Why is Liberal Radio So Inept?

I could sum up the entire difference between political parties by how they position themselves on Sirius Satellite Radio. The left wing channel is called, well, Left, while the right wing channel proudly wears the Patriot badge. Left vs Patriot. That truly says it all.

On vacation, I've had the opportunity to indulge my politics obsession with some daily poolside talk radio, both conservative and liberal. Let's get right to the point: liberal radio is a disaster. It's un-listenable. While the right-wingers are out there relentlessly bashing the hell out of Sen. Barack Obama and the Democratic Party in an effort to tear him and it down in their quest for the presidency, our compadres on the left are indulging themselves in sophomoric humor and inane blabbering about nothing in particular. All you need is a 30-second listen and you'll realize just how dreadful and unfocused it is. With the exception of a few ass-kickers like Ed Schultz, Lionel, Rachel Maddow, Stephanie Miller and Randi Rhodes, the whole lot should be rounded up and shipped to an Ashram somewhere. And here's the other thng about Dems that's infuriating: they finally get a true warrior like Rhodes, but in their spineless quest for political-correctness, they eat their own and can her over some stupid remark during an off-air comedy performance. In all his years of outrageously offensive on-air drivel, has the right even punished, let alone fired, the bloviating Rush Limbaugh? No. They throw him crackers and send him in to do more damage.

To use an American pastime analogy, right wing radio is the 1927 Yankees while libs are the '62 Mets. They've got singularly-focused, rhetoric-spewing vicious attack dogs like Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mike Church, Andrew Wilkow, Bill Bennett, Mark Levin, Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage and Laura Ingraham. Like their gods Bush and Cheney, most if not all never served our military but shamelessly co-opt it nonetheless. They proudly assume the role of the tough-talking, patriotic all-American, promoting war and the killing of terrorists. Then they vilify and rip apart the military records of any Democrat running for office, even if, unlike them, they are decorated war heroes like John Kerry, Max Cleland and John Murtha. Unbelievably, they get away with it.

They refer to themselves as "command-dude-in-chief" and cultishly greet each other with "You're a great American" and play stirring music like "Let Freedom Ring" and the official anthems of each branch of the military. Yup, they're the rough, tough, rock 'em sock 'em types who like to let other men fight their actual battles. But on radio, they're a bunch of fucking John Waynes (btw, he never served either).

They've schooled at the chafed knee of ruthless GOP operative Karl Rove, and therefore learned the not-so-secret secret of blatantly lying to Americans because they're too uninformed to know the difference. So, these spinners claim the Iraq war's been won, the surge is working, the economy's strong and that polls show that voters are clamoring for more Bush/Cheney/McCain.

And boy do they know how to stay on message. They have laser-like focus. They name their shows "The Stop Obama Express" and make derogatory, racist remarks about Michelle Obama being a "big, mean-looking, angry woman full of rage." They call Barack Obama "baby killer" for his views on abortion. They relentlessly mock him as The Messiah, The Chosen One. They make up song parodies like "The Bush/Cheney Bash" (sung to the tune of The Monster Mash) which lavish praise on these two clowns while deriding Democrats. They incessently use the word "radical" to describe Obama, and utter in rapid-fire succession the names Wright/Flager/Rezko/Ayers to describe Obama's "deep-rooted radical associations." They say he's a Muslim. They hammer home his past drug use. They call him a Communist/Marxist for his "socialist" economic positions. They refer to liberals as "You America-despising pukes" and make up childish, derogatory names for Democrats like "Nazi" Pelosi, Hillary "Rotten" Clinton aka "Her Royal Thighness" and "BJ" Clinton. They call one highly-respected news wire service "HemmoReuters" when it happens to write something unflattering to the GOP.

While these faithful soldiers in the Rovian army are savagely ripping apart the patriotism and character of any Democrat who stands in the way of their insatiable quest for power, their counterparts on the left -- again, with the exception of a few brave fighters, sound like a bunch of stoners and jazz DJ's from the college station. On Sirius's "Left," Alex Bennett, Lynn Samuels and Mark Thompson are the ones who have the least to say. Together with his stereotypical leftist freak listeners, Bennett, an ungracefully-aging hippie himself, offers up more gratuitous profanity than intellectual political thought. It's as if he and his hippie-cool listeners say "shit," "fuck," "asshole," and "douchebag" just because they can. And they say it a lot. And it makes his program unlistenable, unless you're into a bunch of ungracefully-aging hippies cursing a lot about nothing. Samuels on any random listen could be whining about anything meaningless, like the day I caught her discussing snot and boogers. And Thompson, while a smart, passionate guy, has a program so mellow in tone that it can literally put you to sleep. His voice is so smooth and jazzy that he'd be much better off cuing up a Miles Davis album.

I don't mean to riff on any of these folks, as I'm sure they're all fine people off the air. But on the air I want the sort of Viagra-fueled maniacs conservatives have on the front lines, not a bunch of impotent lefties who couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag. Democrats need to fill every single radio slot with 24/7 aggressive spinners. Just check out Fox Radio, Patriot or ABC Radio. There's no wasted airtime on the right. Yes, right wing radio is filled with name-calling high-school-bully types who drone on like programmed partisan robots about the same shit over and over and over again. Should we be like them? You bet. These guys are part of a well-oiled machine that has a very good track-record of winning elections.

Comments

[BoshSpong]

The problem with liberal radio has more to do with style than substance. American middle class folks work hard to keep food on the table and to pay their bills. They do not have time or energy to digest the vicissitudes of political rhetoric nor the time to decipher Political speech.
The people want simple straight forward answers to life’s complicated questions. People admire simplicity and clarity of thought. The “Bill Donahue” style of liberalism is very unsettling to most folks, and infuriating to straight talking liberals like me. Give me someone who has conviction and well defined beliefs. This is they key to Keith Olbermann’s and Rachel Madow’s success; they speak with clarity, authority, and no nonsense language - focused and on point.
There is no space for namby-pamby, wet noodle, weak worded “frightened” commentary. Weak worded liberals like Harold Ford are unsavory and inspire rejection, even from liberal minded people. Stand up for your beliefs; do not apologize for your liberalism it is an American tradition sewn with sacrifice and blood.
Liberalism is the antitheses of Nazism, fascism, Communism and all sorts of totalitarianisms. This is something to be proud of. Take a lesson from those that are successful, speak with authority and clarity, the people will follow.

[HJF1968]

Enochsmoky,
You're way off base in your comments. For one I don't see a problem with reparations for descendants of slaves. After all, it was Ronald Reagan who led the effort to give reparations to the Japanese citizens (or their survivors) who were interred in U.S. camps during WW2

[timinhi]

One point in the author's argument requires a response. He bemoans the fact that Rhandi Rhodes was fired for making "some stupid remark during an off-air comedy performance," while Rush Limbaugh has never been punished for "years of outrageously offensive on-air drivel." First, let's not forget that Rush did get sacked from Monday Night Football for making offensive racist comments. Second, the comments Rhandi made were against one of the front-running presidential candidates from her own (Democratic) party, and for which she was absolutely unrepentent, AND which offended a large segment of AirAmerica's listening base. If Rush Limbaugh were to suddenly start making similar remarks about ultra rightwing Republicans, at the very least, his syndicating company would probably be concerned. But more to the point, is the author saying that we need to adopt ALL the methods and strategies of rightwing talk radio if we want to succeed? Must progressive radio check its morals, ethics and conscience at the door in the name of Arbitron ratings, and adopt the ruthless, no-holds-barred, dishonest mean-spirited tactics of RUSH LIMBAUGH of all people--the most despised media figure we on the left can think of? If that's the case, then maybe it's better we leave the A.M. airwaves to the right.

[1will]

Right Wing talk radio appeals to higher ideals than that from the left. The message might sometimes be bullshit but the Right Wing radio host will wrap it up in Mom, apple pie and the flag to make it appeal to a moderate audience. Most Americans are moderates. We all want criminals locked away, lower taxes and a bright future for our children. Right Wing radio appeals to the far Right and to mainstream America. Can you imagine Rush callling our troops baby killers or spitting on a vet?
On the other hand Left Wing talk radio consists of crazy, hateful anti American rants from boring hosts. I give you Air America as an example. I may be wrong but then again the market decides if the message is wanted.
The Left in general suffers from a perception of a lack of patriotism. The Right may often be full of crap but you don't get that perception of anti Americanism or anti Christianity. The Left caters to those that believe in handouts, victimhood, anti Americanism, anti religion, perversion and baby killing. It's hard to wrap that up in a pretty package that most will listen too.
When you think of the Right Wing you may think of rich old white guys but when you think of the Left you picture Code Pink, Cindy Sheehan, affirmative action, The Brady Campaign and that chick in CA that spit on a veteran.

[CFAmick]

Comedian Patton Oswalt compared NPR to right wing radio. I paraphrase: "NPR is like, And now, a flute solo from some guy from Ukraine, while right wing radio is like, Up next! Why black people commit crimes! Followed by cool guitar music."

[Nonamnesiac]

There are two things I notice that make progressive talk radio unappealing. The first is they are all simply shills for the Democratic Party. They stand for nothing other than Democratic Party talking points and don't take the Democrats to task harshly and seriously consistently, always making excuses for Democratic collaboration with the occupation and everything else -- ending any criticism they might make with "but of course we have to vote in more Democrats."

Second, as a whole, they're not as good at what they do as Rush and Sean. Stephanie Miller might be eye candy, but her show is awful. Randi Rhodes is so-so. Ed Schultz is really good. Lionel is horrible -- he actually defends Joe Scarborough.

I think that as soon as a really talented progressive emerges, s/he will develop a huge audience, as there are many more progressives than there are conservatives.

[VikingLS]

I was on political radio show for a while in grad school. We had a blast doing it. There were three of us playing conservative, moderate, and liberal. Given the nature of American politics and the current state of the GOP that put me as a moderate in opposition to the conservative 90% of the time. This was during the 04 election and in a swing state. Nevertheless it was always like pulling teeth to get the Democrats to show up. They'd cancel at the last minute or just no-show half the time. The Republicans were always there, on time and ready to go even knowing that they were facing two hostile hosts of three.

I asked a very smart articulate Democrat to come on the shwo and he declined out of hand saying that the conservative host just made him too mad. The notion that he could have come in and make the conservative host look like an idiot (good guy, but got his points from Hannity) seemed not to occur to him.

The left is going to have to get over its sense of self-righteousness even if they are on the right side. People listen to the radio because a lot of people commute. That's when these guys are on with their more or less captive audience. It's hard to get internet or satalite radio in a 91 Accord.

[Swerinjer]

Ed Schultz is not a progressive. He's a mole. He deflects issues the repugs don't want to be talked about and reinforces the republican frame to a liberal audience. I remember when Al Gore won the Nobel Prize and he refused to talk about it at all instead favoring the republican meme of the day.

Also his arguments never go anywhere or make any sense. He doesn't DIG like a real progressive would. You can tell he doesn't really care. He gloms on to some tangent and then flies around like a bee and goes nowhere.

[pizzmoe]

"Left" radio doens't suck. The press has been trained to tell you that, so you believe it. It has nothing to do with quality, ideology, etc. It reflects the big picture of how the media sees the country. The vast majority of the country are "liberals" they just dont know it, and the press won't tell them.
Listen to Rachel Maddow, Thom Hartmann, Stephanie Miller, etc. then listen to Rushbo, InsHannity, etc., and see who is more well informed, smarter, and more entertaining.

[enochsmoky]

Liberal radio does not work because normal Americans can see the stupidity of so many of the liberal ideas that are promoted. Here is a partial, but far from complete list of the ideas that most thinking people recognize as either unworkable, too expensive or just plain idiotic:
1) Reparations for the descendants of slaves.
2) Living wage laws that completely ignore the wages established in the marketplace.
3) Diversity and hate speech codes on campus that muzzle any dissent from the liberal orthodoxy.
4) Proposed changes in union voting that would take your private vote and make it public and subject any unwilling worker to extreme pressure, ostracism and even violence from union activists.
5) Declaring Alaskan oil drilling offlimits even though only 2000 acres out of 20 million acres would be disturbed.
6) Ressurecting the Fairness Doctrine to cripple conservative talk radio even though the left wing controls Hollywood, the universities, network TV, most large newspapers and the arts establishment.
7) Complete disregard for the abuses of the tort liability system and the rampant corruption amongst tort attorneys, state attorney generals and liberal judges.
8) Complete failure to acknowledge the dismal record of the welfare policies that liberals have constructed over the last 75 years.
These are just a few things that most intelligent listeners can readily see as shortcomings of the liberal mindset and liberals have a hard time justifying their positions. Wake up and give radio listeners a little more credit than the average "progressive" does.

[1will]

Good post

[Pronto]

The problems with Liberal talk radio can be found in Mr. Olstoy's article and the accompanying posted comments. Instead of espousing the ideas of liberalism, liberal talk radio and liberal commentators spend their time critisizing conservative commentators and conservative talk radio listeners. If there are any advantages to Liberalism and Big government, I certainly don't hear them from talk radio liberals. Plus, I've never heard Limbaugh and Hannity call the listeners of liberal talk radio as "stupid" or "mindless robots." But, that is the constant, never ending refrain of the Liberal description of the listeners of conservative talk radio: "Stupid, uneducated, mindless etc.," That seems to be the only "defense" of Liberalism. There are some good Liberal "talkers" out there and I wish they could be heard, but if your defense of Liberal policies is to just criticize Conservative talkers and to refer to conservative talk radio listeners as "stupid" then, you've got nothing. And, Randi Rhodes? She is absolutely HORRIBLE. The worst. The only reason why she was fired is because her filthy diatribe was launched against another Liberal - Hillary Clinton. If that same litany of filth and profanity had been directed towards Limbaugh or the listeners of conservative talk radio, Ms. Rhodes would have been forever glorified. So, you Liberal talkers, start talking about the virtues and successes of Liberalism - if there are any. The "stupid, mindless" listeners of talk radio would love to hear them.

[bascombe]

you obviously don't listen to 'liberal' radio.

[Pronto]

I've listend to some Liberal talk radio, but not a lot. What I've heard, though, is pretty weak - the lack of ratings speaks for itself. Al Franken sounded like a bitter, old comic, Keith Olberman (a liberal TV talker) spends his time criticizing Bill O'Reilly and Randi Rhodes makes Anne Coulter sound like a saint.

[Tulka2]

You listened to radio while you were on vacation. That says it all. Where do you hear Rush Limbaugh? I tell you were i hear him. I hear him as i walk by the guys with hammers and nails. They have the radio cranked up and the whole neighborhood listens till i complain. I hear Rush's insidious voice comming at me from garbage truck radios and where men work with their hands, but can listen. There's the secret. Rush is not on at the Microsoft offices or down at the library, is he?

Good sign is that i do hear Air America now that it's in town. It might take time, but they never had a choice before.

[TroubleNYC]

"And here's the other thing about Dems that's infuriating: they finally get a true warrior like Rhodes, but in their spineless quest for political-­correctnes­s, they eat their own and can her over some stupid remark during an off-air comedy performance. In all his years of outrageously offensive on-air drivel, has the right even punished, let alone fired, the bloviating Rush Limbaugh? No. They throw him crackers and send him in to do more damage."

THANK YOU! This is exactly the problem. The Left cowers like an abused puppy in a corner when someone on their side says something that isn't very nice about the Right. Meanwhile Limbaugh, Hannity, et al get away with murder.

[AzRealProgressive]

Let me describe your post a little better. Dead wrong. The problem is in the message. Their is a market for those people who do not walk the maninstream leftist line. Rhodes is no warrior, she has no appeal to many, shrill, and even more obnoxious than most conservative hosts. And her message is not saleable to the American poeple.

[bascombe]

I wonder now many people you THINK you speak for!?

[LightningJoe]

It's the overblown proactive fear that "we" will be (oh, my god, no, not-) ACCUSED of something. We know it won't be accurate, won't even be coherent. Just a blathering mouthful of hateful nonsense, in fact. But we're so afraid of accusation that we'll put our best out to pasture to prove that we hate those who were our friends yesterday. Wonder what Rhodes thinks of AA now, and what she's likely to say if they ever DO want her back?

But -- and here's the thing -- what the fricking heck does it MATTER, what they say about us? Nothing they say is true anyway, and doing their own hateful work for them SURE won't make them nice-nice. If they can't make up the thing we're afraid they might make up, they'll make up something else.

We have no influence over their lies, and we can't afford to even wish we did, much less abort our own truth-telling, to fit their lies.

Their programmed minions don't care and won't notice, if something they say is actually half-true, rather than totally fantasy-based; so why should we care?

Quit worrying so much about their twisted relationship with reality, and just speak truth.

-----
szsstt -- This is your brain, on television.

[Silveus]

Well, in terms of "Left vs. Patriot", I take pride in my leftist political philosophies far more than my geographical ties to some singular country via the technicality of my birth, so on that battle they can take their "Patriot" brand name and shove it. "Left" is way cooler, and plays far better to the sentiments that need to be developed in the 21st century.

On all other accounts, I agree with Andy. Liberal radio is absolutely anemic in comparison to the war machine that is conservative radio. In Sacramento, California, the only liberal radio station was recently taken off the air because nobody other than perhaps 100 people listened to it. It needs to be packed to the brim with a multitude of frothing Keith Olbermanns.

[AzRealProgressive]

So fix your technicality of birth where you have no allegiance. Move somewhere that represents your ideals.

[Hopalongpoppyseed]

Gee, I thought Silvius WAS expressing his ideals and they just happened to not be nationalistic.

[Sandy972]

I have been thinking the same thing. Who cares about nuance when we are trying to win a damn election which is so important.

Wake up liberals. It is attach time from here on out.