More like, shut up, sit there and I’ll tell you what you need to think. (And in case you expected a rant about Sheraton TV spots using Pat Benatar songs, sorry, tomorrow. Ok?)Nearly 13 years later and that Time cover has now turned out to be a pretty accurate depiction of the venom we hear spewed over the airwaves today. Hosts shouting down guests and preaching to the
Even with all the choices we now have, I still haven’t found one show or host able to speak to both sides of an issue objectively without constantly making smartass remarks or bashing the other person – and that person’s POV.
Devil’s advocate says bland is boring and that I may be out of touch with what the public wants. Maybe. But screaming down the guest or the caller just because you don’t agree with them? Not even trying to find the smallest bit of common ground?
Short of the flying Klan chairs, talk radio has morphed into Geraldo. Fox News, Air America, the line-up of WABC Radio, Bill Maher, Daily Show, Howard Stern, Huffington Post, etc. They’re all the same. Apocalyptical statements from the right or smug remarks from the left – with nothing in the middle.
Because in the minds of both sides, you’re either with us, or against us.
Sorry to break the news to them, but it’s all entertainment. They may hate that word since they want to be taken so seriously, but at the end of the day, their opinions don’t mean any more than mine do. You wanna know more about an issue? Try Google or Ask.com instead.
At least Sir Charles had the honesty to admit he wasn’t a role model. Yet show me a host who doesn’t feel that theirs and theirs alone is the sole voice of reason amid the chaos. Yeah, ok. What-evuh.
As for politics, their favorite topic, it’s like sports. Aren’t hosts really just fans rooting for their favorite team? Thing is, they no more have control over listeners’ voting habits than I have the ability to get the security guard to pass a play I wrote on a napkin down to Coach Coughlin. I can see his reaction now: “Hey, holy shit, a screen pass to Tiki. Why didn’t I think of that?”
Look, if you need a talk show to shape how you think or be the voice of authority in your life that informs your opinions, you’re in sad shape. Drive your rascal over to the radio, turn it off and get out of the house now.
As for hosts who know so much, turn off the mic and run for office.
But first America, I want to know what you think about these idiots who would undermine the President and stop plans for a wall on the Mexican border to keep out the illegals trying to steal American jobs by infiltrating Wal-Mart, a company that’s ruined communities full of artists hiding out from an unjust war painting bad things supported by government funding, but who in the past voted to support the outsourcing of the spotted owl and who have now flip-flopped on the issue of a woman’s right to choose her baby’s daddy.
Tags: advertising, WABC, Daily Show, Bill Maher, Howard Stern, Fox News, Air America
5 comments:
No one can set my blood to boiling quite as well as Bill Maher. And it's not even what he's saying - it's the smarmy self-righteous way he says it.
Agreed - except for the Daily Show. They let even jackasses come and exppress their opinions and for better or worse (after some initial joking) are allowed to say their thing.
Preach on, brother!
NPR regularly has guests from both sides (the more sane ones, anyway), and lets them say their piece with minimal shouting.
Everyone has an agenda, it seems, but the agenda is seldom to be objective. In fact, I think its a vanishing resource.It takes discipline to seek out objective information, and the inclination is to wrap oneself in media supporting one's existing preconceptions. The market for echo chambers is much bigger than the market for objectivity. Even with all that I think we should accept that objectivity is not an attainable absolute in journalism, but a goal -- at least once it was a goal. Corporatization, advertising and marketing aren't helping. Remember the Gore spoof on youtube that was revealed as sourced from oil industry PR? There are millions of examples. Personally, I think it's a giant and scary problem, and I think the next prez election might be intolerable.
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