Damn, I missed the birther hour!

[elfs]

Damn, damn, damn! I turned on the radio and flipped throguh the dial, only to discover that I was listening to the last five minutes of conservative talk show host Bill Cunnigham's "A Great American" show, in which Cunnigham was taking Birthers, the birth certificate conspiracy theorists, seriously.

I hate missing out on the funny stuff like that.

Bill wasn't saying where he fell, one way or another. But he did say this, shouting a'la Mark Levin: "He grew up in Jakarta, Indonesia. He went to school there under the name 'Barry Soetoro.' Most Americans don't know this. The mainstream media didn't tell you this. They picked their candidate and sold him to you. Most Americans don't know anything about him growing up in Indonesia!"

Barak Obama's book Audacity of Hope, in which he discusses his childhood (including his life in Indonesia) was on the bestseller list for 30 weeks, the audiobook took home a Grammy. FOX and CNN covered this ground a gazillion times. Yes, Bill, actually we all know about "Barry Soetoro." He's an American, a citizen, and our President.

Comments

About Your Listening List

[(Anonymous)]

Elf,

For someone whose views would appear to be well described as liberal-left-progressive, you do seem to listen to a lot of independent and right-wing commentators who highly offend your viewpoints seemingly just about all the time. That seems to fit the classic definition of neurotic. Of course, neurotic may be a necessary ingredient in the recipe of a writer. After all, I'm hardly one to deny that.

Perhaps you can explain because I can't why conservative talk radio succeeds far more than liberal talk radio so far. And it maintains this large lead regardless of which party is in power at the moment.

My best theory is that liberal talk's message simply isn't compelling, but that seems too simplistic to explain it. I've listened to liberal talk radio that I thought was well done -- Bill Press in LA and Tammy Bruce in her early days particularly come to mind -- but Air America was a dismal commercial failure, and they were the most prominent attempt in this area to date. The recurring idea that we have to kill free speech and terrify radio stations regarding their license renewals in order to "balance" out the political discourse is the very antithesis of free speech and should offend every First Amendment classic liberal. One should agree that the fact that you have free speech doesn't give you the right to demand that the government force other people to listen to you.

--DB_Story

[rhonan.livejournal.com]

As I remember it, many in the right-wing press kept going on and on about Barry Soetoro, his growing up in Indonesia, and how he went to a madrassa as a Muslim. In fact, some of them couldn't let it drop, even after it was pointed out that the school was not a religious school, had Christian students too, and that madrassa was just Arabic from school.

[oldhans117.livejournal.com]

CNN not only flew over to Indonesia(9,000 miles), they interviewed his old teachers, principle and neighbors and had several full blown shows on it. Of course they said the same crap about Bill Clinton when he was president (including all the weird Nazi junk).

Re: About Your Listening List

[sirfox.livejournal.com]

I've known a number of people across the political spectrum to listen to all flavors of punditry, generally for the same two reasons: 1: know what The Other Side is saying so their talking points don't blindside you, *especially* when they're the really outlandish nutjob sort you'd never expect, and 2: the marvelous opportunities to laugh at something spun so hard and so badly that only somebody in incredible denial could miss it.

As to why conservative talk radio gets more ratings than liberal talk radio...

Ratings and Sensationalism.

The right wing is still much better than the left at condensing its platform to talking points that resonate with the country's fears. It's easy to fight change with fear, since The Unknown has been our biggest boogyman since our species' first sentient ancestors divided the universe into the darkness behind the eyes where the little voice is, and the rest of the universe in front of them. Progressives prefer looking at the positives, how things could be, wouldn't it be better if... etc. Conservatives just need to scare people about how *else* it might be, and that's a lot simpler.

Conservative pundits (Limbaugh and O'Riley especially) have little or no compunction at stating their moral position as the only correct one, and beating everybody else senseless with it. Progressives (in general) are less comfortable doing so, knowing the large and diverse groups that make up their party would object rather loudly if they did. Keith Olbermann is one of the only liberal pundits to really start openly attacking the other side with their own tools and sensationalism, followed soon after by Maddow.

Demographics play into things too. Radio is still a better media for reaching a lot of the rural republican base, while the democratic side of things is more diversified over digital media and television. For-profit liberal radio can generally only survive in more urban districts, where they're lost in a sea of media. A few private rural conservative stations can be the majority of voices on the air quite easily, by comparison, so it perpetuates itself when the only competitor is non-profit NPR.

Re: About Your Listening List

[resonant.livejournal.com]

"you do seem to listen to a lot of independent and right-wing commentators"

Don't most people do this? Listening to opposing viewpoints is a good way to challenge your own opinions, allowing you to modify them as needed or validate their correctness.