What is the parties' relationship with major media outlets?
The political parties, and their relationship with major media outlets has evolved. In the 60's 70's, and 80's the media was leaning more towards the Democrats. The Democrats were able to use the media more effectively than the Republicans, and all you had was a mainstream media. Now, since then, Reagan was of course able to use the media very well. It helped that, he was an actor, and knew how to do that sort of thing The Republicans were able to make some inroads. But then what happens was radio really took off. So, talk radio happens, with Rush Limbaugh, who was the godfather of talk radio. And following from him you get Dennis Praeger, Hugh Hewitt and Michael Medved, the names go on forever. Clear Channel, tends to own most of these talk Radio shows. So, the Democratic Party has a more favorable relationship with the mainstream media, while the Republican Party tends to have a more favoravle relationship with alternative media, such as radio. Now with the internet, which is really where it's going now, we see right now that the Democrats have the edge on the Republicans in terms of internet use. This is what happened with Dean and others. The Republicans are trying to play catch-up, and they are learning a lot fast, but as of now, the Democrats are more savvy, when it comes to getting their message out and especially with getting blogs and donors and funding bases, using the internet.
