Posted on 08/30/2007 4:47:49 AM PDT by Kaslin
It was no surprise last week when GreenStone Media announced the end of its all women, all whining, all the time radio network. In the year since its inception, GreenStone only had 11 stations that carried its programming. The mainstream media was positively orgasmic when GreenStone launched in late 2006. The network was backed by investors like Gloria Steinem, Rosie O’Donnell, Billie Jean King and Jane Fonda who all ponied up $3.1 million. Carrie Lukas of Independent Women’s Forum wrote, “To thunderous acclaim from the liberal intelligentsia, a team of feminist icons -- including Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda -- last year launched a women-run radio network. The mainstream media dutifully parroted press releases describing the launch as a ‘breakthrough’ for women in the male-dominated world of talk radio.”
The media insisted that GreenStone was finally giving women a voice and the content they’ve been craving. Women already control content on TV, magazines and books, so I suppose it’s only natural that they try to fit talk radio in their overstuffed handbag. The notion that women don’t have a voice in today’s media is totally bizarre. I can’t even watch a NFL game without seeing a feature story about a linebacker that reads Goodnight, Moon to preschoolers in his spare time. Yet, the media went on and on about GreenStone breaking the barrier of talk radio and bringing a new concept to talk radio.
Todd Fisher, who helped launch a small women’s station in Minneapolis, told The Houston Chronicle, “Going in, we knew the girlfriend approach, the communicating in a very real and honest way, was how we were going to gain traction.” Like many women, I’m not looking for a bosom buddy, I’m looking for entertainment to pass the time during a commute. Fisher smartly cautioned GreenStone that they should focus on content, not on advocating an agenda that would fragment their listeners. And they say men are bad listeners. GreenStone quickly fell into the predictable pattern of celebrity over substance, turning to men like Ralph Nader and Alec Baldwin to rescue them. As Air America did before them, GreenStone quickly fell into a caricature of itself.
Meanwhile, achievements by conservative women in talk radio were completely ignored in the hype over GreenStone. It’s disingenuous to say that women haven’t succeeded in this “men’s market.” In addition to their radio programs, hosts including Dr. Laura Schlessinger, Monica Crowley, Laura Ingraham, Melanie Morgan, Martha Zoller and Tammy Bruce have also found success as authors and TV pundits. Yet, GreenStone CEO and former Federal Communications Commissioner Susan Hess insisted that there was “a huge hole in the market.” After GreenStone sunk, the question isn’t why do women fail in talk radio, but why do liberals continue to fail in talk radio?
The Left and their cohorts in the media are obsessed with identity entertainment and identity politics. They assumed women would flock to their W-PMS experiment the same way they expect women to flock to the polls for Hillary Clinton. To the contrary, recent polling shows that Hillary isn’t gaining the expected support from women, particularly those most like her – white, college educated and upper middle class. Polling shows that it’s mostly blue-collar, “women with needs” that will vote for Clinton in 2008. In other words, women who believe her promises of free health care, free daycare and free tours of the Lincoln Bedroom. Actually, that last one is Bill’s campaign promise.
In a recent poll commissioned by the Susan B. Anthony List and the polling company ™ only 40% of women said they could conceivably vote for Hillary Clinton. Lest the media characterize the remainder as victims of the patriarchy, an additional 46% said they would vote for a woman (just not that woman) in 2008 or in a future presidential election. Marjorie Dannenfelser, President of the Susan B. Anthony List, said, “Considering how miserably Clinton does among male voters, she should be concerned that the ‘sisterhood’ is not rallying to her side either.”
At least the Clinton campaign did receive some good news this week – they’ve got the Cuban dictator voted locked!
Absent of substance and an agenda that appeals to all kinds of Americans, the Left consistently appeals to one’s race or gender for cheap and easy votes and listeners. It didn’t work for GreenStone Media and it’s not working for Hillary Clinton. As Myrna Blyth wrote in Spin Sisters, “Remember, more women listen to [Dr. Laura] each night than have seen all of the performances of Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues everywhere in the world.” Now that’s broad appeal.
Lisa De Pasquale is CPAC Director at the American Conservative Union. The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is the nation’s largest annual gathering of conservatives. For more information, visit www.cpac.org.
Liberal women are generally very broad or very skinny.
To me, liberal women have the appeal of cheap broads.
whats the problem? them broads don’t think they’s appealing already?
Not even Soros was stupid enough to sink his money into this doomed venture. There aren’t enough feminists around to support a volleyball team, much less a network. And as the Boomer fems die in the next 10 years, their numbers will shrink into oblivion. Good riddance.
Have at it men!
“Liberal Women” “Broad Appeal”
That one got me rolling this morning.
You younger folks might not get it.
Girls
Iggy Pop
Well I’m gonna tell you about girls.
They’re all over this world
Some have beautiful shapes
I wanna live to be ninety-eight
Yeah, somebody to talk to
And I like to look at you
Yeah, somebody to talk to
And I love to look at you
‘Cause you’re a real fine girl
Last week in Paree
I was hanging down with Suzee
That crazy French magazine
She turned me backwards to a new scene
‘Cause she was somebody to talk to
And to tell my troubles to
She was somebody that’s so fine
Worth my looking into
She’s a beautiful girl, girl, girl
Summertime
Oh, and the living is easy
The girls are jumping
And the cotton is high
Your daddy is rich
And your mama’s good looking
So hush little baby
And don’t you cry
‘Cause you’re a real fine girl
There is one incorrect statement in this article. Liberal talk radio has not been a complete failure. There has, in fact, been for many years a left wing counterpart to Rush Limbaugh. His name is Howard Stern. He, and countless “shock jocks” like him glorify the Hollywood culture, ethos and lifestyle while at the same time denigrating the beliefs and values of American conservatives. One such radio show went so far as to broadcast two people having sex in St Patrick’s Cathedral during Mass.
Any day I hear that Rosie, Jane, and Gloria lost money on an effort to speak truth to power is a good day. Maybe they have learned something? I doubt it, but maybe.
This is really nonsense.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Liberals already have a radio network, and we’re all paying for it. It’s called National Public Radio.
What’s really amusing is that they had actually fed themselves so much of their own, self absorbed, act like sluts, be treated like princesses, “I’m a commodity” propaganda, that they actually thought that their Slutzilla MiseryB*tch Radio Channel, would fly. ...HA ha...
It’s no wonder they are miserable and worthless to bother loving. Mere mortal men, could never live up to their expectations...for very long...and then it’s time to run off to divorce court, and “hook up” with yet another predestined failure of a “relationship”.
The majority of hard core, flag waving feminists I've encountered (and living in Cambridge and then Boston for a decade, I met a lot) always had one thing in common. They were all incredibly angry women. The world didn't fit THEIR mold, and dammit -- they were going to do something about it.
That something USUALLY amounted to pasting obnoxious bumper stickers on their cars and conducting themselves so humorously they sucked the air out of rooms when they entered. THey were not fun people, they were not pleasant people, rather THEY WERE PEOPLE WITH CAUSES.
Most people, male or female, don't want to be constantly corrected or reminded that "that's not the way we say/do/think" by some finger wag, however "socially aware" they are.
Personally, a chick like me pisses the feminazis off. I'm tough (had to be), quirky, and I give off that odd, counter-culture liberal vibe (I think its the punk thing), but my life didn't begin until the day my daughter was born (or really, when I found out I was pregnant). Suddenly I had something bigger than just myself to care about.
I guess what my rant could be boiled down to is that, heck -- being a charicature is easier than being a person. Connecting with a utopian cause is easier than connecting with people.
The reason why there's no market for Womens Radio is because no sane, reasonably happy woman, wants to feel miserable and oppressed all the time. They've got better things to do.
Ha!
>>The notion that women don’t have a voice in today’s media is totally bizarre.<<
It’s not an issue of men vs. women, it’s conservative vs. liberal. Laura Ingraham and Dr. Laura are perfect examples of a female lead voice in radio.
Where this experiment failed is the same place where Air America and other liberal radio nuts fail - they can’t make a solid argument to support their case, and they can’t stand up under debate.
That’s why libs dominate print and tv, because they can control the discussion. If you get a lib on radio, and a conservative calls in, the conservative wins the argument each and every time.
Only more expensive.
Nice rant!
I guess there weren’t enough members of “Brests Not Bombs” to keep GreenStone Media “abreast” of funding.
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