I don’t think it is too much of a stretch to state that we live in interesting times, to put it mildly. As the repercussions from 30 years of free-market fundamentalism ricochet through our country, there is a growing populist rage against the perpetrators of this disaster. The Republican Noise Machine is out in front, blaming the liberals and the Left, as expected. And what is the response from the Left? Not much and not very effective. I’ve often wondered why this is so because what progressives believe in is what most Americans also believe in, regardless of what the right wing populists say. The danger that this country faces in the years to come (because this “recession” won’t be over this year) is that the right wing populists will lead us down the path to fascism. I use that word carefully, because most people associate the term with Mussolini’s Italy before and during World War II. Read the customer reviews of Friendly Fascism: the New Face of Fascism in America, written in 1980 by Bertram Gross, for a better understanding of the word.

In an interesting essay, Van Jones outlines the challenges that progressive populists face in averting this scenario. This essay originally appeared in the Spring 2005 issue of the magazine Social Policy.

Kill Chicken Little: Use Smart Media to Build a Progressive Community

Sick and tired of being negatively defined by FOX TV and right-wing radio, pissed-off progressives have decided to fight fire with fire. Different groups are laying plans to build a giant, partisan media apparatus of their own.

Pundits, intellectuals, activists, investors and donors all have high hopes. They want Air America to go toe-to-toe with Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. They want Al Gore’s forthcoming Current TV will take down FOX-TV. They hope progressive media will attract large audiences, undercut right-wing dominance and win many new converts. And they hope to succeed, mainly by “hitting back” at the conservatives’ on-air attack machine.

I hope their plans pan out. But I doubt they will. Of course, I believe that progressives can use media much more intelligently—and thereby dramatically expand left-wing power and influence. But progressives will not succeed merely by aping the Right’s tone and tactics. A copy-cat, me-too strategy will fall flat. We should not assume that the most powerful (or commercially viable) model will be a counter-attack apparatus that directly mirrors the Right.

To strengthen and expand our media capacity in the future, we progressives first need to conduct a sober analysis of the present: WHY has right-wing media captured so much of the market—and why have progressives failed to do so, thus far?

Don’t Blame The Ad Dollars

The cheap and easy answer is that corporate advertisers are more willing to monetarily support conservative content and programs. Therefore, the conservative programs have an easier time attracting the big ad dollars. That may be true.

But that kind of explanation dodges a deeper question. After all, at the end of the day, only the most ideologically committed sponsors will fail to go where the biggest audience is. And the biggest audience will generally flock to programming that is compelling, regardless of the underlying politics. The average media consumer could enjoy both conservative Bill O’Reilly and liberal Jon Stewart.

Conservative Media Rocks

So the deeper question is this: when it comes to building market share, what makes conservative programming so compelling? And what are progressives doing wrong?

Well, we don’t like to admit this. But right-wing media is sticky, fun and addictive. Their “news and opinion” media give conservative consumers a consistent, exciting, coherent world-view. Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity provide an exciting “good versus evil” storyline, updated daily. Meanwhile, religious conservative media feeds the audience’s hunger for meaning, inspiration and moral clarity. These twin offerings keep conservative media consumers hooked.

Progressive Media Bites

But progressive broadcasters offer neither a coherent storyline nor spiritual sustenance. Instead, progressive radio serves up a daily litany of complaint and disjointed critique. Most of our websites and publications are dumping grounds for depressing facts, helpless anger and conspiracy theories.

Innumerable angry books, bashing Bush, now choke landfills across America. The 2004 election cycle saw a veritable cottage industry of such screeds. But most were devoid of any positive ideas about how to improve people’s lives or fix the country. Our bad news mantra actually increases our audience’s overall pain and despair. The exceptions (like The Daily Show) just prove the rule. Too much “progressive media” has become “depressive media.”

The ugly truth is that conservative media magnetizes eyeballs and eardrums. But we progressives are practically DESIGNING our media offerings to repel the average viewer, reader or listener. Until we change that, any money that investors give to support a “new” progressive media machine will just be dollars going down a rat-hole.

Three Steps To Progressive Media That’s HOT!

So rather than blaming the bias of corporate advertisers, we should listen to what the market is trying to tell us.

To succeed, progressive media needs more than increased investments. We need more compelling programming. We need shows that people want to watch and listen to, every day. We need resonant messengers who can elevate the tone, quality and purpose of progressive media. We need to deliver real entertainment value. We need to respect the aesthetic sensibilities of a broader audience.

It all boils down to three things. First of all, we need to kill Chicken Little. … Second, investors should fund media that speaks to the heart, not just the head. … Third, we should use media to help people find real-world community with each other.

Kill Chicken Little

Okay, enough already with hectoring everyone about how bad everything is. We sound like the storybook Chicken Little, screeching to everyone about how “the sky is falling!” If reporting more bad news were the key to attaining power, leftists would already hold every office in the country. We have won over every vote we will ever get by weeping and wailing and gnashing our teeth.

Now, America is waiting to hear from progressives who can INSPIRE the country – and not just critique it.

Progressive media should be a beacon, illuminating real solutions for tough problems. Let’s make media that is uplifting, engaging and emotionally resonant—encouraging our hopes and sustaining our dreams. Imagine a new 80/20 rule: 80 percent of all “news and analysis” content must be uplifting and solution-oriented. Only 20 percent should depress people by pointing out what jerks the bad guys are. We can still speak to the ills of the world—but mainly as a springboard toward promoting our solutions to them.

And let’s not ape the Right’s sneering negativity. Yes, our pundits should be entertaining polemicists and great story-tellers. But progressives sound shrill and childish when we attempt the divisive, name-calling that works for Bill O’Reilly. We have to stand strong, anchored in a different ethos and sensibility. We can still be enteraining. But as we develop our authentic voices, Oprah Winfrey may have more to teach us than Rush Limbaugh. (Besides, she’s always had the higher ratings, anyway.)

Let Art Touch The Heart

Also let’s not limit our media efforts solely to the “news and analysis” format. Let’s support creative media that touches the heart, soul and funny bone—including novels, sit-coms, films, songs, theatrical productions. Such media can reach a vastly wider audience than any pundit program. Twice the funding should therefore go towards these efforts.

Powerful fiction can change facts. For instance, on the conservative side, the LaHaye’s Left Behind series has helped to turn Christian “rapture” politics into a social force, even inside the Pentagon. Pro-democracy fiction could pull society in a different direction.

Additionally, we can go beyond traditional artistic forms, altogether. New media technologies offer many new platforms: podcasting (creating content especially for MP3 players), flash animation, motion media to web-phone.

Imagine people with our values creating new anthems, downloadable as MP3’s or ringtones. Imagine a new “mash-up” musical genre—blending the spoken word and percussive elements of hip-hop, with the swelling choruses of gospel and the social content of folk. The possibilities are endless. Music and fiction can do the lion’s share of our outreach—if we support them.

From On-Line To Real-World Community

Perhaps the biggest unmet need in the country—and not just among progressives—is for a deeper sense of connection and community. People long to hear individual success stories, see workable community solutions and feel a deeper sense of belonging.

Millions of people are not immobilized because they don’t care or don’t have enough facts. They do care. Thanks to the internet, many are informed than ever. But they feel too isolated to believe they can make a difference. They know the problems, but not the solutions. They can name their political enemies. But they have yet to cohere a critical mass of political friends.

These are the people whom progressive media must engage. Not so much to inform them, as to inspire them. Not so much to help them find the facts, as to help them find each other.

The best and highest use of progressive media will be to help move ordinary people away from the isolation of their earbuds and computer screens—and into face-to-face, real-world gatherings with other human beings.

Our media can deliberately support face-to-face community – promoting reading groups, discussion groups, fan clubs, workshops and revivals. A main goal of all progressive media should be to aid their audience members in knowing which neighbors (within the same zip code) share their views.

Progressive media can drive people off their couches, out of their cars—and into each other’s arms. We know that the Right uses conservative churches for this purpose. We will have to get more creative.

Fortunately, new media can help. We can create the “digital breadcrumbs” that will lead people from computer screen isolation to real-world community. For instance, imagine getting regular installments of a funny, progressive, cartoon serial—delivered either through email or even directly to your cell-phone. The cartoon would feature a character as compelling as Bart Simpson or Huey from the Boondocks. Then imagine going to a “meet-up” fan event at a stranger’s home, to meet all your neighbors who love the cartoon. Imagine doubling the number of progressives in your life, right then and there.

Over time, imagine a whole “movement culture” built around new icons and parables—promoting a can-do, optimistic, “little engine that could” kind of culture—completely displacing the old, “chicken little,” defeatist, we’re-the-victims culture that currently saps all our efforts.

That would be a media system worthy of our efforts. And NONE of these ideas would primarily involve us launching histrionic attacks our adversaries.

An effective progressive media apparatus won’t be designed primarily to knock the Right down, but to lift our spirits up—and to bring us together, at last.