Posted on 12/08/2002 6:06:40 AM PST by bigaln2
The traffic is murder out there, and Ed on the car phone wants to know: Why can't those liberal weenies mix it up?
Translation: when you're backed up on the expressway and a radio voice is howling at you, why isn't that voice ever a liberal?
For much of the last decade, conservative talk radio hosts built carnivorous empires by gorging on the foibles of Bill Clinton. Now, two years into the Bush administration, liberals and Democrats are still waiting for a syndicated carnivore of their own.
As Mr. Clinton said in a speech last week, referring to a range of conservative media: "They have a destruction machine. We don't have a destruction machine."
What Democrats do have is a yammer gap.
At a time when the public is pretty evenly divided politically, conservative talk radio, long led by Rush Limbaugh, continues to grow.
New or newly syndicated programs featuring the conservative television talk show hosts Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity made their debut on 200 to 300 stations in the last year. Dr. Laura Schlessinger, G. Gordon Liddy and other conservative hosts are still going strong. Meanwhile, one of the few longrunning liberal hosts, Gloria Allred, was sacrificed to poor ratings in October after 14 years in Los Angeles, joining Jim Hightower, Mario M. Cuomo and Alan M. Dershowitz.
"I can't think of a single card-carrying liberal talk show syndicated nationwide," said Ron Rodrigues, editor in chief of Radio & Records, a trade magazine.
The question is: why can't liberals create blast-furnace entertainment for their causes? The answers may inhere in the nature of liberalism, said Robert Thompson, a professor of media and popular culture at Syracuse University. Where radio conservatives have thrived by drawing hard distinctions between right and wrong, he said, "the liberal tradition as we understand it acknowledges a diversity of people and values." In the heat of drive-time squawk, he said, "That's easily thrown back in their face by making them look mealy-mouthed."
Like other forms of news and entertainment, talk radio is a numbers game. Conservative talk radio, which arose from the Federal Communication Commission's 1987 repeal of the so-called Fairness Doctrine, releasing stations from the obligation to provide balanced opinion, "is a result of radio being a niche medium," said Michael Harrison, editor of Talkers, a trade magazine. Stations look for heat, not breadth.
"The hosts that light the fire tap into a vein of consciousness that is not given the proper attention elsewhere," said Phil Boyce, program director of WABC in New York, which carries both Mr. Limbaugh and Mr. Hannity. "When conservative listeners first heard Rush Limbaugh, they said, `Eureka, someone is finally saying what I think.' "
Mr. Limbaugh has had the most popular radio program since the early 1990's. Heard on more than 600 stations, he reaches about 14.5 million listeners each week, according to an analysis of Arbitron ratings by Talkers magazine. Mr. Hannity, a rising second, reaches about 10 million. "That's not a mass audience when compared to other media," Mr. Harrison said. "More people watch the World Wrestling Federation." But for niche media, being small is part of the appeal. The bond listeners feel to their favorite talk show is that of members of an aggrieved minority.
Even with a Republican administration, liberals will have a hard time claiming this same grievance. As long as network sitcoms, mainstream movies, public radio and some major newspapers are identified with liberal views about sex, family and tattoos, conservatives can cast themselves as outsiders, no matter who is in the White House, said John Mainelli, a talk radio consultant and former program director.
And this tilt may be politically significant.
David C. Barker, a professor of political science at the University of Pittsburgh, is the author of a new book, "Rushed to Judgment: Talk Radio, Persuasion and American Political Behavior" (Columbia University, 2002), which surveyed listeners and non-listeners. While he could not measure the impact of Mr. Limbaugh's program on elections, he said, "If you take a group of people who never listened to talk radio before, and then look at their attitudes six months later, you'll see a clear change" reflecting the views of Mr. Limbaugh.
And not just more conservative — more specifically like Mr. Limbaugh, Mr. Barker said. On topics that Mr. Limbaugh generally doesn't address, like gay rights or abortion, his listeners were indistinguishable from Republicans at large. But on the host's pet topics, like health care or John McCain, the listeners were much more conservative than other Republicans.
Whatever the effects of the conservative dominance of the radio dial, there's no one on the left who can carve meat like Mr. Limbaugh or Mr. Hannity. As for the earnest Ivy League variety, ever eager to engage in serious debate over significant issues, they can always go write for "The West Wing." Its ratings have been falling, by the way.
Contrarywise, NO ONE has to MAKE liberals look mealy-mouthed. It's a natural state.
What a maroon!!!!!
Good one.
This is called the Free Market. Wow, huh? Never heard of that, did ya? This is what you get when you offer people a CHOICE rather than deluge them with state-funded (or Ted Turner-funded) propaganda 24/7.
""If you take a group of people who never listened to talk radio before, and then look at their attitudes six months later, you'll see a clear change" reflecting the views of Mr. Limbaugh."
Which to me is another way of saying that conservatives don't know what to think until they listen to Rush. The liberal Rushbot idea.
Conservative talk radio tends to be contentious, impassioned -- and highly interactive. Conservative hosts engage their callers, often getting back as good as they give.
Leftists cannot do this. The reasons should be obvious -- and they make utter nonsense out of the Times's contention that leftists' embrace of "diversity" is less entertaining than conservatives' "hard distinctions between right and wrong."
You will never, ever hear a leftist admit to being wrong. You will never, ever hear a leftist admit that he might not have all the answers. And you will never, ever hear a leftist concede the moral equality of anyone who disagrees with him. Of course these things don't fly in talk radio!
But don't look for any such analysis in the pages of the New York Times.
Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit The Palace Of Reason:
http://www.palaceofreason.com
Why is this? Very simple, most people who listen to talk radio do this in their car during the commute. What distinguishes these people from others?
They all have a job and they all pay taxes. Otherwise they would not be commuting.
These people are the backbone of America. We are the ones who actually go out and work for a living, producing something of value for the rest of the country.
The one glaring error is the quote from the so-called expert that "liberals" are too "tolerant of differing viewpoints" to develop the hard edge that conservatives use to succeed. Obviously this maroon has never listened to the persistent bias of the Rt. Rev. Jesse Jackson on "Both Sides." Obviously this fool has never listened to a single sentence of the venom that has poured out of the mouth of James Carville for 11 years now.
The article is good, except for its bottom line. Liberals have a "yap gap" because the audience doesn't like them or their ideas. That's the truth. But like many truths in America today, it is one the Times is afraid to face, or print.
Congressman Billybob
Click for latest column on UPI, "Enrons Are Everywhere" Also posted on FR.
The alternative explanation is that after listening to a few months of sound reasoning and sensible opinions, people tend to agree with the opinions presented.
What a crock! That is why liberal radio hosts can't make it?? It's such a typical meaningless bunch of words that explains nothing.
Conservative radio works because conservatives like ideas. Liberals prefer emotion and feel good platitudes.Symbolism over substance. And that type of thing just doesn't make for good radio.
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