CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES
BEYOND HOOKERS,
HAMAS AND HAGEL
echo chamber in the mainstream
press and in the public,” Erickson
wrote. “It translates only as anger
and noise, neither of which are conducive to the art of persuasion.”
It was, in many respects, a remarkable admission. Erickson,
whose site is known more for
conservative activism than reporting, is not seen as someone
with deep journalistic roots. But
he’s hardly the only one who has
concluded that one of the Republican Party’s major failures in the
past election cycle was the inability of the conservative press
HUFFINGTON
03.24.13
to shape the conversation.
Conservative media made noise
during the 2012 election but had
little impact on the news cycle.
Both The Daily Caller and Breitbart
News hyped old videos of Obama,
which despite being amplified on
The Drudge Report and Fox News,
received more mockery from the
national press than follow-up. In
response to Romney’s infamous “47
percent video” — a clearly newsworthy recording — Fox News attempted to equate his remarks with
a 14-year-old Obama quote about
wealth “redistribution.” The outof-context clip had little resonance
beyond those cable viewers still
convinced that Obama is a socialist.
Chuck
Hagel (left)
arrives f