Many on the political Right are ostriches when it comes to the power of OFA’s use of social media to promote their propaganda. Many think OFA is a fluke and once Obama is gone, that the GOP will be unstoppable in Presidential elections. This is a delusional worldview not based on reality. The latest example about the power of social media actually comes from the Right.
The media had a blackout on the the Kermit Gosnell case. Conservatives went on Twitter and began a grass roots campaign for media action. Lat week, Tweets were directed at reporters to get their attention. By the end of the week, the media admits they overlooked the story and started covering. This was a case of how grassroots on the Right used social media to get attention to a story. The media was forced to cover it.
If there were an award for Most Constructive Shaming of the News Media, the clear winner would be Kirsten Powers, the brave Fox News pundit and Daily Beast columnist. Last Thursday, she called out the mainstream media for failing to adequately report on the ongoing trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortionist who is charged with murdering seven newborn infants and a patient seeking an abortion. Powers’s USA Today piece provoked an instant response from many sheepish journalists.
Megan McArdle of the Daily Beast acknowledged she “should have” written about the “horror Doc’s” clinic. The Washington Post made the stunning admission that “we should have sent a reporter sooner.” Dylan Beers, Politico’s media reporter, flatly stated that “Gosnell should be front-page, top-of-the-hour news by prime time tonight.” Jeffrey Goldberg, a Bloomberg View columnist, concluded, “It’s remarkable that it took this long.”
Indeed, the silence had been stunning since the Gosnell trial began back on March 18. No mention of the story at all on ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, NPR, or MSNBC, and no front-page stories in any major paper. National Review, The Weekly Standard, Breitbart.com, and Michelle Malkin, on the other hand, provided early and consistent coverage. J. D. Mullane, the columnist for the Bucks County Courier Times who has been a tiger on the story, reported last week what he found in the courtroom: In the entire 40-seat section reserved for the media, he was the only one present. A couple of local journos were scattered elsewhere around the courtroom.
The Kermit Gosnell case shows that Conservatives using social media can match the Left. Now if only the Right had its version of OFA. That could be a difference maker.
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