Salon: We won't give in

One-party rule. One-sided media. Fight back with Salon.

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By David Talbot



Nov. 5, 2004 | Like many of you out there, I'm playing a lot of music these days, instead of compulsively watching cable news as I was during the run-up to the election. (I just can't stand to see bloviators like Tim Russert reassuring us that Bush will suddenly start "governing from the center like Ronald Reagan did during his second term." Another four years of Bush is bad enough without the inane commentary to go with it.) Anyway, the song I keep playing this week is from the new album by Neil and Tim Finn -- the same one that inspired Salon's Kevin Berger recently to pen an eloquent tribute to the musical brothers. It's called "Won't Give In" and its mix of heartbreaking minor-key melody and defiant lyrics captures my mood: "What does it mean when you promise someone/ That no matter how hard and whatever may come/ It means that I won't give in, won't give in." There's no one better to turn to than the Irish, like the Finn boys (by way of New Zealand), when you feel like crying and cursing at the same time.

But with each passing day, the urge to mourn is being replaced by the will to fight. And from the torrent of e-mail pouring in to Salon this week, it seems like you feel the same way. You're angry that Bush's campaign of fear has set the stage for another four years of theocratic zealotry; you're outraged that Republicans have seized on a slight 51 percent majority as a sweeping mandate for their radical agenda; you're insulted by the rise of a news media that seems dedicated to lobotomizing the American public.

Salon feels your passion. And I want to let all of you know: We won't give in.

The 2004 presidential campaign unleashed a tidal wave of new democratic energy. Hundreds of thousands of new activists came to life, and the organizations that harnessed this electricity will not disappear.

http://www.salon.com/letters/editor/2004/11/05/sub_election/index.html

They have been around long enough to know what's going on behind the scenes in the polititcal media going back since the Clinton impeachment days.

I don't think they have been as partisan and investigative as they could have been in undermining Bush in the last four years, but I do see them as a possibly important part of the emerging liberal media.