Well, writing for local media is a useful thing, or more importantly, encouraging grassroots groups to write letters to the editor and such.
But my main point, as usual, is that I think politics is far less of the centralized corporate duopoly envisioned by most leftists, and far more a system of 435 individual Congressional worlds. In those micro-worlds, local rotary club capitalists do dominate politics, but not exclusively, so unions and grassroots organizations do have room to organize, educate and counter the media.
Media activists should think about skipping so much effort placing an ad in the New York Times and instead survey which Congressional districts are "swing disticts" and target those media outlets.
The brilliance of the Christian Coalition was that they recognized the power of becoming the local media. Their election cards, which they handed out by the bucketload, was one of the most effective tactics because it supplied information (however biased) that countered media information about candidates and issues.
I remember hearing a union official talk about political campaigning and he said the shocking thing the unions had found from surveys after campaigns was that when they handed out information, their members actually thought the unions were a trustworthy source of information! In many cases, far more than the regular media.
When folks talk about the progressive media, they inevitably talk about the Nation but ignore sources such as Solidarity, the monthly magazine from the UAW that goes out to nearly a million people each month, as well as other union magazines or non-profit mailings. Add in the Internet and there are many ways to reach average folks outside the mainstream or even local media.
One of the brilliant things about Gingrich in his organizing to take over the House was that he concentrated on distributing information to the troops locally, including radio tapes, to specify language and phrases to repeat endlessly in local newspapers or just talking door-to-door with neighbors. It combined a centralized media strategy with a decentralized implementation.
Unfortunately, the left presently has mostly "small is beautiful" local activists who coordinate little nationally, or national activists targetting only national institutions and media. The unions are one of the few groups who are slowly developing the combination of a national media strategy and local implementation, but they are moving that way only in fits and starts. But it's the best hope.
-- Nathan Newman