Contributors
Hugh Hewitt - Principal Contributor

Mr. Hewitt is senior member of the CaliforniaRepublic.org editorial board. [go to Hewitt index]

How To Stop Democrats From Cheating
The rise of the blogs...
[Hugh Hewitt] 7/15/04

New Media is trumping elitist bias in many ways, but nowhere is it more evident than in the business of books. And no one could be happier about it than me.

My new book is now out, and I am hoping you will use the services of Amazon.com to send a copy to your least favorite liberal journalist, a small gift of truth and an invitation to reason. Since the title is self-explanatory – "If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat: Crushing the Democrats in Every Election and Why Your Life Depends Upon It – even if the journalist you select is Maureen Dowd or Paul Krugman, he or she won't be able to miss the point: Publishing isn't the preserve of the lefties anymore.

Of course, you already know this because of the success of Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, and even more recently, of "Michael Moore is a Big, Fat, Stupid White Man" by the wonderful gents who brought you Moorelies.com. Now it is happening to my book, which zoomed to No. 11 on Amazon the morning after I announced its availability on my radio program, even though it was not widely available in bookstores, had received zero advertising in print or electronic media, and had not been reviewed in a single newspaper or magazine. Elite media is never in a hurry to bring word of the opposition's positions in print, but all of these conservative authors and more, and now my book, have prospered.

Why? Simply put, the Internet. More elaborately put:

* WorldNetDaily
* FreeRepublic
* Instapundit
* Lileks
* Powerline
* RealClearPolitics
* EvangelicalOutpost
* FratersLibertas
* OutsideTheBeltway
* RedState
* Tim Blair
* RogerLSimon
* InfiniteMonkeys
* DaschlevThune
* CaptainsQuarters
* ShotInTheDark
* and a host of others.

For a good list of key blogs and websites, see my website, HughHewitt.com, but don't limit yourself to this list. Throw yourself with abandon into New Media, and enjoy the ability to get the news unfiltered by the opinion overclass.

The book readers of America used to be hostage to the book reviewers and bookstore managers of America. As a class, this group trended way left. The voices on the center-right of the political spectrum had trouble being heard, and faced near impossibility in the getting reviewed department – and they still do.

But those gatekeepers no longer matter.

Rush began the revolution, Fox News Network was the breakout from radio, and the blogosphere has turned the opinion revolution into a triumph for the center-right. Only the big – and dying – newspapers haven't figured it out yet, still lost in their focus groups, wondering why the news-consuming public loathes the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times. It isn't because they are lefties so much as that they are bullies of the opinion wars, trying to silence or ignore the other side of the debate. Now, with circulation plummeting, they are turning into Michael Moores – paranoid cranks, to be sure, but wildly self-important paranoid cranks.

Enough of the celebrating. Time to unveil my adopt-a-lefty-journalist program.

Is it possible to penetrate the cocoons that Dowd, Krugman, Dionne, Hunt and most reporters at the bigs live within? Not if we rely on their own intellectual curiosity. They don't get out much, and when they do, they don't talk with the red state folks.

So adopt a couple and begin to send them the books they need to read. Start with mine. Track down an address via the Web – most major papers have their mailing addresses pretty accessible, as do most studios – and have a book or two or 10 sent off to a national name and to a local reporter as well. Send a gift card with a note encouraging these people to broaden their horizons, and ask for some demonstration that the book has been received. Try and get them interested through persistence and patience in the half of the two Americas they disdain to recognize much less understand.

Will it work? Probably not in most cases. But it cannot hurt, and at least it will come as another shock to their system. Their perimeter is being reduced daily by the rise and expansion of New Media. At least they ought to know what hit 'em. CRO

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CaliforniaRepublic.org Principal Contributor Hugh Hewitt is an author, television commentator and syndicated talk-show host of the Salem Radio Network's Hugh Hewitt Show, heard in over 40 markets around the country. He blogs regularly at HughHewitt.com and he frequently contributes opinion pieces to the Weekly Standard.