Alternative media?

Watched Richard Viguerie on C-Span's Booknotes last night, talking about his book, America's Right Turn: How Conservatives Used New and Alternative Media to Take Power. In an entire hour he mentioned the internet used for fundraising and news, but no mention of blogs. Inexplicable. The Republicans having missed them, since the old media have amply demonstrated that nothing Bush can do would get fair treatment from them.

The book nevertheless seems interesting for the history of the conservative movement, which Viguerie was careful to distinguish from the Republican Party, and the methods of direct mail fundraising. It's an interesting story, but I wonder how well he can forecast the future, when he seems to have missed the significance of blogs.

It would be interesting to see how much money a suggestion from Hugh Hewitt translates to in donations. One thing Viguerie noted was how much money the Swift Boat Vets for Truth raised in small spontaneous donations. They've raised $3,000,000 in hard money. MoveOn and ACT can't say that. And the SBVFT ads have been incredibly effective given the fact that the big old media have tried to counter them without investigating their charges.