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Overcoming Media Bias Against Conservatives

By: David Goetsch

Conservative candidates can expect no help from the mainstream media when campaigning for political office at any level. In fact, they can expect just the opposite. Liberal journalists and broadcasters have long since crossed the dividing line between reporting and advocacy. Objective journalism, if it ever really existed, is a thing of the past. Some journalists and broadcasters even claim that it is impossible to be objective when reporting the news. Although they make this claim to justify their lack of objectivity, there is at least a kernel of truth in it. After all, no human being is completely objective. However, in every career field professionals are expected to be as objective as is humanly possible.

For example, umpires and referees are expected to be objective when calling games no matter which team or players they like best. Judges are expected to be objective in ruling on the basis of the law rather than their personal feelings regardless of the issue in question. Managers are expected to be objective in evaluating the performance of employees whether or not they like the specific individuals in question. Coaches are expected to be objective in playing the team members who can best help win the game rather than those they happen to like. If other professionals in other fields can achieve a modicum of objectivity, why can’t journalists and broadcasters? The answer is simple: they don’t want to. Media bias results from conscious choice, not an unavoidable weakness of human nature.

The increasingly obvious liberal bias displayed by the mainstream media in political campaigns since 1964 became egregiously blatant during Barack Obama’s campaign for the presidency. Media bias has become so institutionalized that few journalists even bother to deny it anymore. Instead, mainstream journalists and broadcasters are now more likely to acknowledge their bias and even belittle anyone who questions it. This means that conservative candidates for political office and those who support them must be prepared to do what is necessary to overcome a substantial disadvantage. The best way to neutralize liberal media bias in political campaigns is to render the media elites irrelevant by going around them. A famous example of doing this is Harry Truman—the best-known political candidate to bypass the mainstream media and take his message directly to the American people.

Americans of a certain age as well as political history buffs are familiar with the famous photograph of a broadly-smiling, victorious President Truman holding up a copy of the Chicago Tribune. It is the morning after Truman’s re-election as President. The anti-Truman newspaper he is displaying with obvious glee carries a banner headline proclaiming: “Dewey Defeats Truman.” Overly confident that its favored candidate, Thomas Dewey, would trounce Truman the Trib prematurely printed an inaccurate election result, and in the process created one of the most embarrassing moments in journalistic history. While Dewey and his advisors blithely put their trust in the supposed wisdom of the mainstream press, Harry Truman busily crisscrossed the country speaking directly to Americans from the back of his special train car—the Ferdinand Magellan. His strategy of bypassing the mainstream media and going directly to the American people paid off. Harry Truman won an election that even his supporters thought he would lose. There is a lesson in this incident for conservative candidates and the people who support them.

TAKING THE MESSAGE DIRECTLY TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

Because Ronald Reagan is remembered as being one of the best communicators ever to serve as President of the United States—particularly on television—it is easy to forget that he was also one of the most adept at going around the mainstream media and taking his message directly to the American people. In his landmark book, The Last Best Hope, William J. Bennett comments on how President Reagan would bypass the mainstream media when he wanted certain constituent groups to receive an unfiltered, uncensored message:

“Reagan took care to send many church conventions videotaped messages of support and empathy. It was a way for him to bypass the major television networks whose anchors and reporters arrogated to themselves the role of information ‘gatekeepers’ and deliver his message unfiltered and uncensored. Reagan’s Office of Public Liaison repeated the drill with business groups and friendly professional associations. Reagan earned the title of Great Communicator because of his skill on television, but his detractors hardly realized the manifold ways he would reach out to Americans through such traditional organizations as the Boy Scouts, 4H, and the Future Farmers of America.” (1)

Conservative candidates and those who support them must be prepared to borrow a page from Ronald Reagan’s playbook and bypass the mainstream media as often as possible. What follows are some strategies that can be used for taking the message directly to the American people at the local, state, and federal levels.

  • Develop a web page and make it the centerpiece of the campaign.

  • Develop a blog, update it constantly, and use it to inform constituents of your position on important issues as well as to seek their input and feedback. Interact directly with voters. As you interact with constituents, enlist their help—make them part of a growing army of supporters that will work on your behalf.

  • Host on-line chat-room sessions and interact in real time with constituents.

  • Develop a comprehensive email list, add to it continually, and use it regularly to stay in touch with constituents. Encourage everyone on your email list to: a) send additional email addresses to expand your list (but only after asking their permission), and b) encourage their friends and associates to help spread the word. Enlist them in your army of supporters.

  • Establish a Facebook page, add “friends” continually, and use it to stay in touch with voters. Encourage all of your Facebook friends to spread the word and to have their friends spread the word. Enlist them in your army of supporters.

  • Walk the neighborhoods. Regardless of whether the office is local, state, or federal, getting out and walking the neighborhoods is still one of the most effective ways to take the message directly to the people. At every stop that turns out to be friendly, ask for an email address and sign constituents up as Facebook friends. Also, do not forget to leave a yard sign. If you meet supporters who might be willing to help out, enlist them. Leave a supply of campaign literature and ask them to distribute it to their friends and associates with a positive recommendation.

  • Follow Ronald Reagan’s lead and enlist conservative groups at the local, state, and national levels as appropriate to help spread the word. Chambers of commerce and economic development councils tend to be conservative and pro-business. Consequently, every conservative political candidate should be a member of local chambers and economic development councils. Ministerial associations can be helpful in making connections with church groups in ways that do not violate their non-profit status. Civic clubs are usually good barometers of community attitudes and can be helpful in getting the word out. If local communities in the political district in question have an information center—often, though not always, it will be part of the local chamber of commerce—it will have a list of every kind of club that operates locally. Do not overlook social and hobby-oriented clubs. They can be very helpful in taking the message directly to the people.

  • Advertise as appropriate with alternative television and radio that are not biased toward liberal candidates such as the following:

  • For national races advertise with conservative magazines and newspapers such as the following:

  • Participate in political forums sponsored by local chambers of commerce and civic groups. Distribute business cards or flyers that guide constituents to your website, blog, and Facebook page.

  • Take advantage of every opportunity to interact with constituents in person and while doing so listen, listen, and listen some more.

The strategies presented in this article are just those I recommend for bypassing the mainstream media. They do not represent a comprehensive plan for conducting a campaign at any level. Rather, these strategies should be just a small but important part of a larger campaign plan—something conservative candidates and those who support them will have to do in order to retake America one election at a time.

NOTES

  1. William J. Bennett. The Last Best Hope, Volume II (Nashville, Thomas Nelson: 2007), 495.