It was the year 2000, and Democrats were running on a record of peace
and prosperity stewarded by the capable, if morally imperfect, Bill
Clinton. It was a race that should have been won by their candidate, Al
Gore. In fact, it was won by Al Gore, but the Rightwing Noise Machine
kept it close enough to be stolen by the Republicans and their allies
at the supreme court. What is the Rightwing Noise Machine?
Conservatives in the United States have spent the last 30 years
building a vast infrastructure designed to create ideas, distribute
them, and sell them to the American public. It spans multiple think
tanks and a well-oiled message machine that has a stranglehold on
American discourse. From the Weekly Standard, Rush Limbaugh, Wall
Street Journal, Drudge Report and Murdoch's Fox News, to (more
recently) the mindless drones in the rightwing blogosphere, the right
enjoys the ability to control entire news cycles, holding them hostage
for entire elections. [more ]
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