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comes the liberal media by Larry Atkins Finally. The liberal media will soon become a reality. Last November, an investors’ group headed by Mark Walsh, a former technology adviser to the Democratic National Committee, purchased the proposed liberal radio network formed by venture capitalists Sheldon and Anita Drobny. Last month, it was announced that comedian, author, and social commentator Al Franken will be on the new network going head-to-head against Rush Limbaugh in the afternoon. The new network expects to start broadcasting in March or April in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Boston. Walsh recently announced that the new network reached its first major distribution agreement with the Chicago AM station WNTD. It’s about time that liberals get to be heard. Last year, the National Association of Broadcasters held its annual radio convention in Philadelphia. Rush Limbaugh, the big, fat, ultraconservative idiot delivered the convention’s keynote address—unfortunately his appearance was an accurate reflection of the sad reality that conservatives dominate talk radio. For years, the conservatives’ mantra has been that the media is controlled by the liberal elite. They cite studies that indicate that the majority of reporters indicate that they consider themselves to be liberal. However, the conservatives ignore the fact that media outlets are controlled by major corporations, which tend to be conservative and Republican. Furthermore, even assuming that most reporters are liberal, most of the people who spin the news in this country--columnists, pundits, and opinion makers--are conservative. For every liberal commentator like Molly Ivins, there are at least four conservative columnists such as Ann Coulter, Linda Chavez, Jonah Goldberg, and Cal Thomas. When is the last time you heard Dan Rather, Tim Russert, or Peter Jennings (frequent targets of conservatives) launch into a partisan angry diatribe against the Bush administration? In the past, liberal radio hosts have failed. The problem is that they weren’t angry or entertaining enough. The new liberal radio network can’t survive if it serves up tofu and snow peas-- it needs to provide red meat to expose the failures and arrogance of Incurious George and his failed administration. There’s plenty of untapped anger on the left that needs to vent. Liberal callers are not going to get a fair hearing on the Rush Limbaugh show regarding the unconscionable tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and the incompetence of the Bush administration in planning for the post-war situation in Iraq. There are also plenty of potential left wing hosts who have the gumption to take on the radical right in an aggressive, entertaining, and sarcastic manner such as Michael Moore, Al Franken, Janeane Garofalo, Paul Begala, and James Carville. During the months leading up to the United States’ invasion of Iraq, most major media outlets served as linguini-spined cheerleaders for the Bush administration. The media did not cover the burgeoning war protest movement until it was too late. It did not raise questions as to what turned out to be darn bad intelligence regarding the existence of weapons of mass destruction and of Al-Qaeda ties to Saddam Hussein. Liberals need a place to vent about the tyranny of King George II without being called dopes, morons, traitors, feminazis, evildoers, and communists. We need a place where the talk show host feels our pain. Conservative talk radio is simply unfair and unbalanced. It spent eight years lampooning and ridiculing President Clinton through vicious personal attacks. One of the reasons that Republicans gained a majority in the House and Senate and that George Bush defeated (sort of) Al Gore in the 2000 election was the fact that right wing Republicans were getting their message out through talk radio and were able to brainwash enough people to follow them. Hopefully, with the help of a liberal talk radio network, we can send The Cowboy to ride off in the sunset back to his Crawford, Texas ranch. Here in Philadelphia, there is only one major talk radio station, the big talker, WPHT 1210 AM. Unfortunately, all the hosts are conservative Republicans (one host, Glenn Beck, calls himself Libertarian, but he tends to lean conservative most of the time). The lineup of hosts-—Michael Smerconish, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Dom Giordano, and Bill O’Reilly sounds like a Bush cabinet meeting or National Rifle Association convention. While these hosts are talented and good at what they do, they only provide one viewpoint-- a right-wing, conservative, Republican one. Sometimes, it’s like listening to Tass. You would think and hope that a major city like Philadelphia, which primarily votes Democratic, could have at least a couple of liberal radio talk show hosts. After years of being abused and ignored, it’s about time that liberal Democrats have a forum to fight back. A liberal radio network can help tap into the anger against President Bush and help to ensure that he won’t be around for four more years to make things even worse. Larry Atkins, a lawyer and writer who lives in Philadelphia, teaches editorial writing at Temple University. He has written over 175 Op-Eds, articles, and essays for many publications, including the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Dallas Morning News, Detroit News, Indianapolis Star, National Public Radio (Commentaries for the national versions of Morning Edition and Only a Game), Newsday, Philadelphia Inquirer, and San Francisco Chronicle. His e-mail address is larryLTatkins@aol.com This is a revised version of his Op-Ed that first appeared last year in the Philadelphia Inquirer. This article is copyrighted by Larry Atkins. Permission is granted to forward this or to place it on a website as long as the article is included intact, including this statement. Published in OpEdNews.com |
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