Air America dumped in Portland

[Mark Laurence]

On Sep 22, 2004, at 11:11 AM, Bob Nelson wrote:

> I know the liberals on this list will disagree with me on this,
> but sometimes it seems that liberal callers/guests will "change
> the subject" when questioned on a conservative talker's show.

This annoying practice happens all the time on talk shows of every 
ideology.  Usually it's a professional spin-meister guest, who will 
answer any question with whatever he was going to say before he walked 
into the studio.  That's often followed by the host asking whatever 
question he had in mind no matter what the guest said.  The goal is to 
get the talking points on the air, period.  It's a very big reason why 
the screaming-head prime-time "news" shows are so useless.

Listen closely...if the caller/guest agrees with the host, they can 
talk off topic, carry on at length, have most of their assertions go 
unchallenged.  Often, if they disagree, they can hardly finish a 
sentence without getting attacked, and they're lucky if they get 
another sentence to respond.  The most unfair, but commonly used 
tactic, is the host self-righteously slamming the caller after they've 
hung up or been cut off.  This happens on conservative and liberal talk 
shows, more often on conservative shows because there are so many more 
of them.

Mark