Posted on 06/03/2005 10:05:24 PM PDT by smoothsailing
The 'South Park' revolution
By Bill Steigerwald
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, June 4, 2005
Talk radio and Fox News are doing a fine job of countering the liberal tilt of such mainstream media outlets as CBS, NPR and The New York Times. But as Brian Anderson shows in his thin but valuable book, "South Park Conservatives," the revolt against liberal bias also is picking up speed in the pop culture, in book publishing, in the blogosphere and, of all places, on college campuses. I talked with Anderson by telephone from his offices in New York City, where he is senior editor at the Manhattan Institute's magazine, City Journal.
Q: Briefly, what is your book about, and how does it differ from previous books about liberal media bias?
A: My book is explaining a remarkable transformation that's taken place really over the last 10 years. It's a brief history of new media. What this book is emphasizing is how the old liberal media are being undermined by the new media of political talk radio, cable news and the Internet and the blogosphere, all of which are allowing right-of-center voices, ranging from libertarian to social conservative, to get a hearing in the broader culture.
Q: What is a "South Park Conservative"?
A: I didn't coin the term. It's actually been circulating out there for a few years. But as I use it, it's someone who's not necessarily a traditional conservative, especially when it comes to things like popular culture or censorship or even some social issues, but who looks at today's kind of politically correct, weak-in-fighting-terror, negative left, and says, "I want nothing to do with that." In the book, I find growing evidence of this anti-liberal attitude, as I call it, among college students and also in...
(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghlive.com ...
Speaking for myself, what does it say that I would rather sleep with a few unpleasant enemies, than to join the democrats who I (superficially) have more in common with on a personal level?
It says:
1) values are more important than being popular.
2) lefties have criminally abhorrent judgement in all important matters.
Kids are cute, those liberals, but I don't want them running a kiosk at the mall, let alone trust them with government.
Classic.......Pull the curtain on "OLD EUROPE" and "OLD MEDIA"....GET WITH THE "NEW" PROGRAM!
Sorry I wasn't clear- I didn't mean to say S.P. fans are liberals. I have full faith in their future management abilities.
I do too. I think they're going to do a better job than we did.
...
Neither party will risk a rerun of the Nam era.
...
TEAM AMERICA F@&K YEAH!
I think that is what happened in the 2004 election. It was more a result of the youth vote going right for all of the practical reasons we older conservatives support the "big tent" GOP of today. And, our big tent is still less wacky than their big tent. Karl Rove...wow.
>> think that is what happened in the 2004 election. It was more a result of the youth vote going right for all of the practical reasons
I agree. We can also thank the likes of Michael Moore--his film and public appearances had the opposite effect: instead of turning people against Bush, he woke up a lot of us and spurred us to go to the polls. Not everyone who voted for Bush agreed totally with all his positions but they knew one thing for sure: electing Kerry would be a disaster. (And I still say when it comes to swing voters,
there were many more "Democrats for Bush" than "Republicans for Kerry"!)
Some say there's such a thing as a "9/11 conservative"--
people who didn't realize they were conservative until
our country was attacked, and they quickly realized what side of the aisle they fell on. Many are on the young side; anti-PC people, "South Park Conservatives", etc.
Kerry, Franken, Dean, Moore,
Hillary, Pelosi, Ted K--that whole crowd turned OFF a lot
of voters. The more the libs drift left (keep up the good work, Dean!), the more we see the Dims remaining the
minority party!
It's good to hear there are more conservative college students than we thought. But still about 95 per cent of college profs are liberal (showing Fahrenlies 9/11 in class just before the election; giving worse grades to
any student who shows a trace of conservatism...)
I made the mistake of taking my wife to see it. She was insulted.
Yeah, that was the part.
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