In Virginia, Young Conservatives Learn How to Develop and Use Their Political Voices
June 12, 2001 3:44 PM   Subscribe

In Virginia, Young Conservatives Learn How to Develop and Use Their Political Voices - a New York Times (registration required yada yada) story about a conservative training camp for how to infiltrate and modify media coverage. Important for correcting a liberal media bias nobody can actually seem to find.
posted by faisal (16 comments total)
 
I assume when you say nobody can find it, you mean no liberal can find it. Conservatives find it all the time.
posted by revbrian at 4:36 PM on June 12, 2001


I believe Faisal refers to the article, which itself says "The young people in Mr. Montini's class were also hard-pressed to come up with examples of the news-media bias mentioned in Mr. Watts's fund-raising letter."
posted by joeclark at 4:42 PM on June 12, 2001


Hey, there was a slightly embarassing photo of Bush in the Chicago Tribune today. Those bastards! They'll do anything!
posted by dhartung at 4:58 PM on June 12, 2001


Interesting that the associate news director that they quote in the article is from an affiliate in Pgh. where the head news director is a known (gasp!) Republican.

But dammit, the thing that jumps out at me once again is bad copy editing - something that doesn't jive with the NYT - in this case, I'm jarred by the phrase: "Major donors include Joseph Coors, the beer magnate." There are three better ways to have put that, and three good reasons to have not ever allowed that sentence to see light of day. Gah.
posted by Dreama at 5:03 PM on June 12, 2001


dreama: Sorry. I really am. I don't like coming off like a bitchy old high-school English teacher (my mother was a high-school English teacher, but not bitchy, so there's no bias here) who for whatever reason is embittered, but you were being critical about copy editing, so . . . OK, here goes: You mean jibe, as opposed to jive. You're not the New York Times, sure, and you're not being paid to copy edit it either. Still. I do, however, like sentences with a certain rhythmic quality, one the NY Times does not often provide.

Beer is beatiful, by the way, if you sell it and make millions off it.
posted by raysmj at 6:03 PM on June 12, 2001


This is the Leadership Institute website.

When I was in college, I actually attended some of their classes, and I think I got a lot out of them. They actually helped me and a few friends start a student magazine at my school.

(BTW, I can't see how anyone can say there's no liberal bias in the media.)
posted by Witold at 6:11 PM on June 12, 2001


Also, for the record: A Google shows that the specific phrase "beer magnate" can be found 188 times in articles they've found and kept in the database. Words used anywhere with the articles with the specific phrase include the following. Totals are provided for each word:

Joseph Coors: 46
Joe Coors: 23
Coors: 62
Busch: 46

Bearing in mind that the Busch family is not as conspicuously political, and that the name can easily be misspelled, that's not bad.
posted by raysmj at 6:19 PM on June 12, 2001


The Leadership Institute has a Father's Day Special on Adam Smith Attire. Now you can dress like Dick Armey!
posted by rodii at 6:28 PM on June 12, 2001


So that's where aaron's been.
posted by crasspastor at 6:28 PM on June 12, 2001


Ah, J.C. Watts is involved - our very own modern day Uncle Tom. I wonder what time the minstrel show starts?
posted by owillis at 6:33 PM on June 12, 2001


And once again liberals label and demonize anyone who disagrees with them. How dare J. C. Watts develop independent thoughts different from you! Is he acting white now also?
posted by gyc at 7:47 PM on June 12, 2001


Owillis is a liberal?
posted by Doug at 7:52 PM on June 12, 2001


I have no problem with JC being a conservative Republican, that's his personal choice. But unlike other black Republicans he allows himself to constantly be paraded around as the diverse face of the GOP but when it comes to their actual party platform...

(way left liberals say I'm too pro death penalty and business, conservatives say I'm too anti-gun and pro-social programs. oh well)
posted by owillis at 8:06 PM on June 12, 2001


One more article with "beer magnate." And Coors. Sorry. Too good to resist, though. It's as mega-conservative as all freakin' get out and beyond. An article from the far right-wing publication Human Events, in celebration of the ultimate conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation. Published in December 1994, a month after the GOP's House takeover election of 1994 :

THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION
With the Republicans' astounding capture of Congress for the first time in four decades, conservatives have an historic opportunity to reshape the American political landscape. Ready as always to help them out is the leading brain-center of the modem conservative movement--The Heritage Foundation (THF)--now poised with an unprecedentedly broad and ambitious agenda.

Last month's Republican landslide victories were a ringing affirmation of Heritage's longheld faith in the power of unabashedly 'conservative ideas and principles. While ridiculed by critics in the days before the election as a monumental tactical blunder, the "Contract with America"--the specific, forthright enumeration of ideas developed by GOP House members in close consultation with THF--will be remembered by historians as a major reason voters throughout the country overwhelmingly opted for Republican candidates.

Commenting on last month's elections, Dr. Edwin Feulner, co-founder and president of Heritage, told HUMAN EVENTS, "Fundamentally, this was an idea campaign. What the Republicans did with the Contract with America and what President Clinton reinforced running around the country campaigning against Reaganism, made this election national and based on an opposition of ideas--and conservatism clearly won the day."

The dawning conservative moment of today is almost light years from the state of conditions in American. politics just over 20 years ago when THF was founded in 1973. Amidst a Republican presidency implementing price controls, guaranteed income levels, a slew of regulatory agencies and an accommodationist foreign policy, two young .Republican congressional staffers--Feulner and Paul Weyrich, now president of the Free Congress Foundation-established THF with crucial seed money from beer magnate Joseph Coors.
posted by raysmj at 11:53 PM on June 12, 2001


If you want to get your old man something a bit more impressive than an Adam Smith tie, I recommend a print by this guy.
posted by Mocata at 4:34 AM on June 13, 2001


Adam Smith is their hero? This seems absurd for a media training program. Smith's main contribution to history was the idea that self-interest is the engine of the economy and competition its governor.

In Smith's world, media companies that get most of its revenue from advertising would be expected to produce trivia and fluff, material that is just about good enough to keep the viewers watching, and keeps them in a mood to be receptive for advertising.

Good journalism requires investigation, research and context and therefore cannot survive in a Smithian system. Perhaps the media have a perceived liberal leaning because their mission is to improve society through other than selfish means?
posted by stevis at 9:36 AM on June 13, 2001


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