Via The Daily Beast- Rick Perry (R- TX): The Hell With The Press
Perry didn't receive any endorsements from the major newspapers in the Lone Star State. And, the governor went out of his way to make sure he didn't. Perry didn't attend a single editorial endorsement meeting--knowing he would, therefore, be unlikely to gain any newspaper endorsements. And he didn't. Which is what he wanted.
Mike Baselice, Perry's highly skilled pollster, acknowledged Wednesday at a public forum sponsored by The Texas Tribune that the campaign asked primary voters in Texas whether a newspaper endorsement would make them more or less likely to vote for Perry. Only 6 percent said an endorsement would make them more likely to support Perry, while an eye-popping 37 percent said it would make them less likely (56 percent said it made no difference).
Talk about a paradigm shift. This is a sea change in the way candidates have historically campaigned. Good news for candidates who never much liked kissing the rings of the media elites. But more bad news for the increasing irrelevance of newspapers and the mainstream media.
The fifth-generation Texan is unabashed and candid about his decision: "The most prized resource that you have is the candidate's time, and what is the best return on your investment that you can get with a candidate's time," Perry told The Associated Press. "It was a calculated decision, but you know the world is really changing, I mean, the way people get their information, who they listen to, etc. Put it all on the balance beam and the balance was toward not doing the editorial boards."
Rick Perry is proof that newspapers and their political liberal activism is yesterday's news and yesterday's fad.... the new motto is now "We don't need no stinkin' newspapers".
Newspapers as well as television news are full of newscasters looking at the news and giving their interpretation, but rarely if ever do they provide links to the actual data so readers/listeners can decide for themselves and develop their own opinion. Blogs, while being opinion, 90 percent of the time offer links to the data so that readers can interpret themselves, which is why new media has become so popular.
Rick Perry understand this and took advantage of it. Look at those numbers in the quotes above, "Only 6 percent said an endorsement would make them more likely to support Perry, while an eye-popping 37 percent said it would make them less likely."
That makes the dinosaur media ready to go on the endangered species list.. and rightly so.
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