BY DAN
KENNEDY
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Monday, November 17, 2003
Toward a new kind of talk
radio. Former Narco News Bulletin publisher Al Giordano
has an idiosyncratic take on efforts to launch a liberal and/or
leftist talk-radio presence. His "Talk
Radio Manifesto" is posted
at the website Salón
Chingón.
No comment today on the details of
Giordano's manifesto; that will have to wait until I've digested it a
little more thoroughly. But I do have a couple of general
comments.
First, I would love to see a
left-of-center talk show succeed, and if someone like Al Franken or
Michael Moore (or Giordano) were to host such a show, I'd certainly
give it a half-hour of my time while driving home. But I'm
skeptical.
Like it or not, liberals (as
opposed to genuine lefties) already have their own radio network --
National Public Radio. ("Gag me," writes Giordano.) The two drive-time
shows, Morning Edition and All Things Considered, have
about 15 million to 20 million listeners -- about the same as or a
little more than Rush
Limbaugh, the noted drug
addict who brings his special brand of hypocrisy back to the airwaves
today.
No, NPR's offerings are not
particularly liberal in content, but I would argue that's not
what most liberals are looking for. Rather, NPR's mix of news,
commentary, and cultural stories, delivered in that laid-back
monotone, appeals to liberal sensibilities (including mine). In other words, the
reason that there's never been a liberal Rush is that, if there were,
he would fall face-first into his stash of OxyContin.
It's not that liberals aren't
looking to have their politics reinforced. Certainly the success of
MoveOn.org
and Howard
Dean's website show that.
But, mostly, I suspect that talk radio appeals inherently to
conservatives and libertarians more than it does to liberals and
leftists.
But I hope Giordano -- a former
Phoenix political reporter and former talk-show host himself
-- can point the way to a new reality.
And here I always thought that
stupidity causes racism. The Boston Globe's Gareth Cook
reports
that it may be just the opposite.
posted at 8:50 AM |
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Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
