** WE MUST BECOME THE MSM – AN IDEA (BUMP this please in a major way) **

First of all, I agree with organizations like DownsizeDC.org that say elections come and go, and no matter how strong the liberty message may get out for that brief time, once the election is over, people will tend to forget what was said and go back to their everyday lives (present company excluded, I know, just hear me out). I would also agree that what is really needed, as DownsizeDC.org advocates through their Operation Everywhere goal, is for liberty ideas get out to everyone, everyday, everywhere. In short, we have to counter the garbage propaganda that’s been pushed down everyone’s brains for decades through Big Media, which, since it has been for a long time owned by mega-multinational corporations, has always been biased toward (and “in bed with”) Big Government. Either biased toward the Left (CNN, ABC, NBC, etc.) or toward the Neocon Right (FOX, Rush Limbaugh, etc.).

Okay, here I come to the point, but bear with me, this is going to be lengthy, like a manifesto, but it’s my best attempt at a fully laid out idea. Basically, I’m talking about creating a brand new cable network. The “Liberty Television Network”. Or the “Liberty Network”, or whatever name works best.

I know, I’m no Rupert Murdoch. In fact, I have virtually no money (especially after donating to Ron Paul!). But let me just lay out the idea, and maybe I can get several thousand heads to put together with mine to work out the details.

Number one, we want to reach the greatest number of people possible with liberty messages on a regular basis. We all know from this election (vote fraud through counting machines notwithstanding) that most people don’t get their information from nonfiction books or even the Internet. Yes, the Internet is fairly ubiquitous by this point in 2008 – but let’s face it, most people use it sparingly, just to get their email or to look up an occasional mainstream entertainment or news site, or to buy something from a mainstream retailer. Period. Most people don’t use the Internet in-depth for research…which is what the Internet was originally designed for! For most people, so that includes voters, they get their info through the stupid boob tube (or LCD or plasma as the case may be). That is why we must have a channel of our own, and access TV won’t cut it. An Internet channel won’t cut it. People won’t look for an Internet channel (unless, maybe, you advertise it on Yahoo, Google, or MSN). But even that won’t reach the most common denominator. No, a real cable channel, a real national cable or satellite network is what’s needed.

With such a channel, liberty-oriented ideas can finally be communicated to the masses through educational topical shows; through liberty-oriented news (telling people what’s REALLY happening out there – include bills that are quietly going through the House and Senate but are never discussed in the MSM); through PSA’s that talk about various topics from gun rights to Social Security and how it’s a Ponzi scheme. One PSA I saw around the time of Harry Browne’s Libertarian campaign said something like, “Did you know over 2 million lives are saved each year by individuals owning guns? Oftentimes without firing a single shot.” Stuff like that would be good. 30 or 60 seconds each. Perhaps during the news program, just before going to commercial, you could have a short quiz of the Constitution with upbeat bumper music. And get the kiddos educated right away on kids-oriented shows about the Constitution and such. And to keep costs down a bit at first, we could look for as many pre-recorded productions from various liberty organizations as possible. One that comes to mind is from the Ludvig von Mises Institute (www.mises.org) called “Money, Banking, and the Federal Reserve”. Very simple, understandable, but direct explanation of what government has done to our money over the last century and how it’s relevant today. A must see. I don’t see them charging a whole lot (if anything) for broadcast rights.

Other good programming: Documentaries about history, real history, about the American Revolution, the formation of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, what the Constitution says (particularly the areas not often talked about like the enumerated powers in Article I, Section 8, and the 9th & 10th Amendments. Move a lot of stills around of the documents, intercut with interviews with historians, economists, and other experts on our side.

There could be many ideas for programming like the ones above. Whatever programming there is, the offerings would have to follow these basic principles for best effectiveness:

- They would have to be truly professionally produced. I’m talking no You Tube videos here. Sorry, I like You Tube videos, some are really good. But no, they still don’t measure up to a true professional production. We would need to find some real good independent video producers, videographers, editors, and motion graphics artists and hire them on freelance basis to supply the channel with good programming. Pay them (I’ll get to the money part shortly). Hopefully we could find liberty-minded professional video people out there who would be willing to do this and craft these things well. You could count me in as one of these people willing to freelance edit one of the shows, or something; I would do it for fairly cheap, but good. I couldn’t speak for the others out there, but at least I could contact a network of video professionals out there that I know.

- The programming would have to avoid getting too much in the “doom and gloom”, conspiracy theory, yet it would have to be direct and not mince words about the issues. I know there’s bad stuff happening out there, but being overly “Alex Jones” about everything tends to turn people off.

- In contrast, the programming needs to find a balance where it’s factual, but positive, emphasizing how much better our lives could be if we did things this way instead of the current way. In other words, the benefits of liberty in society. (That’s one thing about Harry Browne I liked so much – that’s how he focused his message, and people took to it; he wasn’t so much a griper as he was a seller of the benefits of liberty.) Where possible, programming could be even upbeat, or slightly humorous. Maybe a little political satire here and there, like Saturday Night Live. But not so outrageously cheesy like SNL.

As far as business model, again I don’t see an access channel here. People won’t take it seriously if it’s an access channel. Within reason (with relatively low budget restraints) this has to be a real cable network. Complete with a polished motion graphic promo with an “LN” logo or something. The network would sell advertising, particularly from liberty-oriented groups: Gun Owners of America, The Ludwig von Mises Institute, Swiss America, I don’t know. Here’s where my idea is kind of cloudy, because I’m not much of a businessperson at all. Who WOULD buy advertising on this channel? What liberty-oriented businesses would have the wherewithal to purchase network TV advertising? If they did, wouldn’t they be advertising on TV now? I don’t know. Maybe regular sponsors (not necessarily special liberty interest groups, but regular companies who happen to believe in liberty positions) would buy advertising if viewers took to the programming and soaked it up. Basically, though, I see revenue from three major sources: advertising, cable or satellite subscriptions, and donations. I just know from this Ron Paul campaign that if hundreds of thousands of people can and are willing to donate tens of millions of dollars to one presidential campaign, imagine what people could do on an ongoing basis. Maybe as the advertising revenue increased, the need for ongoing donations would decrease.

Of course, I don’t see this ever being a CNN or ESPN. But take, for example, a nationwide cable & satellite network like The Outdoor Channel. It’s on one of the higher tiers, like in the 1000’s on cable. It comes with a lot of cable systems’ sports packages. It’s not as high profile as CNN or MTV or what-have-you, but even in that high tier it still gets about 26 million viewers nationwide. Now, I use The Outdoor Channel as an example because, a couple of years ago, I did some freelance video editing of a couple of hunting shows. I edited them at the producer’s house. He basically had three Avid editing systems, nothing really fancy, and the shows themselves were shot by him and some of his other freelancers with small digital cameras (Panasonic DVX-100’s). In all, the shows looked pretty good and looked good enough for a major cable network. They worked. I also know of another national cable network that has taken off the ground in the last few years (or maybe satellite-only at this point) that deals with Christian issues and beliefs – purely from donations. It’s called the Gospel Broadcasting Network (www.gbntv.org). It’s not overly slick, but it’s professional, and gets the message across. So this kind of thing can work.

I figure as far as production costs it wouldn’t take a whole lot to put these shows together. The news show, well, that might be another story. Then you’re talking a whole news staff, studio, infrastructure, etc. I have no idea what it would cost to put a comprehensive cable network like this together. Anyone out there know of any effort like this already being done? Anyone have experience starting up a channel of any type, especially of this magnitude? None of us are Rupert Murdochs, but together we can deliver a powerful message, through the only medium most people really pay any attention to - television. Hence the voting results we have so far.

So, we must educate the public about how far our government has strayed from this country’s original ideals. How it’s been done incrementally, so they’ve hardly noticed, and in fact, they think the current status quo is normal. Wake them up, open their eyes, without “hitting them over the head”, and we will then start to see tens of millions, maybe hundreds of millions, of people start to vote for those candidates who will really change policy.

I would just hope in some way we could get this network put on a lower tier so more people would see it. And no one would have to buy any extra channel package to see the Liberty Network (what package would you put it in?).

Any thoughts, ideas, or whatever (“ebinrock, you’re a nut”) please feel free to send me at ebinrock@yahoo.com. Thank you.

By the way, I already thought of the logo – part of the “L” would look like an arm holding a torch, like the Statue of Liberty. Have to be careful not to copy Liberty Mutual Insurance’s logo!

Another by the way: In the final analysis, would it be cheaper to just produce short educational videos on various topics, put them on DVD, and mail them out to millions of residences across the U.S.? Would this be more, or less, effective than the cable channel idea? All thoughts appreciated.