Bruzilla

But see here's how the game is played:

Sean Hannity gets wind of this guy Wright, and starts harping on him on his radio and TV shows. Few people pay attention.

Everytime Hannity has a Republican leader on his show, he brings up Wright. "Hey... have you seen this guy yet? Have you heard about him yet?"

Other media shows start picking up on Hannity's reporting, and start asking Democrats. "Do you see this guy as a potential issue?"

Now the MSM starts asking Republicans and Democrats all about this "growing Wright issue".

O'Reilly shows up late to the party, but can't resist the spotlight, so now he has to lay his own mark on the story and starts his "in-depth examination of Wright", which pisses off Hannity who thinks he's going to lose credit so he starts upping the ante.

Now Wright is the talk of the country, with Republicans and Clinton using him to attack Obama.

You are correct in saying that Republicans are not the media, but they operate in tandem. I think this all plays well with the Romney debacle last year. Mitt has one, single, guy ask him about his being a Morman. One guy. In the press conferences after that townhall, Romney gets asked by reporters about this guy's comments. This is the time for Romney to say "this isn'tabout my religion, this is about me being President, so I have no comment." Instead he senses a chance to play the victim and starts going into how many people don't like Mormons or know nothing about the religion and are baised yada, yada, yada." This sends the media rushing out to get all sorts of opinions, then people get defensive, and the next thing you know Romney is having to deal with a real anti-Mormon sentiment that he can no longer control.