Daily Kos called Joe Scarborough the “resident Republican blowhard on MSNBC.” Daily Kos and many other on the left-leaning outlets have taken Scarborough to task. Really. All Scarborough did was to assert that almost every mainstream news anchor or Sunday morning interview show is liberal. He cited a number: David Brinkley, Tom Brokaw, Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Tim Russert, and George Stephanopoulos. What he didn’t say was what kind of liberal they might be.

Think about those names: Brinkley, Brokaw, Cronkite, Rather, Russert, Stephanopoulos. Do any of them seem like flaming liberals? Hardly. Cronkite was frequently called “the most trusted man in America.” He was seen as fair and balanced before that term became so tarnished. What is it about the others that Scarborough sees as being so liberal? If he contends that they voted Democratic, he’s probably right, although we’ll never know. But for him to contend that they’re liberal because they might have voted Democrat is a bit of a stretch. These are all mainstream guys who may have voted Democratic because Republicans offered such poor choices. They may have been viewed as liberal because they had a certain element of inquisitiveness and curiosity. They were open to new information, something that is often not found in Republicans. It’s difficult to know how Scarborough himself can take in new information when he so frequently drowns out others by interrupting.

Scarborough, who once served as a Republican in Congress, overlooks a key reason why the aforementioned, as well as so many other mainstream journalists, are not liberal. It is because they present much of what is called news through the lens of false equivalencies. They report points of view that have little or no factual basis as being on a level with those that are solidly grounded.

A current example would be disagreement over what the hazards might be of increasing the size of the federal budget. For decades, Republicans have argued that deficit spending would lead to increased inflation. They argue that inflation is like a regressive tax on consumers. The problem is that, over the past ten years, the highest annual inflation rate we have had was 4.1 percent, as George W. Bush continued to drive us into two questionable wars while refusing to raise taxes. Under President Obama, inflation has risen to 3.0 percent only once (2011), and in 2014 was 0.8 percent. Statistically, our inflation is now zero.

Liberals favor programs that strengthen the federal safety net for all. The programs range from Social Security and Medicare to occupational safety and environmental protection. They also include huge infrastructure programs, the kind that produce jobs that cannot be outsourced overseas. They are clearly good for the economy. If the cost of a new and larger stimulus project is Bush-like inflation of 4 percent, it is a small price for providing so many well-paying jobs for Americans and producing a finished product that is of far more value to all of us than an engagement in war.

Yet the media prefers to present Republican arguments against increased spending on a par with progressive ideas to provide more security and jobs. The media also equates Republican arguments that reducing federal regulations (e.g. safety and health requirements) will create as many or more jobs than progressive ideas to have the federal government as “employer of the last resort.”

Cronkite, Brokaw, not even Rather ever reported liberal ideas as being more fact-based and reasonable than most conservative arguments. So I take issue with the contention that Joe Scarborough was criticizing real liberals. I also question the accuracy of the Daily Kos headline, “MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough Has On-Air Mental Breakdown Over Liberal Media Myth.” See for yourself:

The post Scarborough’s misconceptions about liberals in the media appeared first on Occasional Planet.

If negative advertising turns you off, but if you really would like people to know the facts that make a candidate look bad, Daily Kos has a plan for you. The highly influential progressive blog has launched a scheme called “Grassroots SEO.” It’s billed as a way to use the power of internet search engines to increase political activism.

Noting that, as the November 2010 election approaches, conventional Democratic playbooks focus on efforts to get out the vote [known in inner circles as GOTV], Daily Kos asks its followers to get involved both in traditional and non-traditional ways.

Here at Daily Kos, we are going to engage in very different, but still very important, form of election activism. It’s a type of activism no one else is working on, and it is well-suited to our medium as a blog.

The goal of Grassroots SEO is to get as many undecided voters as possible to read the most damaging news article about the Republican candidate for Congress in their district. It is based on two simple premises:

• One of the most common political activities people take online is to use search engines, mainly Google, to find information on candidates. (For more information, see the Pew Internet and American Life Project’s report on 2008 online political engagement.)
• These results of these searches are always in flux based upon hyperlinks anyone posts anywhere on the Internet, including message board comments and social networking sites (but not email).

As a result of this, not only is it possible for us to use our hyperlinks to impact what people find when they search for information on candidates, but we would be foolish not to do so in a way that benefited our preferred candidates.

To get its reader/bloggers involved, Daily Kos has created a series of search-engine-optimization tips, which it publishes on the blog itself and makes available via email alerts.

The first tip is called “Clicks Matter.”  Daily Kos’ Chris Bowers explains it like this:

What to do: Once a day, spend a couple minutes conducting a Google, Yahoo or Bing search on the name of a Republican running for Congress. Look over the summaries of the first 50 results and, when you do, be sure to only click on the links that appear unflattering to the Republican candidate.

Why it works: The links you click on during any search will become a little bit more prominent the next time someone else conducts the same search. This is a type of influence search engines themselves grant you, and which you can use to help other people see your preferred articles on any subject matter.

To help participants focus their efforts, Daily Kos has compiled a list of 98 competitive Congressional races. It’s all perfectly legal, says Daily Kos, and within the rules established by Google.

But if this kind of negative effort makes you uncomfortable, just don’t do it.

The post Progressive Poli- “clicks” debuts at Daily Kos appeared first on Occasional Planet.