Kilmer17 Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 Im sure most have heard the plans from the DNC to start a Liberal talk radio network. I guess NPR isnt enough for them, it only has 700+ stations. Does anyone think it can be successful? And if so how? And who should the hosts be? My initial thought was nosemilk, but then I started to think that the business would work. Because Conservatives and others who simply hate Liberals will listen and call and berate the hosts into submission. I think it will make for fabulous entertaiment. The problem will be finding enough hosts. Al Franken is the leading guy right now, but aside from name calling and attacking Rush, he hardly has an idea of his own. He'll grow weary of getting destroyed in debate everyday and quickly return to his Hollywood elitist crowd. The problem is there are no real Liberal thinkers anymore. And the extremists (Noam Chomsky) would do nothing but bolster the GOP base. I watched Bernard Goldberg on Hardball last week and he told a great story about the Liberal press. A NYTimes editor was quoted in 1972 that she couldn't believe Nixon had beaten McGovern because "SHe didnt know a single person that had voted for him". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 The thing I don't get about the left doing what they are proposing here to get this programming on the radio is why they aren't helping people with that money. The $200 million they are talking about getting to put on a radio show could help our schools and our children. It could help the homeless or people in need. Yet, they will use it for selfish reasons -- selfish in that no one who runs a radio station presently can hire a liberal since no one listens to those shows -- and try to fill air time with a batch of shows that's unlikely to survive the first six months, but that will continue to have to be fed great sums of money to support under the weight of its own failure. My problem with liberals is along the lines of why don't they pool their cash to help someone other than themselves rather than asking that others do this for them in the form of a tax-based redistribution of wealth? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
codeorama Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 The last thing I want to listen to on the radio is politics. left or right......:puke: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarhog Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 I am of the belief that the more people hear the 'liberal' message side-by-side with a conservative one, the greater the benefit for conservatives as I think most Americans are conservative at heart. I think the ground the conservatives lost after the Reagan era was due to the fact that many Americans harbor some degree of social liberalism. Despite their base conservatism, they ARE concerned about the poor, racial inequity, abortion rights, and other social issues that the conservative movement often marginalizes. I think thats whats behind GW's effort to brand his politics as 'compassionate conservatism', trying to put a more human face on conservatism (which I think has been only minimally successful). One of the reasons why I'm willing to go along with newer proposals such as the AIDS funding Bush recently proposed (even though I agree with many here that we should focus on America's poor and sick before spending millions elsewhere) is because it addresses the concerns that these essentially conservative Americans have about those social issues and I think makes the Republican party far more attractive, particularly for women. I think whats hurt the Democratic party and liberals in general is their general disdain for and condesencion related to the success of things like conservative talk radio, the 'FOX' TV network and conservatism in general. Rather than asking 'why is the conservative agenda/message resonating with many Americans?', they mock the success, and I believe view the American people as essentially stupid and 'fooled' by conservative arguments. Until they really understand that most Americans can't stomach many of the positions of folks like Tom Daschle, Nancy Pelosi, Hilary, and Al Sharpton, and that its their message and position that needs re-examining, I don't think any amount of media access is going to alter the sum equation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
codeorama Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 Tarhog, Great points, I agree with you. Just to add, I feel like I have many traditional right side values and some left side values as well. In general, not all but many of those on the right side tend to turn people off because of the "preachy" attitudes and penchant for name calling. I tend to get angrier at people on the right side because they tend to tell me how I should think rather than just what their opinion is. The average person will listen to what you have to say, but when someone angers them, they will no longer listen. I totally accept that eveyone has different opinions and there is more than one way to get things accomplished. I agree that the media is slanted a little more to the left in most cases because of the issues that you brought up. They want to "care". If they do or not, that's a whole different issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fansince62 Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 and Code...the problem with the left is that they also preach to a "higher" calling....all the while reaching into your backpocket on the assumption that they know better than you how to spend YOUR money...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarhog Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 When I was a Government major at UVa, I took several classes with Larry Sabato...you may have seen him as he does a bunch of political analysis for FOX and other networks. His motto was 'Politics is a Good Thing'. That might seem strange, but his general theory is that the 2 party system is a great thing, and that anything that weakens the two party system should be avoided. Its taken me a long time to understand where he was coming from, but basically having 2 polarizing groups provides a forum for the voicing of widely varying solutions to problems, and also allows a more reasonable consensus to form somewhere in the middle ground. I hear a lot of people say 'all politicians are the same' (which I couldn't disagree with more, there are always inarguable differences between the left and right) and other derogatory comments about the 2 party system, but when you really look at it, the system works incredibly well. It provides stability, protections against any one group dominating the other for any length of time, and forces most politicians to run to the center agenda-wise in order to be successful. Not sure what this has to do with this discussion, but I guess I do believe that 'politics is a good thing' as long as we try and keep the discussion on issues and don't over-personalize a debate. One of the things I know I regret is getting overly excited about a discussion and taking it personally when I get slammed or choose to slam someone else. That is the one real critique of Conservative vs. Liberal politics I have, if we could keep 9/11 in mind and see more of the respect Daschle/Bush showed each other in its aftermath (which I honestly believe was genuine), we would all be better for it. My only reservation about Liberal Radio is that it will further 'personalize' these discussions and result in more heated diatribe than there is already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fansince62 Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 Tarhog....funny, my take is that the 2 party system, especially as fractious as it is now....is great because nothing gets done.....the two sides don't practice the spirit of compromise Om occasionally speaks to........ I would argue that the problem with multi-party systems is that, as we see elsewhere, very small minority parties can exert a disproportionate influence on decisionmaking....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarhog Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 Here is a link to Sabato's Center for Politics (essentially promoting our political system and involvement in it, its neither conservative nor liberal) in case anyone is interested: http://www.centerforpolitics.org/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
codeorama Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 I agree that I don't want someone telling me where my money should go either. My comments were meant to be taken only in a "general" sense. There are plenty of Left wingers that piss me off (michael moore) because they are so preachy as well. I think the name calling however is more of a GOP trait. regardless........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarhog Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 Screw you Code you ignorant, pea-brained twerp! :laugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
codeorama Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 :laugh: :laugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 I'll host it!!:high: As long as I can keep my title as BG, liberal conservative warmonger facist homophobic misogynist Oh wait sorry, Howard Stern has that one taken care of:laugh: :laugh: Could a liberal radio show do more in the long run for helping the lib/dem cause by getting info to the people such as casues, events, organizations and such? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burgold Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 this idea bothers me, but only to the extent that coservative talk radio does. Anyone who starts with the agenda of only espousing one side is dangerous and wrongheaded. As much as Rush, Liddy, Robertson, Duke, etc. make me nervous, I would equally fear the other extreme... though perhaps, it needs greater voice since it has become so quiet that many say they don't even know what it stands for. A network of one opinion should be avoided though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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