Ankle Biting Pundit's Patrick Hynes has a good post today about how Sen. McCain is wisely using new media to get his message out. In doing so, Patrick notes the importance of the conservative media:
"My friend Hugh Hewitt makes a point that candidates for high public office cannot reach their target audiences without the aid of conservative media. Hugh says this not because he is a member of the conservative media, but because it is true. No candidate, including my client John McCain, will successfully navigate the primary process without communicating with and through the talk radio/blog/Podcast/YouTube nexus."
But Patrick goes on to make the case that the conservative media is ... well ... I'll let him explain:
"... conservative media is really just a filter like the Old Media but with more honesty and more entertaining personalities. We can never discount the role of regular people in this process. It is here, in his direct interaction with the people, that I believe my client will have a leg up on the competition in the GOP primary."
Are conservative media the same as the MSM (only more truthful and interesting)? By virtue of having a megaphone (or a keyboard), are conservative media out-of-touch with "regular people"? After all, a lot of conservative bloggers and writers live in places like New York, Washington, DC, and California. Could it be they don't have their fingers on the pulse of America? Are they "filtering" the good stuff?
Or is this just spin being perpetrated by a campaign that has angered many conservative media-types?
My suspicion is that if the conservative media are largely against you (as is the case with McCain), you make the argument that the conservative media doesn't matter -- that it's the "real" people out there who matter.
I'm obviously a bit biased (based on the fact that I write here at Townhall.com).
What are your thoughts?