WI: Talk Radio was Dominated by Liberals?

The problem is that talk radio attracts the angry and the insane from among the population to phone up and rant and rave about their pet peeves. Thus, they are far more likely to be right-wing and reactionary.

Best Regards
Grey Wolf

There are plenty of angry and insane left-wingers. I once found an article that consisted of "f*** the red states" and one of the board's members claimed that The Stranger represented the most psychotic of Seattle's liberals only.

Or find some people who genuinely think the Republican Party is out to persecute them. There've got to be at least some--how else did the rather implausible The Handmaid's Tale become so popular?
 
There are plenty of angry and insane left-wingers. I once found an article that consisted of "f*** the red states" and one of the board's members claimed that The Stranger represented the most psychotic of Seattle's liberals only.

Or find some people who genuinely think the Republican Party is out to persecute them. There've got to be at least some--how else did the rather implausible The Handmaid's Tale become so popular?

Left wingers live off persecution. If they can find a new victim complex to cling on to they will.


And to answer the original Radio like all forms of media is entertainment and Left wing radio is BORING. They would have to keep me entertained. Rush Limbaugh is popular because he provides entertainment while providing excellent news for people.
 
Rush Limbaugh is popular because he provides entertainment while providing excellent news for people.

Huh, don't read that everyday on this forum.

I'd have to agree more with the rural divide. Craig, CO and places even more remote barely get internet beyond dial-up. Radio is arguably the best way to reach them.
 
I've never thought of the urban/rural situation before. It makes a lot of sense.

Still, a "prairie populist" type leftie could be successful in the boonies. He (or she) wouldn't be seen as culturally alien and threatening.
 
Huh, don't read that everyday on this forum.

I'd have to agree more with the rural divide. Craig, CO and places even more remote barely get internet beyond dial-up. Radio is arguably the best way to reach them.


You don't believe Rush is quality entertainment. How many millions of viewers does he have? Like him or not at the end of the day he is an entertainer makes political commentary.
 
Like any law or political philosophy, the Republicans are for a Fairness type doctrine when it benefits them and against it when it doesn't. Repealing the Fairness Doctrine has actually bitten the Republicans in the butt a few times. When the Healthcare law was being debated, ABC did an hour long interview with President Obama about the matter. The Republicans were upset and demanded that ABC give them equal time on the matter. The executives at ABC basically told the Republicans that it was a shame that they had repealed the only law that would have required ABC to do exactly that.

Torqumada

Interesting. Do you have a source for this? I'd like to read it.

Thanks for all of the thoughtful comments on this as well folks.
 
You need some major changes to reverse situation regarding talk radio:

Have "mainstream" national media be uniformly right wing, so US liberals have to go to to local radio to hear people articulate their views. I think most middle of the road people would agree that US mainstream media is moderately left of center.

Change the demographics of people who tend to listen to talk radio, from predominantly rural, working class, people often on the road (who tend to be conservative in the US) to urban people.

Find left/radical spokespeople who are less sanctimonious and less "angry" than most who are out there now. True, Rush Limbaugh is pretty angry at times, but he is adept at humor (or at least he used to be when he started out I haven't listened to him in over 15 years, but was a fan when he started - not because I necesarily agreed with him but because he was an interesting and funny diversion on long work-related drives).
 
What if Michael Moore gets into radio instead of documentary making early in his career, just before the Fairness Doctrine goes?

THERE'S a POD that might get things moving along for liberal talk radio..

Thinking about it is Michael Moore into the entertainment side of things enough early enough in his career? Roger & Me was much more of a standard documentary and he didn't get into the more entertainment side of things until Canadian Bacon or Bowling For Columbine. Or would the POD needed for this mean he cut his teeth as a regular DJ with all the gimmicks before becoming political?
 
Left wingers live off persecution. If they can find a new victim complex to cling on to they will.


And to answer the original Radio like all forms of media is entertainment and Left wing radio is BORING. They would have to keep me entertained. Rush Limbaugh is popular because he provides entertainment while providing excellent news for people.

Well said on the boring part. Half of Rush and the other early Rightwing talk guys success was bringing the entertainment qualities and gimmicks of their old DJ and sports announcer gigs to talking politics. Somehow get a way for a Leftwing DJ to do that. Michael Moore, Keith Olbermann, Seth McFarline and Bill Maher have certainly been able to do punditry as entertainment to greater or lesser degrees in various other media formats.
Maybe a POD where there is no NPR or one which has to be strictly apolitical so Leftwing talk goes in the shock jock and fun direction as opposed to copying NPR with monotone voices and smooth jazz?
Maybe have
 
What you really need is in the 80's is to have some more liberal radio station owners willing to put left wing voices on the air. Before the start of media consolidation, most radio station owners were very conservative and just had one or two stations and with Rush Limbaugh it was cheaper to pick up the syndicated feed then develop their own home grown talent.
 
Left wingers live off persecution. If they can find a new victim complex to cling on to they will.

Which is totally unlike all Right Wingers who think the government is going to come take all their money and guns, force them to convert from Christianity to Islam and then gay marry them. :rolleyes: If they can't find a victim complex to cling to, they will invent a new one to cling to.

Torqumada
 
When was media in America in general ever dominated by liberals before the internet? Especially an old-fashioned one like radio?

I can't even think of a POD regarding that, it's just that old a trend and that diffuse.
 
When was media in America in general ever dominated by liberals before the internet? Especially an old-fashioned one like radio?

I can't even think of a POD regarding that, it's just that old a trend and that diffuse.

http://archive.mrc.org/biasbasics/biasbasics3.asp

I don't know what the MRC is precisely, but even if it is a conservatively-biased entity, they do quote a lot of other people's material.

Here's another source with roughly the same information:

http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/public-perspective/ppscan/76/76007.pdf

Look at how some reporters got fired for blatantly messing with the Zimmerman 911 call to make him sound more racist.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/upshot/nbc-fires-producer-over-edited-zimmerman-911-call-201124740.html
 
Hm. Sure. I'll accept that.

I would then express surprise at how such a liberal body of opinion makers continues to produce so much conservative opinion. But that'd be beyond the scope of this thread.

Define "conservative opinion."

Also, this is pre-Fox News for the most part. Only the stuff at the end of the first link is post-1992.
 
Thinking about it is Michael Moore into the entertainment side of things enough early enough in his career? Roger & Me was much more of a standard documentary and he didn't get into the more entertainment side of things until Canadian Bacon or Bowling For Columbine. Or would the POD needed for this mean he cut his teeth as a regular DJ with all the gimmicks before becoming political?

Bingo.

If Moore spends a few years in radio before the Fairness Doctrine disappears - honing his skills & learning the tricks of the trade - then he'd be well positioned to launch a talk career towards the end of Reagan's presidency.

It doesn't matter whether he gains his early experience in music radio, sports radio or news - so long as he gains a keen sense of how to grab an audience and develops the same views as OTL on politics & social justice we have all the ingredients in place.

He just needs the opportunity to move into his own talk show.
 
When was media in America in general ever dominated by liberals before the internet? Especially an old-fashioned one like radio?

I can't even think of a POD regarding that, it's just that old a trend and that diffuse.

Hm. Sure. I'll accept that.

I would then express surprise at how such a liberal body of opinion makers continues to produce so much conservative opinion. But that'd be beyond the scope of this thread.

The 1960s and before. America was thought to be a liberal country, the defeat of Goldwater was the ultimate proof of the mainstream media's prognostications of this fact. Then 1966 and 1968 happened, and now the media has moved too far the other way in assuming that America is a fundamentally conservative country, although recently this has begun to change.

I'd argue that talk radio has always been dominated by populism, whether it be left or right.
 
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