1. United States
2. Mass.
3. Letter

We must beat Republicans at their own game of controlling the media. It means pressuring the networks directly. It means holding hearings — even if they have to be unofficial “shadow” hearings — right now about media consolidation and the capture of the press corps by rightwing interests. It means pointing out, loudly and specifically, every single time a network gives a Republican five minutes of uncontested airtime and then gives a Democrat thirty seconds to “respond.” Republicans didn’t spend forty years bleating about the “liberal media” because the liberal media actually existed. They knew it didn’t but were relentless about the accusation nonetheless, and they had the infrastructure to amplify it everywhere, all the time. Democrats can do the same thing today, and unlike the GOP, we have the truth on their side. This should start today. We demand you raise this issue publicly and loudly, in press conferences, in hearings, in every television interview. It’s time to start speaking out loudly.