Tuesday, April 06, 2004
Liberal Radio Part Two
One of the other outcroppings of the Clinton years was the rise of the Conservative media. Rush Limbaugh and Fox News both positioned themselves as the flag waving, right-wing nationalists and they did so very successfully. Limbaugh is a brilliant anvil to the storm of conservative talk show hosts that now litter the AM dial. He could distill a topic to its core, take out the information that wasn't helpful to his argument and then present it all in a way that made it sound so reasonable, that anyone who disagreed immediately sounded like the village idiot. The Conservatives rode the wonderful catch phase of "liberal media bias" to position themselves as the cowboys... the Lone Rangers of the media world bringing you the truth and justice in the face of all these liberals who had their own agendas.
This, of course, is a load of crap and has become less and less true with each passing year. The biggest talk shows on the radio are Conservative. The biggest cable news network is Fox News which has its nose so far up the ass of the Administration that not only did they name their coverage of the war the same name the Government formally called it, but they had the gall to put patriotic music to a montage of bombing scenes from the first days of our attack on Baghdad. The newspapers and TV stations are increasingly owned by fewer and larger corporations which are, by their own nature, big supporters of the limited regulation and lower corporate taxes promoted by the right. There is no "Liberal media bias". (That is unless you watch "Now with Bill Moyers on PBS, they're so left that one of their key sponsors is the store owned by Ned Flanders...I swear that makes sense somehow.)
This whole long winded, blowhard rant leads me back to my key point, I just can't like the "Liberal" radio network. First, by calling themselves Liberal" they immediately dump more than half their potential audience. Why would a Conservative tune into Liberal radio? They're not going to say anything they'd be interested in. And then the independent listeners go by the wayside as well because this network isn't going to offer anything other than a mirror view of the things that annoyed them with the Conservative hosts... what's the point?
My second reason for not liking it is basically the reason I have issues with the Democrats these days, it's reactionary. The Conservatives didn't position themselves as Republicans. They didn't state that they were mouthpieces for that right wing agenda. What they did was let their shows define what they were. This new network was set up simply to be an answer to the conservative. It's a crock.
Al Franken, who I find very funny and I love his attacks on the right, is calling his show the O'Franken Factor. This, of course, is an attack on Bill O'Reilly. That's good for a joke, but calling your show that sets you up as a one trick pony. You hate Bill, we get it. That gets old real quick. Instead of this seeming like legitimate criticism of the right's lies it comes off more as a personal vendetta. What else do you have to offer?
I think if they had positioned this as the network that tells the truth with a tongue in its cheek, it'd have a better chance of survival.... they'd, at least have a better chance for getting my attention. But for now, for me, this is just another sign that the Democrats are two steps behind the Republicans and aren't gaining fast.
This, of course, is a load of crap and has become less and less true with each passing year. The biggest talk shows on the radio are Conservative. The biggest cable news network is Fox News which has its nose so far up the ass of the Administration that not only did they name their coverage of the war the same name the Government formally called it, but they had the gall to put patriotic music to a montage of bombing scenes from the first days of our attack on Baghdad. The newspapers and TV stations are increasingly owned by fewer and larger corporations which are, by their own nature, big supporters of the limited regulation and lower corporate taxes promoted by the right. There is no "Liberal media bias". (That is unless you watch "Now with Bill Moyers on PBS, they're so left that one of their key sponsors is the store owned by Ned Flanders...I swear that makes sense somehow.)
This whole long winded, blowhard rant leads me back to my key point, I just can't like the "Liberal" radio network. First, by calling themselves Liberal" they immediately dump more than half their potential audience. Why would a Conservative tune into Liberal radio? They're not going to say anything they'd be interested in. And then the independent listeners go by the wayside as well because this network isn't going to offer anything other than a mirror view of the things that annoyed them with the Conservative hosts... what's the point?
My second reason for not liking it is basically the reason I have issues with the Democrats these days, it's reactionary. The Conservatives didn't position themselves as Republicans. They didn't state that they were mouthpieces for that right wing agenda. What they did was let their shows define what they were. This new network was set up simply to be an answer to the conservative. It's a crock.
Al Franken, who I find very funny and I love his attacks on the right, is calling his show the O'Franken Factor. This, of course, is an attack on Bill O'Reilly. That's good for a joke, but calling your show that sets you up as a one trick pony. You hate Bill, we get it. That gets old real quick. Instead of this seeming like legitimate criticism of the right's lies it comes off more as a personal vendetta. What else do you have to offer?
I think if they had positioned this as the network that tells the truth with a tongue in its cheek, it'd have a better chance of survival.... they'd, at least have a better chance for getting my attention. But for now, for me, this is just another sign that the Democrats are two steps behind the Republicans and aren't gaining fast.
