Recommended Reading

[SteveOrdinetz]

  Donna Halper wrote:

>I must disagree.  Listen to the rhetoric on many right-wing 
>stations.  Listen to how they demonise and insult anyone who doesn't agree 
>with the president or with ultra-conservative points of view.  Listen to 
>the name-calling, and how there is an "us= good Americans" versus "them= 
>liberal, pinko commie traitors."  Okay fine, I exaggerate, but not by 
>much.  Listening to some right wing talk shows, you really do get the idea 
>that "either you're with us or against us".  So if you are creating a 
>villain ("the left", "liberals", "the 'hate America' crowd", "those 
>obstructionist Democrats", "activist judges", "the homosexual agenda", 
>"feminazis" etc) and presenting yourself and your audience as the only 
>good, true, patriotic Americans, and if you do as Limbaugh does and refuse 
>to take any callers who don't agree with that viewpoint, how is that an 
>example of "playing to all sides of the political spectrum"?????????


Yes you are exaggerating a bit, but you certainly have a valid point.  When 
the left shrieks about the "right wing media", talk radio seems to be what 
they're referring to (I don't have cable and have never seen Fox news so I 
can't comment about that).  I certainly don't consider the major networks 
overly conservative.  My problem with Air Amerikka and the so-called 
"progressive" talk genre is that it's merely a left-slanted version of 
Rush, O'Reilly and others of their ilk.  I suppose that given the 
increasing polarization of the country this was the plan, but if they have 
any hope of preaching to anyone but the choir this is the wrong way to do 
it.  I find Rhodes, Franken, Miller and the like every bit as grating as 
O'Reilly and Savage.