Democrats aren't going to win elections again until they build a well-oiled information ecosystem

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40. We need to build the ecosystem, and then we need to *support it*.

And that really means more than the one network we tried (Air America), which was not the total failure that some have made of it--Air America launched the careers of a number of personalities, and many of them continue to this day either on other networks or as self-syndicated shows. But the most important thing is that these networks must be supported by both the listeners and the Democratic party. That needs to be seen as an ongoing investment for many years. How long did it take for Fox News to become profitable? And how long did Rush Limbaugh "suck wind in Sacramento", as Randi Rhodes put it? (Her answer: 15 years!).

Here's a little story, and I'll try to make it brief. Some here may have noticed that I pay (maybe too much) attention to the insane radtrad faction in the Catholic church. Of course, that's because I have a personal connection. For example, I watched in horror as one newly-appointed radtrad priest single-handedly destroyed a Newman Center ministry at an upper Midwest university within a year's time. It turned out that this was not the first university that had a "wrecker priest" destroy their campus ministry; in fact, it looked like this was an actual strategy by the radtrad clergy. I then became aware that radtrad billiionaires like Tom Monaghan were buying up radio stations to spread "supply-side-Jesus"-style Catholicism to the masses. All radtrad, all the time, and forget about the Beatitudes or the Social Gospel. (In fact, anyone who mentioned those things was fired).

So it turns out that these stations are often so low-rated that they can't even generate an Arbitron number. I discovered that because our local paper at the time was still serious about journalism, and they had a reporter with a personal connection to the Church who noticed the same things I did. The bottom line is that these stations (and now cable TV as well, like EWTN) don't make any money. They are usually guaranteed money-losers. However, they pay off when it comes to electing idiots (Trump being just the latest). It also is about doctrinal control and Google-bombing. These networks all link to each other and similar like-minded organizations, which triggers the Google algorithm to give them priority in web searches. Over the years, this has been refined and perfected so that nowadays any search for Catholicism-related topics nearly always means that one or more far-right organizations is at the top of the list. That's what they're paying for.

We need to wise up and start creating our own media infrastructure which isn't dependent on MSNBC or other existing organizations. And yes, it needs to be multimodal--it probably is true that radio is a dying format, and podcasts and the internet are the future. However, radio isn't dead yet, and there are still good stations that soldier on (like KTNF in the Twin Cites), often producing their own local content as well. The Democrats need to support these stations, as do other organizations like labor unions and NGOs. Otherwise, I fear we'll continue to be rolled by Fox News and their imitators for years to come.