Posted on 12/08/2002 6:06:40 AM PST by bigaln2
The traffic is murder out there, and Ed on the car phone wants to know: Why can't those liberal weenies mix it up?
Translation: when you're backed up on the expressway and a radio voice is howling at you, why isn't that voice ever a liberal?
For much of the last decade, conservative talk radio hosts built carnivorous empires by gorging on the foibles of Bill Clinton. Now, two years into the Bush administration, liberals and Democrats are still waiting for a syndicated carnivore of their own.
As Mr. Clinton said in a speech last week, referring to a range of conservative media: "They have a destruction machine. We don't have a destruction machine."
What Democrats do have is a yammer gap.
At a time when the public is pretty evenly divided politically, conservative talk radio, long led by Rush Limbaugh, continues to grow.
New or newly syndicated programs featuring the conservative television talk show hosts Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity made their debut on 200 to 300 stations in the last year. Dr. Laura Schlessinger, G. Gordon Liddy and other conservative hosts are still going strong. Meanwhile, one of the few longrunning liberal hosts, Gloria Allred, was sacrificed to poor ratings in October after 14 years in Los Angeles, joining Jim Hightower, Mario M. Cuomo and Alan M. Dershowitz.
"I can't think of a single card-carrying liberal talk show syndicated nationwide," said Ron Rodrigues, editor in chief of Radio & Records, a trade magazine.
The question is: why can't liberals create blast-furnace entertainment for their causes? The answers may inhere in the nature of liberalism, said Robert Thompson, a professor of media and popular culture at Syracuse University. Where radio conservatives have thrived by drawing hard distinctions between right and wrong, he said, "the liberal tradition as we understand it acknowledges a diversity of people and values." In the heat of drive-time squawk, he said, "That's easily thrown back in their face by making them look mealy-mouthed."
Like other forms of news and entertainment, talk radio is a numbers game. Conservative talk radio, which arose from the Federal Communication Commission's 1987 repeal of the so-called Fairness Doctrine, releasing stations from the obligation to provide balanced opinion, "is a result of radio being a niche medium," said Michael Harrison, editor of Talkers, a trade magazine. Stations look for heat, not breadth.
"The hosts that light the fire tap into a vein of consciousness that is not given the proper attention elsewhere," said Phil Boyce, program director of WABC in New York, which carries both Mr. Limbaugh and Mr. Hannity. "When conservative listeners first heard Rush Limbaugh, they said, `Eureka, someone is finally saying what I think.' "
Mr. Limbaugh has had the most popular radio program since the early 1990's. Heard on more than 600 stations, he reaches about 14.5 million listeners each week, according to an analysis of Arbitron ratings by Talkers magazine. Mr. Hannity, a rising second, reaches about 10 million. "That's not a mass audience when compared to other media," Mr. Harrison said. "More people watch the World Wrestling Federation." But for niche media, being small is part of the appeal. The bond listeners feel to their favorite talk show is that of members of an aggrieved minority.
Even with a Republican administration, liberals will have a hard time claiming this same grievance. As long as network sitcoms, mainstream movies, public radio and some major newspapers are identified with liberal views about sex, family and tattoos, conservatives can cast themselves as outsiders, no matter who is in the White House, said John Mainelli, a talk radio consultant and former program director.
And this tilt may be politically significant.
David C. Barker, a professor of political science at the University of Pittsburgh, is the author of a new book, "Rushed to Judgment: Talk Radio, Persuasion and American Political Behavior" (Columbia University, 2002), which surveyed listeners and non-listeners. While he could not measure the impact of Mr. Limbaugh's program on elections, he said, "If you take a group of people who never listened to talk radio before, and then look at their attitudes six months later, you'll see a clear change" reflecting the views of Mr. Limbaugh.
And not just more conservative — more specifically like Mr. Limbaugh, Mr. Barker said. On topics that Mr. Limbaugh generally doesn't address, like gay rights or abortion, his listeners were indistinguishable from Republicans at large. But on the host's pet topics, like health care or John McCain, the listeners were much more conservative than other Republicans.
Whatever the effects of the conservative dominance of the radio dial, there's no one on the left who can carve meat like Mr. Limbaugh or Mr. Hannity. As for the earnest Ivy League variety, ever eager to engage in serious debate over significant issues, they can always go write for "The West Wing." Its ratings have been falling, by the way.
The only way that NPR can be said to be "financially successful" is that it is subsidized by the taxpayers.
Isn't that interesting? The only way liberals can maintain a nationwide syndication for their views is to ride the backs of American taxpayers!
Liberals need pictures(TV,Natl Enq etc)
Conservatives can understand words(radio,books w/o pics)
Need I say more..has something 2 do with IQ maybe?
I have a friend who is quite liberal. She listens to Rush. He drives her crazy - she disagrees strongly with almost everything he believes (and everything I believe) but she listens.
I believe one reason his opinions don't drive her away is that he is polite even to people who disagree with him. Liberals, OTOH, tend to insult those who disagree with them (and their humor tends to be either crude or mean). They drive away everyone who doesn't agree, and wind up with lower ratings.
And to each his own, that's the great thing about living in a country that tries to practice the principles of freedom. If you don't like Rush, then you don't have to listen to him.
Radio does have a certain amount of entertainment value to it but it is also a media that can convey useful information. One of the reasons I listen to Rush is because I like the entertainment value that he has to offer. I particularly like the environmental update theme song that has a blues band with a chainsaw doing the lead. I've got to get a copy of that to send to an old high school friend who since high school has moved to Oregon and adopted many environmental views. I'm sure she will not appreciate it.
The name of the game in radio, and or TV for that matter is numbers. So yes, to a certain degree Rush probably does preach to the choir as you say, in that his how he keeps his numbers up. But at the same time he has consistently exhibited a very well defined set of critical analysis skills that I find interesting. Although I might not always agree with his conclusions, he does have a logical and reasoned approached as to how he arrives at them. Not an emotional tirade that usually tends to be void of reason that many commentators have.
That is why I listen, to be both entertained and informed and find different ways to think about various issues.
You ARE (IS) a destruction machine, also you are a PERSONAL DESTRUCTION machine.
I see... Has this guy actually ever *listened* to liberals?
"A vote against impeachment is not a vote for Bill Clinton. It is a vote against bigotry. It's a vote against fundamentalism. It's a vote against anti-environmentalism. It's a vote against the right-to-life movement. It's a vote against the radical right. This is truly the first battle in a great culture war. And if this president is impeached, it will be a great victory for the forces of evil, evil! Genuine evil. People like Congressman Barr, Sen. Trent Lott, Sen. Jesse Helms, who support white supremacist organizations, will claim victory over decency and decent people. And I hope that moderates out there realize, even if they don't like Bill Clinton, to vote for impeachment is to vote to give their party over to the mad dogs of radicalism."
-- Alan Dershowitz, on "Rivera Live", December 1998
Why do these stories usually leave out Laura Ingraham?
This will die down once the Right turns talk of the "Fairness Doctrine" away from conservative talk radio towards how it would also affect outlets such as NPR, ABC News, Meet The Press, etc.
The "Fairness Doctrine" will work both ways. I believe that, in the end, restoring the Fairness Doctrine will hurt the Left more than the Right. The Right is already comfortable discussing all sides of an issue. It's the Left that can't hold up to scrutiny, and allowing opposing opinion to intrude into their previously "safe zones" will undercut their single-threaded messages to their base.
-PJ
Bill Clinton won by pretending to be a conservative. The lesson ought to be obvious: swing voters are generally repulsed by the liberal aganda.
So what do the Dems do? Put the Bay Area Marxist Pelosi in charge of their House delegation.
Forgot "Jabba the Hutt" Bernie Ward...
His "nationwide" radio show lasted 2 weeks!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Name calling and making stuff up gets old really fast...
Nice try troll.
It is also another way to say that Rush gives articulation to gut feelings that the "progressives" are mostly slime.
Try www.morons'R'us.com for your great "ideas" to fit in...
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