Posted by
Kathy Shaidle on Thursday, October 08, 2009 9:45:02 PM
Chuck Muth, a conservative activist and onetime executive director of the Nevada Republican Party, has found success with
his "independent news service," the Nevada News Bureau.
Political scientists said the move represents a strategic shift by the political right to counter the success of the Web-savvy left in getting its message out. And it comes at a time when the newspaper industry in particular has laid off droves of journalists as revenue plummets. (...)
In addition to the economic trends at play, there’s the growing appetite for opinion-based media that has driven the success of cable news commentators such as Glenn Beck and Rachel Maddow. The news is presented in a certain ideological light and the audience tunes in to have its beliefs affirmed.
Writing in the Atlantic this month, Mark Bowden outlined the problem this way: “Work formerly done by reporters and producers is now routinely performed by political operatives and amateur ideologues of one stripe or another, whose goal is not to educate the public but to win. This is a trend not likely to change.”
Muth said his was one of many conservative nonprofit groups that sought funding and the Franklin Center’s help at a meeting in Chicago this year. The overriding feeling: “We’ve seen the left do this. Our side needs to do the same.”