It’s hard to believe that I’ve been working with the Media Research Center on NewsBusters since 2005. The internet was a much different place then than it was today.
Fresh from my work running RatherBiased.com debunking the bias of CBS’s Dan Rather, MRC’s Brent Baker was one of the few people on the political scene who saw the potential of online publishing as a medium beyond the ignorant stereotype coined by a CNN executive that blogging was nothing but “a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing what he thinks.”
Since my brother Greg and I teamed up with MRC to start NewsBusters, the site has become one of the most popular political destinations on the American interweb. More people read NewsBusters than watch many cable television channels. And blogging itself has become a media fixture with every major media outlet in the country embracing the medium for both news and opinion.
I’ve also gotten a great deal of satisfaction to interact with you, the readers of NewsBusters. A lot of you are really smart. It’s been a pleasure seeing NewsBusters develop as a community.
But all good things must come to an end. I’ve simply got too many projects in the pipeline to permit me to be involved in NewsBusters as I’ve formerly been. I’m not ready to announce all of them yet here today but I can say that one of them is a book on the future of conservatism in America.
Things have changed quite a bit in the country since the 1950s but in many ways, they are not actually not all that different. Unfortunately, there is a lot about the sociology of politics that conservatives have never quite understood.
The Right has also grossly misunderstood the role of media in a political system. Too often the conservative response to media bias has been to create niche outlets that are not mainstream, i.e. made for the tiny number of people who are right-wing political junkies. We need a true diversity of voices in the media and that process works in both directions.
On that particular point, one of my other projects is a syndicated television show which is cleared in nearly half of the TV markets in America for later this fall.
Long story short, stay tuned to hear more. I may pop in once and a while to file a blog post as well. In the meantime, thanks for reading NewsBusters and making it one of the best online communities out there. Ultimately, it is you who are responsible for that. It’s been a pleasure.
