could someone explain this to me?

[Donna Halper]

Bob said--

>Maybe
>some liberal activists are contacted by talk hosts to be guests but they 
>refuse, fearing they'll be shouted down.

Sadly, until recently there were not many established and respected 
liberal/progressive hosts and not many think tanks with a liberal point of 
view.  That is changing, and I think it's a change for the better-- again, 
I am saying the hosts and activists who are not extremists, but who 
represent the liberal point of view, are important for people to hear, just 
like the hosts and activists from the right who are not extremists deserve 
to be heard on liberal/progressive shows.   That's my hope-- that we can 
get back to dialogue, rather than endless rants from either side.  And 
based on what I've heard from people I know at liberal think tanks like the 
Center for American Progress, most right wing hosts DON'T contact 
them.  It's easier to beat up on a myth rather than talk to an actual 
person.  I'm with you, Bob, on this one-- I find the extremes really 
tedious and offensive.  For example, I don't hate America, I don't hate 
Christians (my closest female friend of over 40 years is a nun, my second 
closest friend is a southern Baptist), I don't hate anyone-- but boy do I 
dislike any hosts who make broad generalities about "the left" or about 
"liberals".  Btw, as I have said many times, I consider myself a 
moderate.  There are issues I agree with the right on, and issues I am much 
closer to the left on.  What we all need is more dialogue and less 
shouting.  Jon Stewart was right when he said that the screaming, ranting 
hosts on both sides are hurting America.   These sorts of accusatory and 
perpetually outraged hosts may be fun to listen to, but it's not useful to 
give the public the idea that nobody from the liberal side could possibly 
be a good person with good ideas, just as it's not useful to give the 
public the idea that every Repubican is an arch right-wing wacko.