Executive summary of this Washington Post article: Media Matters for America (MMfA) has come up with its latest ACME-approved method for beating the Road Runner Fox News: a secret training camp in which they teach selected liberal acolytes secret Barking Moonbat Pundit Kung Fu techniques that will let them infiltrate and dominate an unsuspecting “right-wing media!”  Well… at least those elements of the aforementioned right-wing media that don’t read the papers, because, again the entire exercise got written up in the Washington Post by Jason Horowitz.

The entire thing is, in fact, almost sad.  Even if you concede the central premise that it’s a good idea to be prepared for television appearances – which it is; and it’s one reason why I don’t even try to do TV – it is still always bemusing to see people refuse to give up a cherished, yet quite wrong, notion.  As someone privately pointed out to me – and I agree – MMfA still thinks that it’s their messaging that’s the problem for progressives, not the message itself  (despite decades of empirical evidence to the contrary).  It’s also interesting that the article itself admits that the trainees themselves were more comfortable with arguing the conservative points of view than the liberal ones; sure, they try to explain it away by saying that “it’s more fun to be the bad guy” – but they haven’t really thought that thought through.  It’s fun to play the bad guy when the bad guy is over-the-top – but if conservatives were as over-the-top as progressives think that they are, then conservatives wouldn’t be winning the debate.  And MMfA is starting out by admitting that conservatives are winning the debate.

Personally, I just love the cargo-cult feel to the whole thing: there’s something entertaining in watching people grimly try to perform sympathetic magic, sure that this time there will a breakthrough that will validate all past failures.  Not to mention MMfA naive arrogance in believing that scheduling directors for all the major networks (also, MSNBC) aren’t sending this article around this morning with a terse “Keep an eye out for shenanigans,” or words to that effect…

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: In case you were wondering…  The first rule of Fight Club is, You do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is, You DO NOT Talk About Fight Club.