifestyles at our expense. No one, not one single person in office “deserves” more than one term. I hope someday people of good concience will see that and stop the insanity.
Home run! This Sanchez admission ought to be bottled and spread all over the internet. Yes, she got part of it right — conservatives do have the radio waves locked up. As you said it, the free market of ideas wins out. She missed the other wing, and that being the blogosphere. Conservative thought is well-represented on the web, and demo-liberal lies come under close scrutiny (see Dan Rather) and are frequently “outed” by blogs like yours. This is all to the good of spreading truth and the full spectrum of political thinking in our society. It’s something the tv world couldn’t provide, until FOX came onto the scene, and they are pretty much taking over there, too.
When I read 1984 in high school (early 70’s), I never dreamt the media control would come from the liberals. I assumed it would come from people like Nixon (I didn’t know they were Republicans! I didn’t know squat!)
The part I think is funniest, actully, is this quote:
“They made a strategy. They decided they were going to put big thinktanks around, that they were going to fund them. They decided that they would buy radio, that they would use that to talk to people.”
That makes it sound like Rush Limbaugh was the work of a Soviet-style Five Year Plan, with commissars directing vast networks of people and money to move this here, that here, the other over that a ways, and by dint of vast central planning by Very Important Thinkers the Plan was achieved. Someone needs to ask Rush which Central Committe created him. This belief that they got beaten by a better central-planning program just helps to show that the Dems really don’t understand how America works.
Mary: I had that exact same experience. When I look back, I’m still stunned at how stupid I was in high school.
And this is the person who replaced Bob Dornan? What a come-down for that section of Orange County. On the other hand, it’s great to see someone slop p and show their true selves.
And this story surprizes you because…???
The left has given up any pretence of what it used to need/have to hide from the public. Listen to Kerry’s Web Site Video spew about losing because of “Fox News and no more control of the Media” (Paraphrasing there) and you really see the true colors of an exploding party. When the end is near, who gives a RAT’s (pun) ass what is said? The fileting of the Dem Party is long overdue. Civil Rights are so 60’s…..
When I started to read this, I expected you to focus on the ‘any longer’ in
‘the media certainly is not in our hands any longer’.
And I had hoped for Blitzer to ask the follow up
‘Please give the timeline for the media control by your party, the Democrats, when it began, when it ended.’
This is pathetic.
Talk radio is conservative because people who drive to work every day, productive people who actually have jobs, tend to be … conservative! Hippies, tree huggers, marxists, and other generally urban types either don’t have jobs, or don’t drive cars. Ergo, they don’t listen to much talk radio. Especially not at, say, 8 AM.
Oh, wow, that hurt my brain just coming up with that, I think I need to sit down now.
That ain’t the worst of it for ’em. The evolution of new media—talk radio, the Internet, the blogosphere, and beyond—means that the Gramscian model they’ve been following for 40 years is fatally flawed.
I was no fan of “B1-Bob” Dornan, but Loretta Sanchez is only IN Congress because a number of illegal aliens were easily able to register and cast votes. The fraud was well-documented, and yet she was allowed to take her seat. How many of those illegals do you think voted for the Republican Dornan?
That is because out here in California, voter registration is via postcard, and no ID is needed to vote. Our system is a mess. It still hasn’t been cleaned up.
As I live in Sanchez’s congressional district (Garden Grove, CA) I get a front-row seat.
Bob Dornan lost to Sanchez because he took his constituency for granted, plus a changing demographic — and a little voter fraud. Sanchez continues to get re-elected because her district includes parts of Santa Ana and Anaheim which have huge Hispanic populations which vote Democratic and will vote for one of their own.
With the start of her fourth term, she is very comfortable. She is going to continue to spout off like Dornan did. That will be her downfall.
The Crats of Dem cannot be too happy with “Loose Lips” Sanchez.
The Crats of Dem cannot be too happy with “Loose Lips” Sanchez.
“The Crats of Dem”
Capitol Steps fan?
Oh dear.
I listen to NPR every morning on my 1/2 hour commute. I rarely listen to “talk radio” now, though I miss The Black Avenger and a certain personality from west Nevada who used to share my commute times in the not so distant past.
Why?
I like to keep up with what “the enemy” is up to — all the better to know what I have to concentrate on refuting. NPR strays into actually countering MSM at times, which gets interesting.
Also, it is sometimes humerous to see them pick up on a story sans attribution that has been circling the blogsphere for a while. Most recently I noted a short piece on all the money the Army is spreading around Iraq (money confiscated from Bathist sources) to rebuild. I’d read much more interesting accounts by 2Slick and others several weeks before this.
Lastly, too much of the talk radio, and Rush is as guilty as anyone else, has slipped into self-aggrandizement and uncritical liberal bashing. That is a disease painful enough to see in the Hollywood set (substitute conservative bashing for liberal bashing).
I don’t have cable and I haven’t watched network news since Huntley and Brinkley were battling Cronkite. My favorite news program then was TW3. Who the heck is this Dan Rather guy everyone seems to be talking about anyways?
“Lastly, too much of the talk radio, and Rush is as guilty as anyone else, has slipped into self-aggrandizement and uncritical liberal bashing.”
Fair point. Hannity falls into the same trap. I like the likes of Hugh Hewitt, Michael Medved, et al, where they schedule liberal guests and actually encourage people with opposite viewpoints to call in. They bash liberals, but it is definitely not “uncritical”.
I wonder if anyone here watches CPSAN at all. CSPAN actually gets in people from BOTH sides of just about everything they show. Not only that, they don’t seem to do anything about “dead air”.
Just about anyone who watches television knows about the absense of “dead air”, when there literally is NO SOUND at all. When a commenter isn’t saying something, there is music, there are cut-backs- to video segments. When a caller calls in and they pause for a few seconds, the commenter has to but in with a few words here or there.
CSPAN doesn’t do that. CSPAN is the only news broadcaster that I’ve seen that plays video without any commenters at all (note that commenters put spins on things, if they broadcast “facts”, they’d just show the damn video).
Even FOXnews falls into the trap of putting spins on things.
I saw some of the debate coverage on CSPAN, and they had an “open forum” where they just fielded callers without offering any comments or responses to the callers.
Then there’s the fact that Rep. Sanchez can’t put together a coherent sentence but is one of our 435 “best and brightest.” She’s a joke. But make no mistake, she’s powerful. It takes power to get your even dimmer sister a seat in Congress.