Liberal Talk Radio

From this morning's Anchorage Daily News: :rofl:

I don't know the real reason liberal radio talk show host Aaron Selbig was sacked from KUDO-AM. Maybe it was the lousy ratings. Maybe it was that he dared go where the station's offstage masters at IBEW didn't want him to go.

I do know this: Liberal talk radio is a lousy business proposition.

And there are good reasons for that.

No. 1 -- Liberals have minds of their own. Unlike Rush Limbaugh's dittoheads, they don't respond like Pavlov's dogs when the master rings their emotional bells.

Liberals operate higher up the brain stem than most talk radio listeners. Liberals use their heads; conservatives go for the gut. (The term "liberal" in liberal arts education doesn't mean getting politically indoctrinated; it means thinking for yourself.)

Second, liberals have real jobs during the day. Jobs that require using their brains. They aren't sitting around in T-shirts and boxer shorts all afternoon, beer in hand, yelling from the Barcalounger, "You tell 'em, Rush!" Liberals aren't stickin' it to the man by goofing off at their dead-end jobs and listening to rants on the radio while munching fatty snacks jimmied out of the company vending machine.

Most commercial talk radio listeners are looking for entertainment, not enlightenment. They enjoy a rhetorical circus. They don't care if facts get in the way of a good argument.

Liberals have a reality-based view of the world. And let's face it -- reality is soooo B-O-R-I-N-G.

Liberal talk radio is a great sedative. If I'm having trouble getting to sleep at night, I can slap on the headphones, cue up a podcast of NPR's "Talk of the Nation," and I'm off to dreamland in no time.

The popularity of right-wing talk radio would be irrelevant, just a quirk of the American communications market, if it weren't for the political implications. Dittoheads can be stampeded into mass action that frightens politicians who might otherwise do the right thing.

For this sad fact of American life, I blame the educational system. Students these days just don't learn to think for themselves.

The biggest sign of trouble in American education is not low test scores. It's not abysmal graduation rates. It's the continuing commercial success of right-wing talk radio.

-- Matt Zencey

Rachel Maddow is wonderfully intelligent. I love to hear Sam Seder stick it to one of the Morans who call in..

and I'm sure Matt Zencey does, as well. I just love it when the ADN, which is Alaska's most-read newspaper, sticks a finger in the eye of the idiot conservatives in this state. The times, they are a-changin'. :)

There should be some kind of penalty for leaving out The Young Turks.

Oh, and while Thom Hartmann *can* be dry and boring, he IS incredibly informative.

Thom Hartmann and Rachel Maddow may be the most intelligent people in the media.

I have a pretty boring job - sitting at a desk for 10 hours a day - not much intellectual stimulation - but my Rachel Maddow podcast stimulates my brain during my commute.

Also, Stephanie Miller is one of the funniest people in entertainment in my opinion - not much in the way of substance, but solid liberal comedy.

NPR is just about worthless now.

i.e. the 71% of people who can't stand the right wing. Let Rush & Co split up the listeners at the bottom 29% of the IQ scale.

and fails to mention the efforts of advertisers to undermine 'liberal radio' without regard to ratings.

Liberal college town -- East Lansing, Michigan -- has never even had Air America, or any other 'liberal' commercial radio. So it has never, to this point, been given a fair shake.

Zencey does make one good point...

http://nprwatch.wordpress.com/

After 20 or 15 years of right wing pollution on the AM ban, the U.S American citizen is not use to a new for a old but resurrected format. Anyway, who in the 50th state does not wants
to hear anything remotely political, maybe a show about fishing or hunting. People live in Alaska to get away from politics and crime.
Radio shows take time to develop. Fox news lost millions of dollars for the 10 years until they went tabloid and Republican. Rush in the beginning, in the 1980's only had 7 affiliates in 1980's until he syndicated his show for free. Then in the new century, The American Enterprise Institute started to send out neo-con talking points to all AM right wing talk pukes. After 9-11 all right wing broadcasters were saying the same thing. It is time for Liberal radio! And the USA is hungry for it!

Speaking of 80's....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdUg5rBDHhI

to support shows that tow the corporate line. This is also the reason liberal shows have problems staying on the air. How many bosses are there that are willing to listen to their employees tell millions of people about their faults everyday?

Anyone know what came of the talk about reintroducing the fairness doctrine a year ago or so?

Yah, National Pentagon Radio is practically Commie :eyes:

See Malloy in Air America.

re: "Most commercial talk radio listeners are looking for entertainment, not enlightenment. ..Liberals have a reality-based view of the world. And let's face it -- reality is soooo B-O-R-I-N-G. "

There is room for both entertainment and enlightenment and various mixes of the two. But moreover, reality doesn't have to be boring. Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, Keith Olbermann, and Stephanie Miller are some who can make the left perspective fun to listen to. But yes, they are the exception... three of those four aren't on the radio. Compared to conservative hosts, the liberal radio hosts often seem to be more concerned with the message than putting on an entertaining show. That may sound admirable, but it generally doesn't make for as successful radio.

Liberals know HOW to think.

How often have you seen liberals fawn onto ANYONE and gush...
"I agree with EVERYTHING you say!!! OHMYGAWD Megadittos!"

That sort of shit just isn't in our nature.