Re: Herald's Dean Johnson on new 1150 talker

[Aaron Read <aread@speakeasy.net>]

At 09:12 PM 10/24/2003, Dan Billings wrote:
>Maybe Terry Gross is not a good example, but you never here the media use
>the term ultra-liberal or liberal extremist.  But they use
>ultra-conservatist.  You hardly ever hear left winger.  But you hear right
>wing all the time.
>
>-- Dan Billings, Bowdoinham


I think it's just semantics more than anything else...it's considered a hex 
to be called ultra-liberal, but a badge of honor to be 
ultra-conservative.   I'm probably oversimplifying here, but I think it 
stems from that conservatives tend to be about policies that benefit the 
individual, whereas liberals tend to be about policies that benefit the 
group.   Human beings have a natural (one could say genetic) predisposition 
towards self-interest over the needs of others (hey, it's a survival trait 
at its most base level, can't knock it too much) so ultimately that means 
people, on the whole, like what conservatives have to say more than liberals.

Again, I'm painting in VERY broad strokes here.   And FWIW, the media do 
use terms that are synonymous with "ultra-liberal"...you heard it all the 
time on Rush's show.  I don't listen to conservative talk radio much but I 
imagine shows like Limbaugh's raged against "ultra-liberals" all the 
time.  They are part of the media, especially with Fox News being perceived 
as more news-y and less entertainment-y.

I think that's also a large part of the reason why liberal talk show hosts 
often have a hard time competing with conservatives.  Especially in hard 
economic times.



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Aaron "Bishop" Read             aread@speakeasy.net
FriedBagels Consulting          AOL-IM: readaaron
http://www.friedbagels.com      Boston, MA