Reply #18: Well, basic distrust of The Messenger, for one... [View All]

I don't like having the media tell me who to vote for. And when they go out of their way to establish that Dean *really is* The Outsider, I'm all the more intrigued. Also suspicious about how the Democratic National Committee leadership might be reacting to just anyone coming in and taking over the party's forward momentum. (Especially somebody who's trying to shake things up and bring an honest, unbrokered point of view to the public discussion?)

I posted this in another thread but I'll re-paste it here:

I have half a hunch that some of the unanimity in the media chorus could be traced to Democratic flacks and PR spin-meisters kicking in their two bits, on top of the Republicans. I don't want to name names, because I {AH-CHOOO00TerriMcAuliffe-et-al-SNEEZE-COUGH} don't really know.

But of course, that's the trouble with the media in the first place. There's no transparency, you don't see nearly enough of the little disclaimers ("this message/news bulletin/editorial opinion brought to you by the makers of Duff Beer") that you should see. Would that politicians were like NASCAR drivers (in Jim Hightower's famous line) and you could read all of their endorsements at a glance.

And since there are actually *more* PR people in the country than there are working journalists, and probably more money and effort directed toward manipulating specific messages, as opposed to the ordinary "business of news", it's not a situation that would tend to reinforce one's confidence in the Status Quo...

...So I'm voting for Dean in the Wisconsin primary (after being positively impressed by Edwards in the debates, and except for Lieberman and Clark, not disliking any of the rest.)