The MSMs "day is done, yours is coming"

The flightless Dodo bird is "commonly used as the archetype of an extinct species because its extinction occurred during recorded human history and was directly attributable to human activity," according to Wikipedia. In the parallel case of vanishing Mainstream Media Man, its demise is directly attributable to a toxic mix of human nature (hubris) and human invention (new technologies) that favored proliferation of once obscure species like self-organizing, "smart mobbing" Tea Party Man. (Photo by Ballista of The Oxford Dodo, Raphus cucullatus, a "reconstruction reflecting new research at Oxford University Museum of Natural History.")

"Stop worrying about the mainstream media. Their day is done, yours is coming," advise the Washington Examiner editors in "What next for the Tea Party Protests?":

The reality is that millions of Americans are deeply worried about the unexpected [Not by all of us. –ed] and unprecedented direction the country is taking under President Obama and the Democratic Congress led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Americans thought* they were electing a president who would seek tax cuts for “95 percent of all working families,” “a net spending reduction” in the federal budget, and a Congress that got the message on earmarks.

*Some call it thinking. We call it wishful thinking. But no matter. Better late than never to recognize what the Con Man in Chief is up to. The Examiner has a plan:

But one day of nationwide Tea Party Protests is only a beginning. The question now is what is the next step for this still-gathering movement? The Examiner suggests three maxims to guide the movement: First, don’t abandon the social networking and bottom-up direction that enabled a genuine grassroots phenomenon to coalesce in just a few weeks. Top-down, command-economy management from Washington got us into the current mess. Second, all politics is still local. As National Review Online’s Jim Geraghty points out, it’s one thing for 1,000 people to demonstrate at the White House, and something else again for the same number to pack a city council or county supervisors meeting demanding an end to the waste and political gamesmanship. Today’s local tremor eventually becomes an earthquake in Washington. Third, stop worrying about the mainstream media. Their day is done, yours is coming.

Tea partier Allen — who twitters as NYCP — gets it just right in the Examiner's comments:

We took time from our vacation to send a message to Democrats, Republicans. Washington, etc. The hundreds of people who showed up all were fed up with Federal, State, and local government — they did not like higher taxes, but they were more afraid that our Constitution-based system of government was under serious attack. This was not a one-day event. Facts on the ground got them out at midday, and the continued power grab from DC will keep them involved and their ranks growing. Check out Twitter and you will see one way they are staying involved.

Exactly Jonathan Hoenig's point quoted here yesterday:

They're angry about the taxes, yes, but they're really angry about the philosophy behind the taxes, and that's collectivism.

"Some liberals believe that the recession has made tax-and-spend issues passé," writes  Karl Rove in the Journal, sending a Chris-Matthews-like thrill going up our leg:

But political movements are often a reaction against aggressive overreach by those in power. Mr. Obama's response to the financial crisis — a government power grab and budget explosion — has put spending and taxes back on the front burner. The tea parties are an early manifestation of that. More is sure to follow.

Mainstream Media Man isn't the only "threatened species" out there. Better add Statist Man to the list.

Comments

[Loren Rosser]

I think you are dead on! The days of the MSM are numbered. That's why my attitude is that we shouldn't even concern ourselves with them anymore. The government is our audience, not the media. But see, the MSM is so used to protest groups being all about getting media attention, that they think by falsely reporting or ignoring us we'll wear ourselves out and go away. But by the looks of it, it's not us that will be going away.