From Idea to the News: How a Conservative Meme Travels

Image from JayeSchlesinger

The route of political memes from the right seems to go like this lately:

- Arch political blogs like Free Republic ferret out what they think is a big story. Examples include the Bill Ayers or the ACORN stories.

- Right-wing talk radio is either simultaneous or immediately follows the bloggers, talking for three-hour stretches, daily, hammering the story.

- FOX "News" follows, or once again hits simultaneously, as there is cross-over with some of their hosts and guests.

- The story doesn't spread very far into the mainstream at first, beyond letters to the editor columns, and other political blogs. But if the story has legs, it begins to seep into the mainstream, which becomes unavoidable after. . .

- Eventually, the story makes it into actual conservative politicians' quotes, sometimes all the way to the top. In today's world, that means John McCain's campaign.

So a segment of the population that used to be decidedly fringe, now have become sort of mainstream, though it usually takes a lot of effort from all of the above.

While I've seen this happen, I've missed a critical step. Today, I happened by (OK, trolled) the wing-nutty Free Republic site, in this case on the topic of a supposed "surge" of support for McCain in Pennsylvania. See, this is the new story they want to push, that a state that has voted for 20 years for Democrats is poised to switch to McCain.

But they can't let that just naturally happen. FReepers aren't like that. They fancy themselves as puppet masters, and to a degree, they are. It is a usual game for them to "FReep" a poll, to make their views seem more popular than they are. They've learned the old "perception is reality" tactic from Karl Rove. And here is a direct quote from their site, to try and affect public opinion in Pennsylvania and beyond. Check it out:

"Freepers! Google the topic 'Pennsylvania Newspapers' and go throught [sic] he list and start posting in forums. Put tons of links to stories posted here."

So next time you think that public opinion is swinging to an unlikely place, don't be so sure.

Source: FreeRepublic