Dems Say Radio Talk Is Left Out (Dems fly-in contenders to find “their” Lefty Limbaugh)

New York Post ^ | 1/31/03 | John Mainelli

[Froggie]

Who is that liberal talk-babe on WLS in Chicago that they trot out when they are trying to be "fair and balanced" and find a liberal point of view - she is pathetic - but probably the best they can come up with....Yea, Jim Hightower was really BAD - didn't last long....and remember Mario Cuomo's attempt at talk radio! Alan Colmes couldn't make it without Sean at his side - they even cancelled his radio show in NYC the bastion of liberal thinking!
What is Ma Richards doing these days - at least she was funny in a ill-logical off-beat kind of way?
The Dems are clueless - but let them keep trying --Rush is right - they are most entertaining when they are out of power - just think of their "leaders" - Daschle and Palosi - what a combo!

[RayBob]

What these pinheads fail to recognize is that you can't create a liberal Limbaugh. They see it work with BoyBands...the contrived singing groups formed to copy a successful one may score one or two hit albums, but they fade away into the woodwork far too soon for their creator's plans.

Limbaugh is successful because he connects to his audience. His audience is comprised of a certain type of person who would rather listen to talk than music. The typical liberal would rather listen to music than talk. At least that's my observation. Look at the successful talk shows; they are mostly conservatives. They have conservative callers and a few malcontents who "feel" that they have to disrupt the flow...sort of like a talk show version of Murrymom.

In Pittsburgh, the king of talk is Rush. The competing (local) liberal voice is one Lynn Cullen. I've tuned into her show on occasion. Usually, she is rambling on about one thing or another, and gets very few calls. The few times I've tuned in she has resorted to talking to his sister on the air. Sometimes its a friend. The fact remains that there is not much of an audience. Now keep in mind that she's not a whack job, over the top moron. She can come up with rational arguments and is, by my estimation, an intelligent, thoughtful woman. When she's not talking politics, she is even enteraining. But she does not get much participation from her callers.

The other side, the conservative or libertarian side, gets alot of play on KDKA with Mike Pintek, followed by Rush, then Fred Honsberger. In the morning drive, there is Jim Quinn (see www.warroom.com--they have archived shows and live feeds) on an FM, classic rock station. He gets the ratings because there is a market for conservative talk in the morning. The liberals are happy with listening to the top 40 and hip hop crap or the comedy stylings of Jim Krenn and crew on WDVE. Again, it comes down to the target audience. Where are the libs? They're listening to the FM music stations, not talk.

Until the left can convince their potential audience to stop listening to music, and switch to talk, for at least part of the day, they can never have anything close to Limbaugh.

[TomB]

Doug Steffan, out of Washington DC, might be their candidate.

They just put him on around here recently to replace Imus.

I never thought I'd say this, but I miss Imus. That is how bad Steffan is. Along with his incredibly whiny liberal sidekick.

However, he would never take the gig. He's too much of an ideological coward. His beliefs twist in the wind more than Imus, and that says a lot.

[ewing]

Pat Buchanan had a radio show with the ACLU's Barry Linn (who is on FOX all the time now) and it was a hoot in the afternoons.

[AnAmericanMother]

They often try to cover for this tendency toward potty-mouth by claiming it's parody. Of what, I ask? Themselves, perhaps?

Problem is, they're trying to do something that's purely Australian territory - not ours. To wit:

HOW WE DROVE THE TROTTER by W.T. Goodge

The sunburnt ---- stockman stood
And, in a dismal ---- mood,
Apostrophized his ---- cuddy;
"The ---- nag's no ---- good,
He couldn't earn his ---- food -
A regular ---- brumby,
----!"

He jumped across the ---- horse
And cantered off, of ---- course!
The roads were bad and ---- muddy;
Said he, "Well, spare me ---- days
The ---- Government's ---- ways
Are screamin' ---- funny,
----!"

He rode up hill, down ---- dale,
The wind it blew a ---- gale,
The creek was high and ---- floody.
Said he, "The ---- horse must swim,
The same for ---- me and him,
Is something ---- sickenin',
----!"

He plunged into the ---- creek,
The ---- horse was ---- weak,
The stockman's face a ---- study!
And though the ---- horse was drowned
The ---- rider reached the ground
Ejaculating, "----?"
"----!"

(Insert the Great Australian Adjective where indicated.)

[ken5050]

He was given a quasi-national roll-out a few years ago..heard in the NYC market on WABC..on a weekend...I listened once..it was awful..dreadfull..he lasted about a mionth.....remember Mario Cuomo's show..he was the Next Big Thing....also died in a few months...

[jmaroneps37]

I don't know, but I think Krusty has a fairly steady gig on the Simpsons already. I guess they'd have to put a studio in his dressing room.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

He's whiny, for sure.

[SerpentDove]

>>This is just so classic. Democrats are going to CHOOSE a counter to Rush. This is a perfect microchosm of thier thinking.<<

I hadn't thought of it that way, and you're dead right!

"We will decide who they will listen to and like it. We will instruct them how to think."

They think they are being "out-propagandized." They cannot fathom that conservative talk radio connects with people because it is based on truth.

Good point!

[zarf]

They miss the point again. First and foremost, a great talk show host must be a great radio talent.

That cannot be manufactured.

[HumanaeVitae]

Left wing talk radio would have worked well in, oh, 1935...

[MainFrame65]

Actually, I have noticed recently that I seem to be hearing more lefties talking to the likes of Limbaugh and Hannity than in the past. In other words, their failure to find a spokesman seems to have led them to invade the turf of the successful talk show hosts, all of whom are conservative, to spout their nonsense.

Sometimes they proclaim their leftness in order to claim the precedence that these hosts afford to opposing views (can you imagine that from a liberal host, by the way?). More often, they claim to be republican or conservative, but so disappointed or disillusioned by everything that the administration or republican Congressional leadership is doing that they are switching parties, changing allegiance, or otherwise supporting the opposition.

In either case they then proceed to spout the full litany of liberal talking points, revealing the falsity of their previous self-identification.

Limbaugh refers to them as "seminar callers." I am not convinced of such an explicit conspiracy, but I am quite certain of their prevarication. And I do think that if they do not take orders, they find their direction on the liberal web sites, directly or indirectly.

I used to find the occasional liberal caller instructive, and I think that the honest ones still can be. I truly believe that ideas and opinions need to be tested against opposing opinions, to hone and harden them. But these spouters don't debate; they merely lecture and sloganize, which is a contest of volume rather than truth. Frankly, I find them boring, and think they receive far more courtesy from the hosts than they deserve.

Any comments?

[CyberAnt]

Democrats: This is so simple - "read my lips"

NOBODY WANTS TO HEAR YOUR MESSAGE!

[BADROTOFINGER]

In sum, if I were a leftist, I suppose I would like listening to the Forehead.

Yeah, but unfortunately for the left, no one else wants to hear him. The Fivehead regularly mops the floor with Novak because Novak is a journalist, and Begala is a political operative. Kind of like putting Sly Stallone in the ring with Lennox Lewis and calling it boxing. Begala can and will say anything to win an arguement, while Novak, a serious journalist, has to work within the facts. Brit Hume remarked on the situation (im paraphrasing here) '...the incongruity of it seems to be lost on CNN".

Begala's problem (any lefites prob on radio for that matter) is that they actually have to reach everday Americans, and as we all know, the left is hopelessly out of touch with the man-on-the-street. Rush, Glenn Beck, Savage, Hannity, and others are very much in touch with the majority of Americans.

The main problem for the left in talk radio, whether they realize it or not, is that they will have to compromise their philosophy to appeal to the public on the broadest possible scale. But they are caught between their hatred for achievers (a surprising number of Americans consider themselves achievers), and their desire to suck up to everybody under the sun. They will have to lie to get listeners, they will have to become sell outs to their peers. Of course, it isnt only children who can see naked emperors, so that strategery wont get them far either. They should just give it up and stay true to their beliefs by trying to stop talk radio with the only thing that they truly understand, and that is violent force through the power of armed government...JFK

[lorrainer]

If anyone presently on national air represents what the Rats apparently are looking for in a radio host, the Forehead surely comes the closest.

And he certainly has a face meant for radio...

[cricket]

"This whole deal is soooo liberal it's funny"

. . .and while some of the more hypocritical ones offer 'let the market place determine who wins the listening war' they are privately 'going after' Rush. . .and even O'Reilly and maybe others.

NOT so funny; but plainly their typical and favored, Marxist/Fascist/'commie' approach to honest competition.

[cricket]

"Boortz will be on Donahue tonight, one on one! This will be the 2nd time I have watched Donahue. And probably the last since he will be off the air soon."

. . .well, that would be worth watching.

Kills them no doubt, to have to bring on a Conservative to make a blip on their 'ratings screen'.

[fightinJAG]

I wonder how Crossfire is doing in the ratings?

I wish more conservatives would get in the live audience.

If we could only get the Rats to draft people such as the Forehead for a national radio show, we could bump them off one by one and throw them into the cesspool of disgraced liberal blabbermouths.

Actually, "we" would have nothing to do with it. While we're all listening to Rush, the latest parade of Forehead & Forehead Brain Clones radio hosts would be crashing and burning all by themselves.

If a liberal talk show host crashes and burns in the forest of talk radio, does it make a sound?

[fightinJAG]

Rush once said that the only reason his show is funny is because liberals are funny.

If it weren't for liberals, we would have nothing to laugh about.

Could you see Forehead and Snakehead trying to do a parody of conservatives that actually was funny? Guess, if one has been smoking the evidence . . .