Life in an Echo Chamber

I have complained in the past about the extreme leftwing bias of the "mainstream media". Their continually biased reporting gives the Democrat party a strong advantage in the US political arena. However, there are disadvantages to this near-monopoly, because Democrat politicians get very little critical feedback on many of their ideas and activities. Thus, they often find themselves completely out of touch with broad segments of the American voters. Then, to my considerable amusement, they express shock and dismay when their candidates for office lose to Republicans.

The Anchoress comments on this echo chamber phenomenon, in a recent post about the recent faux pas of Her Thighness:

Perhaps this is the danger of surrounding yourself with loyal “yes” people and with press members who only write what is pleasing to you: you have no one to tell you that some gags just won’t work, that some one-liners are simply out of the question for you, and that some remarks - already of questionable taste - uttered from your lips border on the tawdry and almost make your presidential campaign look like a parody on MAD-TV.

I can think of many examples when Democrats relied too heavily on feedback from their ideological comrades in the "mainstream media". The most obvious example occurred during the events leading up to Bill Clinton's impeachment, and the subsequent victory of W during the 2000 election. I could personally care less who Clinton has sex with, but there are many other people, some of whom were lifelong Democrat voters, who were not amused by Clinton's white house liason with Monica Lewinsky. And the Democrats' vicious attacks on Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr were nothing short of stupid.

In the 2000 presidential election, W won the electoral vote by carrying states that had voted reliably Democrat for years, including West Virginia. This was due in part to the Lewinsky affair, and also to Democrat's support for gun control, that has much support in the mainstream media but very little support in some states, especially those with large rural areas.

Will we see a realingment in the media due to the increased popularity on Fox News Channel vs. CNN and other lefwing outfits? Good question.