Remember GraniteCrock? It was supposed to be former Democrat State Senator Jeanne Dietsch’s fact-checking vehicle. Sorry, debunking. It failed to be that from day one.
Imagined as a way to counter the content from GraniteGrok (about her), and then from GraniteGrok and NH Journal, and then…whatever, it never rose to the challenge.
The debunking was lame, lefty, echo-chamber messaging.
And while Dietsch did manage to expand her mailing list a bit, the original vision got blurry in short order.
Dietsch has money, so the project ambled along, sloughing off flesh like the undead until earlier this year when it got rebranded. Granite State Matters.
As with the original project, we wish Jeanne good luck. There’s not much local political content outside the mainstream in these parts. Previous efforts have had limited success and ultimately failed for obvious reasons. Democrat politics focuses on the centralization of everything. Money, power, and messaging.
Local talking heads aping the national narrative has a limited shelf life and an even smaller potential audience when your audience can get the same message in a slick and flashy package.
But the timing is good. Elections are coming, and a presidential contest that is likely to get fiery on the Left. Biden was always a temp and a second term is not in the cards.
Harris is at least as bad as you’d expect, so any thoughts of using her time warming the VP title to get into the big chair – even if she lands there before 2024 will not translate into her independent success for the office. Democrats don’t even like her.
But the race itself means lots of (potential) high-profile candidates whom Jeanne can corral for an interview.
She’s also, in my opinion, used these platforms to advance her political career, which is never a bad idea, but these projects can quickly begin to consume your time and energy. She has money to advertise and promote it, so that would help.
But in the end, unless it finds a niche, it’s probably doomed. And including Steve Marchand’s podcast is not exactly filling a void.
Jeanne needs to create a show with a refreshing personality and has messaging the rest of the Left is missing (and wants to hear).
One more thing. Dietsch is now calling herself an independent. That’s the new invasion strategy from Democrats. Neil Wetherbee tried it in Derry, and now Dietsch appears to be in on the scam.
An independent with guests like Oliva Zink?
And this is the woman that said she wanted to roll back a business tax cut for which NH business owners did not ask.
Independent from reality, perhaps.