January 1, 2003
BORDER(LINE) RADIO:
Outflanked Democrats Wonder How to Catch Up in Media Wars (JIM RUTENBERG, 1/01/02, NY Times)Democrats said a...readily achievable goal would be to foster national liberal radio personalities.The task has fallen to a newly formed group, Democracy Radio Inc. It is overseen by a former Democratic Congressional staffer, Tom Athens, with help from, among others, Paul W. Fiddick, the Clinton administration assistant secretary for agriculture and a co-founder of the Heritage Media Corporation.
"We're going to go out and identify talent and help them to create programming and actually connect them with local stations," Mr. Athens said. "We want to plant a thousand seeds and see how many flowers actually arise."
But if history is any guide, the soil may not be fertile. Liberal radio programs have not worked very well in the past. Liberals and conservatives said they believed this was in part because the most prominent liberal hosts have tended to present policy issues in all of their dry complexity while refraining from baring fangs against conservative opponents.
"Most liberal talk shows are so, you know, milquetoast, who would want to listen to them?" said Harry Thomason, the Hollywood producer who is close to Bill Clinton. "Conservatives are all fire and brimstone."
Mr. Athens said his group would encourage its hosts to be more brazen and entertaining.
"Progressives have this problem: They sound too erudite, it's like eggheads talking at you," Mr. Athens said. "We believe that progressive talk radio can be every bit as successful as conservative talk radio if people present and format a show that people like."
Gotta love the contempt here, that the liberal message is too smart for the audience, while the Stupid Party can appeal to them easily.
I actually have a quite different view of this matter. Long before blogs, when we first got internet and e-mail access, I started sending pretty much the same kind of stories to a group of about twenty or thirty friends and family--liberal, moderate, and conservative. One of the liberals asked why I sent him the stuff. I told him it was my personal belief that no intelligent, honest, and mentally-balanced person could know what is truly going on in the world around him and remain a liberal. This is the second biggest challenge that confronts a leftist version of talk radio or tv. You can't read the news headlines or you disprove your own philosophy.
The bigger challenge, for radio in particular, is that the audience is male--guys on the way to work and back, salesmen traveling in their cars, truck drivers, etc.--and they are, by nature, conservative. So while these folks are focussed on finding new messengers, the insurmountable obstacles that they actually face are their own message and the lack of a natural listenership. This looks like an exercise in futility.
Posted by Orrin Judd at January 1, 2003 9:54 AMAh, yes, the strategy that has worked so well for MSNBC.
Posted by: David Cohen at January 1, 2003 9:48 AMAs a woman who spends a great deal of time in my car and even more time listening to conservative radio, I disagree with your male premise.
A more obvious reason is that liberal radio can't find sponsors. Who wants to pay to hear the capitalist system denounced on a daily basis?
The biggest problem for liberal messengers is how to deny reality, and twist facts to fit their Marxist worldview. IMO if a liberal commentator is moving his lips, he is lying. Their policies of wealth confiscation and victimization can only be sold through lying and government fiat, not by free choice of a rational individual.
In the last thirty years or so, the only way a liberal has succeeded in convincing people to vote for him has been by running on conservative ideas.
Mr Singh:
Everyone twists facts to fit their world view libertarian, conservative, liberal, Stalinist, New Age global village idiot alike.
And liberals base their appeal more on guilt and apeals to compassion rather tha out-and-out lying however disastrous and foolish their diagnoses and proposed remedies may be.
Melissa:
That was, of course, an exagerration--there are plenty of conservative women and liberal men. But, if you look at polling and voting data there's a massive gender gap in the political views of the sexes.
3 hrs of Mario Cuomo and guest dwelling Mario Cuomo should have been sure hit!
Right???
Lest we forget, liberals also base their appeal on scare tactics. Primarily scaring the elderly voting bloc. That sure is ethical isn't it?
Posted by: Bartman at January 2, 2003 9:13 AM