Depressing day on the radio

[HamdenRice]

Yesterday evening, I was driving and listening to the radio, flipping back and forth between WABC, AAR and NPR, and had this little epiphany about the polarization of the radio and how sad it was.

Here in NY, WABC (the Disney-Cap Cities affiliate) is the vehicle for all the RW nutcases -- Rush, Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Monical Crowley and a really nasty piece of local work, Mark Levin. I didn't even know what this RW radio phenomena was till about a year ago, when I tuned in one evening to Monica Crowley. I had heard about Rush Limbaugh, but had never actually listened to him and began listening in. It was just so amazing to me at that time, that radio could be so obviously partisan. Crowly was going on like some demented cheerleader about how great "this president" was.

So now we have AAR. I was flipping between Ingraham and either Randi Rhodes or Jeanene Garafolo. Randi (or was it Jeanene?) was ranting about how horrible Bush is and Ingraham was ranting about Kerry. I tuned to NPR, and my ears immediately glazed over because they were talking about something incredibly boring, technical and non-partisan issue, like a slight dip in the continental shelf flounder population.

And I just had this terrible feeling that it "had come to this." That it was impossible, really, for people to have normal, engaged political conversations and debates anymore.

And NPR/WNYC, trying to not get into hyper partisanship, has retreated into a snooze of irrelevant technical data, incredibly middle brow, unstimulating culture ("Debby Smith premiered her new album of folk rock influenced women's empowerment songs at Milwaukee's Birkenstock cafe ...") or whimsy.

I like AAR, but sometimes I feel guilty for listening to it. I like Morning Sedition the most, but the rest just seems to be uninformed opinion -- our version of RW radio.

Do any of you ever feel this way?

[NYCGirl]

1. No, I feel no guilt at all for listening to AAR. (eom)

NT

[Ducks In A Row]

2. Randi backs up what she says with facts

As she says, "The truth is it's own defense"

[funkybutt]

3. It was probably Randi Rhodes

She tends to turn some people off with her "ranting" and such. But don't be fooled! She's no Rush Limbaugh or Ingraham. This woman is VERY intelligent and VERY informed. She can back up everything she says. I wonder why it is that so many people don't care for her style. I just call it passion, and I think it's very needed at this point.15 weeks till the election right? She is heard by MILLIONS of people. She may be preaching to the chior but I have a feeling she's made quite a few converts in her time. :)

[HuckleB]

7. Her style just copies the wingnuts, and that leaves a lot of us wanting.

Plus, I'm sorry, she may be intelligent and able to back up what she says, but she doesn't do it very often on the radio.

It's time to hit the books, the coffee shops, the pubs and talk to one another again. Shows like hers aren't helping anything. They are a part creating the divide, IMHO.

[HamdenRice]

12. Remember the Utne Salons?

I get this feeling that what I'm listening to is entertainment, not news or even newstalk. She can be repetitive, like what we really want is a cheering section, not a discussion.

Also, listening to a cheering section on the radio is a substitute for actually getting together to talk to people. I remeber during the lead up to the first gulf war, Utne reader launched its Utne Reader salon project. Readers sent in their names and addresses and were matched with about 20 other people in the same area. Ours met in Junior's Restaurant in downtown Brooklyn. It was interesting but most salons fizzled.

It's interesting that the Internet was in its infancy -- it would be so, so much easier to do now.

How's that for an idea -- DU Salons, where people actually meet over coffee to discuss these issues face to face! And organize locally!

[HuckleB]

18. Spectacular idea.

I think this is somewhat happening with the DU gatherings, in addition to the political get-togethers for candidate supporters, but a Salon, where debate and discussion of issues could take place would take this one step further.

Heck, I'll actually do some work on this one, come September, if DU, or some other progressive organization makes a move. Perhaps I'll make a move locally myself, in the fall.

I am planning a BBQ/read your favorite short-story event at our house for late September. I'm inviting four or five of our more well-read and entertainng friends to read their favorite short stories to the attendees. Hopefully this will be entertaining and expand the usual BBQ conversations beyond the headlines of news, sports, jobs and travel.

We shall see how it goes.

[King Coal]

10. I like to listen to Randi, but she has poor manners.

She tends to be rude, even to people who agree with her. Still, she is very informed and quick on her feet.

[HamdenRice]

11. Don't misunderestimate me ...

I like AAR a lot. I like Randi. It's just that I get depressed to think that an era in journalism is passing -- the era of the pretense of journalism as objective and non partisan. Maybe that was all an illusion anyway and we are better off with a British style media. There, each newspaper is a Labor Party paper or a Tory paper -- full stop. Maybe this is a good thing, because the old "objective" charade created an oppressive and false consensus -- if no newspaper touched a topic or viewpoint than it was crazy, because of course the newspapers are reasonable.

I'm really just lamenting the end of one era and the beginning of another.

I do worry, though, that if media becomes explicitly partisan, we can't win because we can't afford to own as much media as the RW multinational corporate sector. In a way the so-called independence and objectivity of journalism helped level the playing field between a generally very rich right and a working class/middle class left.

As much as I loved F 9/11 can you imagine if the right begins financing and producing point-of-view, editorial "documentaries"?

It will be time for an American "Triumph of the Will."

[NYCGirl]

16. I, too, remember when there was a certain amount of civility in discourse,

but with the death of the Fairness Doctrine and the media consolidation, it's over.

It's nice to hope that someday it can make a comeback.

[tom_paine]

4. No. As the we said to the Germans in 1944 before WE became the Germans

"YOU started this war. WE will finish it."

It has come to this. And, history says it is very likely to get worse, though I hope history is wrong in this case.

Right now might be The Good Old Days.

sad, isn't it?

:evilfrown:

[HuckleB]

5. Hmmmmm.

Well, if normal, engaged debates that cover the full-background and meaning of the issues are considered boring, what does that say about the listeners?

Anyway, I don't buy your assessment of NPR at all.

[JETS]

6. WABC radio has gone to hell

Oh, how I long for the days of MusicRadio 77 WABC and the programs of Cousin Brucie, Dan Ingram, Chuck Leonard, Ron Lundy, etc.

[HamdenRice]

8. Have you noticed the Republican convention line?

Have you noticed that WABC radio, when it promos itself on its own station calls itself something like, "your headquarters for the Republican national convention"? I mean, that's amazing! A major media outlet just saying that it has no pretense to journalistic objectivity and is basically a party outlet!

[JETS]

17. Yes, it just goes to show you how our media

have degenerated in this era of "fair and balanced" reporting.

[TA]

9. If you can afford it. Try Sirius, it carries AAR and has Talk Left

You have 2 stations to switch between and when you get into overload mode you can switch to commercial free music of you choice to clear the mind.

[Cat Atomic]

13. Look, when one side is defending prison torture, there's little

room for rational debate.

The sad fact is that the once rational right wing has been taken over by extremists and ideologues. You don't have rational discussions with people who think nuking the middle east is a good idea, or that torturing children in prisons is akin to "fraternity pranks". To even acknowledge their argument is to lend it credibility.

Calm discourse is largely dead, at least in radio. Republicans killed it.

[merh]

14. "Our" version of RW radio backs up its content with facts and

humor - there is a difference. If you don't like either, pop in a CD or listen to music on the radio.

It is almost impossible to expect to engage in normal political conversations and debates on talk radio unless you are a caller and/or a guest. As it is radio and you are the listener, you have the option of listening or turning the program off.

I personally listen to both sides - the rhetoric from both sides is information, if not on a factual level, then on an emotional level.
It helps me know the sentiments of those around me. I have found empathy an incredible tool to use through live and the human mind is fascinating and scary at the same time.

I love Air America and hope one day when I grow up to become rich and famous (but not repuke) I can afford to buy a satellite radio for my car just to listen to AA while driving. (Though it bugs the hell out of me that we have to pay a monthly premium to listen to radio - I have to get beyond that and my memories and fondness for AM/FM radio and its "freeness".)

[Jacobin]

15. There are a couple of oasis in the desert

Check out Fresh Air on NPR with Teri Gross.

Usually very good.

Yesterday she had on Jimmy Carter's speech writer who made some good points: "U.S. has tectonically shifted to the right.....Richard Nixon would be a liberal democrat today with universal health care, opening up China, price controls, Clean Air Act"

By and large, radio is now a complete and utter RW dingbat's wasteland.

[HuckleB]

19. "The World" and "Science Friday" also rock.