I Have a Theory -

I Have a Theory - So in the past few weeks, liberals have been yakking about the influence of the conservative media (Fox, talkradio and the mostly-conservative blogosphere), and a few have been asking "where and how can we get something like that - a media outlet that'll be biased for us?

After I stopped laughing, I thought about it for a moment. Yeah, the major media are left-of-center on most issues, but for the most part it's subtle, rather than the explicitness of a Rush Limbaugh or a Bill O'Reilly. While most "hard news" coverage slants left, most mass-market punditry slants right. Not for lack of trying - the media keeps tossing liberal pundit-wannabees against the wall nationally (Jim Hightower, anyone? Phil Donahue?) and locally (the "Morning Spin", Ron Rosenbaum, and most columnists). None of them really succeeds commercially - because nobody really watches/listens to them.

15 years ago, stations AM broadcast band started carrying Talk Radio - at a time when many industry types figured the AM band wasn't long for this world as a medium for commercial radio. Today, it's at least as profitable if not moreso than the FM entertainment band.

And I thought - what if the left were to find some moribund media outlet that had nothing to lose, moved in, and stacked the lineup with the likes of Begala, Carville, Donahue...

Well, I can't make it up fast enough anymore.

Here's the big chance!

UPDATE: An email correspondent writes:

I don't really think RR is a liberal. While neither he nor MO are right-wingers, they are well to the right of Barbara Carlson. Admittedly, that's not too hard.

I like Rosenbaum, even if he is repetitve. He's pretty much a genuine lawyer and I think his perspective is a good counter-weight to Jason's idle con-law musings (even tho I agree with most of it).

Perhaps that's true. Both Rosenbaum and his foil O'Connor are to the left of Lewis (not hard to do, either). I haven't listened much to him - and the shows I heard may well have been skewed farther left than the norm.

So it's a fair point - Ron Rosenbaum is hardly a "left-wing" talk show host.

Still, I'll stand by the point - genuine liberals are a total stiff on the radio. Think of the liberals they've tried to float at KSTP over the years - Nick Coleman, Jim Klobuchar, Katherine Lanpher's pre-MPR incarnation - all of them stiffed (although it didn't help that they were all virtually unlistenable).

Posted by Mitch at December 5, 2002 04:41 PM