In the latest of a series of panels on the Road to the White House 2012: Politics, Media & Technology, the CCLP hosted a conversation between several prominent conservatives on the topic of the Republican Primaries and the News Media. The panelists included Andrew Breitbart, founder and publisher of Breitbart.com, BigGovernment.com and BigJournalism.com; Jon Fleischman, founder and publisher of FlashReport.org, and College Republicans President, Lizzy Breiter.
In a spirited discussion moderated by Jonathan Wilcox, CCLP instructor and former speechwriter for Gov. Pete Wilson, the panelists discussed their views on the state of the media in the United States and the presence (or possible lack thereof) of a conservative viewpoint. Both Wilcox and the panelists emphasized the need for all voices to be heard in the media landscape, and argued that changes in media technology are opening opportunities for conservative viewpoints to gain greater traction in the public.
“We are living in the most extraordinarily exciting time in media,” Breitbart said, “and the people who would report on that are the only people who are unhappy about what’s happening because their jobs are at risk.” Throughout the panel Breitbart and Fleischman emphasized the importance of culture in shaping politics and media representations.
This viewpoint was echoed by Lizzy Breiter, who said that the divide between liberals and conservative candidates in successfully using new technologies was highlighted in the last election between the portrayals of Barack Obama as an energetic young candidate and John McCain as his more dated counterpart. “For people my age, who do I want to be viewed as supporting, it’s more likely to be Barack Obama…the candidates now don’t have much emotion, but when you have people like Mr. Breitbart, Mr. Fleischman and Sarah Palin, they’ve created that community, things like the Tea Party where they can be more influential.”
Jon Fleischman said that evolving technologies have helped to increase access to viewpoints that he says are not represented in mainstream media. “The number one place people like to get their information is from someone they know. We may have a megaphone, but what you put on your Facebook page, what you put on your Twitter feed that reaches the 200 or so people you know is the same thing we’re doing on a larger level.”
The next panel in the series will be held on February 22, and will discuss the issue of nuclear energy.
A livestream of today’s panel is available here.
This article was written by Sarah Myers, Master of Public Diplomacy ’13.
Senior Fellow Richard Reeves‘ TruthDig column in reaction to the event can be found here.