I used to be an avid viewer of CSPAN's BookTV

[choie]

on the weekends; however, lately I've noticed that there is a strong preponderance of republican/conservative/wacko books on the schedule. Today and tomorrow they are having segments on books by Dick Morris (about how Obama and the congress are turning us into a socialist, bankrupt country), Jonah Goldberg, Donald Critchlow ("The Conservative Ascendancy), Thomas West ("..vindicating the founders: Race, Sex, Class and Justice in the origins of America), Guy Sorman ("Economics does not lie: a defense of the free market"), and books by Joe Scarborough and Pat Robertson. This is strong evidence that a self-proclaimed neutral and even-handed network is leaning fearfully to the right. Has anybody else noticed this trend?

[KharmaTrain]

1. I Gave Up On That Years Ago...

It happened when they did only 30 minutes with Molly Ivins with some young "babe" who you could tell didn't know Molly from a hole in the wall. Next came Brian Lamb doing a full hour fawning over Coultergeist, calling her the "wave of the future" in political "commentary". Almost every weekend they seems to bring on the most rabid or vapid wingnuts and let them spew lies and talking points without any question...and many times getting stroked by the host.

Seems like CSPIN...owned and controlled by the cable corporates see the need to put a thumb on the scale...since the GOOP is so far out of power, they have to compensate to get more and more on. I remember seeing this same thing happen during the early Clinton days. But then it's rare to see a real progressive author on that network. I've seen Glenn Greenwald maybe a handful of times over the years and haven't seen Joe Connason in ages.

I watch WJ primarily to hear how unhinged the wingnuts have become or a good Democratic slap down, but to think this network is "neutral" is and always has been a joke. They're just a tad to the left of the Moonie Times.

[rurallib]

2. right there with you. Plus .....

wingers always make their presentations in front of a handpicked audience at one of their think tanks like AEI. Ergo, the questions serve as fellatio
Liberal writers make their appearances in front of open audiences in book stores or conferences.

Last thing I want to watch is some dumb fuck who wrote a book such as "The Wisdom of G.W. Bush" getting a question like "Isn't Bush truly one of the great presidents of all time?"