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"... Think of it as NPR on steroids. While conservatives tend to be men with Manilow in their turntable, the new network will hope to plug into the liberal leaning college co-ed crowd ..."
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What Franken and company will have that other liberal endeavors don't is an actual network, and that means an organizational structure. It's that kind of structure that is absolutely necessary for liberal voices to find a lasting place in the broadcast pantheon, along with a core audience and a healthy share of cross-over marketing.
That is, after all, the model used by conservatives when they slowly built up the Fox News network and monopolized talk radio. Nobody woke up to find CNN in decline and conservative figures like Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly dominating the ratings. Instead, conservatives who were incensed over a perceived liberal bias in the media did what they do best: build a grassroots network that slowly funded a conservative alternative.
If history is any indication, the Drobnys will fail miserably in their mission. Attempts at liberal talk -- both on television and radio -- have been abysmal failures. Just this week, MSNBC canceled the liberal leaning program by talk show veteran Phil Donahue after six months of poor ratings.
The political talk show format has yet to prove -- and may never -- that it can support a liberal voice, says Andrew Tyndall, head of ADT Research, a television news consulting firm. Donahue's chances weren't helped by MSNBC's impatience, he says. "They're very quick to cancel shows," Tyndall says. "Right from the start, they haven't settled on a format and let it grow so people can find it. If it's not working in a few months, they cancel it and move on to something else."
Thus far, liberal forays have been limited to single programs, like Donahue's just cancelled show. With a full-funded network, all Franken will need is a growing number of liberals to listen to him and then help him get on the air in more places. Assuming the network lasts, and the grassroots organization can build a critical momentum (especially among the left-leaning Jewish community), there's nothing to stop this new initiative from succeeding. Whether those things line up is a big question mark.
What isn't a question mark is Franken himself, and that's where he becomes the lynch pin of the idea. Franken is a well-established politico with a solid track record both in comedy and commentary. He's stumped for Al Gore, popped up on just about every talk show you can think of, and is slated to be a regular guest on Bill Maher's new HBO series. Add in his books and other achievements and you've got a serious case of street cred in the media world and political universe. He's also got a distinctive and recognizable style with a following to match. That he can bring aboard those fans and use word-of-mouth to grab more is in little doubt.
And that is exactly what the new network is counting on.
"We believe this is a tremendous business opportunity," says Atlanta radio executive Jon Sinton. Sinton, who would be the new network's chief executive, adds, "There are so many right-wing talk shows, we think it's created a hole in the market you could drive a truck through. We want to take an issue and make it funny and engaging. Our intent is to engage and entertain as a way to enlighten, engage in skit comedy, parody, political satire."
Think of it as NPR on steroids. While conservatives tend to be men with Manilow on their turntable, the new network will hope to plug into the liberal leaning college co-ed crowd. Already in unison protesting a potential war with Iraq, Franken will provide these legions with a voice. Plus, the expected Hollywood backing will add glitz to the glory.
However, more than just the man and the message, the medium itself may present a problem. It's a fact: College kids do not listen to talk radio. Old white men do.
That doesn't seem to stop the Drobnys from channeling their fund to this project. "I feel like there's a monologue out there," Ms. Drobny says. "I just had this tremendous feeling with great passion that we had to make sure we're heard and make sure having a dialogue in this country of ours."
Communications specialist Kathleen Hall Jamieson, who was involved in a study of talk radio in the mid-1990s, said the conservative radio audience is easier to attract and mobilize because right-wingers usually view liberals as way off the political spectrum.
And it also doesn't hurt that there are more people in polls who identify themselves as conservative than as liberal. "The search for the liberal equivalent of Rush Limbaugh may be misunderstanding how Limbaugh starts from a natural advantage," said Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. "His audience is already polarized. The liberals don't need a host, they need a different audience."
Franken unplugged
Regardless of whether or not a liberal talk radio network will succeed, the question remains: Is Franken the man for the job? For those in the know, the resounding answer is yes.
Al Franken is more than just the sum of his parts. More than merely a former Saturday Night Live star with some mediocre films to his credit, Franken hails from the top tier of comedian intelligentsia, the kind who parlay the obvious into the obscenely amusing.
Take this recent remark he made on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. When asked what he thought the big story of 2003 would be, he wryly replied, "I think the big story, I'm gonna go out on a limb on this, might be the war in Iraq. I think that might be a very, very big story to watch for the next year."
For his part, Franken, who caused an uproar with his best-selling book Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot, feels that it's time for a liberal alternative. "My audience is going to come," he says. "It would be a different kind of show. But I would definitely try to answer the Rushes and the Hannitys. But I refuse to do it by cheating and distorting."
Franken will also be in a good place to debunk one of the more pervasive of media myths: that it's all a bunch of liberals. While it's true that many reporters in the field lean to the left, it's become more than obvious over the past couple of years that the media has gone screeching to the right.
The rise of Fox News and the resurgence of media figures like Pat Buchanan and Alan Keyes on MSNBC, along with CNN's scramble to win over the conservative viewers have left many in the liberal establishment scratching their heads. But Franken is a die-hard liberal, and with a microphone in front of him, he could lead a new insurgency to help balance out what the audience hears.
After all, where better to counter the conservative media push of recent years than in their own backyard of talk radio, where Republicans and Libertarians have held a virtual monopoly.
So, can Franken single-handedly be the one-man savior of talk radio, sweeping in on a liberal vine and swiping away the mike from the conservatives? Well, delusions of grandeur have never been far from his mind. In his 2000 book, Why Not Me? The Inside Story of the Making and Unmaking of the Franken Presidency, the comedian explores what a presidential run by him would look like.
In the book, he dreamed of picking the Modern Orthodox Joe Lieberman months before Gore had the idea. "Part of the premise of the book is that I have an entirely Jewish cabinet, so if you're going to pick a Jew to be your running mate, Lieberman was sort of the only choice. I guess [California senator] Dianne Feinstein, but I picked Lieberman to balance the ticket, because I'm a Reform Jew."
Irreverent? Yes. Marketable? Well, time will tell.
Jewsweek's Bradford R. Pilcher contributed to this article. |
