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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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Posted on 01/15/2003 8:02:17 PM PST by chasio649
WASHINGTON - The media wars are in full swing once again.
In his recent tour of interviews, Al Gore lamented the increasing power of vitriolic conservative broadcasters like Bill O'Reilly of the Fox News Channel, who, he says, are tilting the media to the right.
Soon after, Democratic strategists began musing publically about creating a cable network of their own and launching a campaign to cultivate more "powerful" (read: louder) voices from the left.
It doesn't take much reading between the lines to understand that after years of greeting the rising influence of caustic conservatives like Rush Limbaugh with scorn and bemusement, Demo-crats are now seeking to emulate him.
This trend is troubling to me because my work involves developing ways to use the talk-show format as a tool for understanding here and abroad. The threat the Democrats are feeling may be real - Republicans may indeed gain some votes in the short term by igniting partisan fireworks over the airwaves à la Bill O'Reilly, but in the end we all lose.
Whatever our politics, the constant pressure to raise the decibel level on public discourse and the tendency to segregate the media along partisan lines is robbing us of the ability to disagree honestly or solve problems together.
We're left with the dangerous impression that, as Americans, we're far more extreme in our views and more divided from each other than we really are.
There is evidence that the American people see this more clearly than either the broadcasters or the political strategists. Polls show that the public's opinion of journalists and the media is plummeting, at the same time as outlets like the Fox News Channel are thriving. A recent poll by the Pew Center People and the Press shows that more than 70 percent of Americans believe that the media get in the way of problem solving in the US.
How ironic that at a time when partisan radio is growing in influence here, many nations around the world are discovering the potential of talk programs to rebuild trust in regions of almost unimaginable violence.
Both ends of the political spectrum might be cured of their ratings fixation by taking a trip to Africa, where hate radio - a form of partisan broadcasting pushed to its murderous extreme - was used in Rwanda to incite and fuel genocide between two ethnic groups, the Hutus and the Tutsis.
In the wake of these massacres, Studio Ijambo was established in neighboring Burundi to help prevent similar carnage. This radio studio, created with international support, grabs high ratings by bringing journalists from all backgrounds together to create talk programs that promote healing across ethnic lines.
In a country where ethnic massacres break out with regularity, one of the most popular programs is "Pillars of Humanity," a talk show devoted to the stories of Hutus who have saved the lives of Tutsis and vice versa.
In Sierra Leone, where a bitter 10-year civil war cost the lives of some 250,000 people, Talking Drum Studio reaches 85 percent of the population with a talk show cohosted by excombatants who were once bitter enemies. Recently disarmed, they discuss with listeners methods of reconciling with their neighbors and uniting this deeply fragmented society.
In Liberia, where war forced thousands of children into roles as soldiers or slaves, and thousands of others were separated from their families during the many years of chaos and violence, Golden Kids News is hosted and coproduced by children, and features discussions about the devastating longrange impact of war on young people.
In each of these societies, journalists are being trained in new skills, such as how to promote dignity on both sides in a contentious discussion and how to recognize and challenge stereotypes. In most of these countries violence still threatens, but the language of dialogue is gaining a foothold.
How sad for us that as Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, and Burundi are using the talk-show format to create a culture more conducive to democratic values, ours is looking more and more like the media they are seeking to transform.
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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Is a friend or co-worker an appeaser or a fighter? A patriot or a blamer? A socialist or a capitalist? A citizen or a party loyalist?
These are things I WANT TO KNOW about my fellow citizens, and if the gap between FOX/INTERNET right and Mainstream Press LEFT widens I say Bring it On! These are... finally... interesting times. The dull days of polite nonpartisanship are over, and good riddance.
Me? I'm enjoying the journey more than ever.
I can see it right now what the leftists' newest slogan is going to be: "Ritalin to tranqualize your kids and liberal talk radio to tranqualize you!".
What planet does this insane twit live on?
I notice the BBC carrying a story today on the widespread systematic rape by all sides in their civil war in Sierra Leone. Even child soldiers raping women older than their grandmothers.
Allafrica.com is carrying a story on the increasing repression in Liberia.
In Nigeria they recently murdered a couple of hundred people over what some felt to be an insult to Mohammad in a newspaper.
ABC news today tells of another 30,000 displaced in the ongoing civil war in Burundi.
And the NGO peaceniks--who, I'll give the benefit of the doubt, are folks whose hearts are bigger than their brains--just don't see things as they are, only the way they'd like them to be: intellect at the 12 year-old level.
Trouble is, in their inability to assign right and wrong, they're making things actually worse: empowering wrong as the co-equal of right. Ugggghh.
Soma, anyone?
What, you haven't heard miz hitlery? talk about the liberal talk radio hosts who have up to a million unique visitors per day, even though they are barely syndicated? Why hasn't she pushed for clear channel to push the syndication of these already successful talk radio hosts? Hmmm?
Because the liberal talk radio hosts that command such large audiences are on urban oriented radio stations. While I only know of a few urban total-talk hosts, such as John Wiley Price in Dallas, the urban format is a mix of talk, preaching and music. If they want a radio audience, get on Tom Joyner's program. I bet he still gets a million unique listeners a day. She could be on radio everyday in NYC just on someone's program as a celebrity voice.
The fact is that she doesn't listen to liberal talk radio because it is primarily on urban stations. It's not her culture. Instead she only gets on TV when it suits her, and ignores urban stations except around election time. And to admit it would indicate how much she uses black voters.
The Man is still oppressing the people. His name is hitlery.
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