The fall of the Big Media

I was wrong.

When I’m wrong, I admit it.

And I was wrong.

Five months ago, I predicted John Kerry would win the presidential election. I really thought he would for several reasons:

• President Bush’s record – especially on domestic issues – was weak. He didn’t show any desire to curtail illegal immigration. He even proposed yet another amnesty program, an idea entirely unpopular with the American people at any time, but I thought politically lethal at a time when the country is facing dramatic terrorist attacks. He also increased spending on a host of programs for which there is no constitutional justification.

• I expected Kerry to put on a convention show similar to those orchestrated by the Clinton-Gore campaigns of 1992, 1996 and 2000. I believed Kerry would get a significant bounce from such a spectacle. I never expected him to make Vietnam the cornerstone of his campaign.

• Most of all, I thought the Big Media would be there to sustain that anticipated bounce and to propel the Kerry campaign forward with partisan relish.

I guess my biggest mistakes were over-estimating Kerry and his friends in the Big Media.

The Big Media just ain’t what it used to be.

And I should know. I should have seen it. After all, I’ve been a big part of the New Media for the last seven years – developing real news alternatives to the monopoly formerly held by a cartel of elitist corporations with a strong ideological agenda and partisan bias.

What I failed to calculate into the equation was the impact of the Swift Boat vets.

I certainly knew John O’Neill and company had some surprises in store for us. Beginning way back last spring, before “Unfit for Command” became the No. 1 best-seller in the nation, the author and his Vietnam vet comrades in arms were frequent guests on my national radio program.

I just wasn’t sure how they would get the message out.

But they did – demonstrating irrefutably the new clout of the New Media. Capitalizing on the combined power of the Internet and talk radio – and, most importantly, a compelling message – the Swift Boat vets revealed enough about the true character of John Kerry to ensure he would never be president.

When his polls went south, Kerry’s Big Media friends got desperate.

There was Dan Rather of CBS News’ “60 Minutes” breaking a story based on fraudulent memos about George W. Bush’s National Guard service. Rather and CBS refused to admit they’d allowed themselves to be hoodwinked – or, worse yet, had deliberately perpetrated a hoax on the American people for political reasons.

Then there was the questionable Associated Press story quoting veterans who supposedly were more concerned about Bush’s service record than Kerry’s. Serious questions have been raised about the identity of one of those vets – supposedly a Navy SEAL who had become a Muslim and changed his name.

The Big Media tried it all this year – from sensationalizing the Abu Ghraib prison scandal to ignoring fundamental questions about Kerry’s record and character.

But it was to no avail.

Because the Big Media has lost its grip on the soul of the nation. Because it no longer has the credibility required to perpetrate its frauds. Because good people stood up to the onslaught and courageously told their stories through alternative venues. Because there were alternative venues.

Now I know Kerry is destined to lose this election. But there’s even better news for the country. I think Kerry could very well take the Big Media down with him.

Oh, I know CBS and AP and the New York Times are not about to disappear overnight when their candidate loses the election Nov. 2. That process will take more time. But the process has begun. They are going down, those Old Media institutions. They are going the way of the dinosaur. And, when they do, they will have nobody to blame but themselves – and, perhaps John Kerry.