My sincere condolences go out to those DC area readers who rise early. Driving to the conference this morning around 7:30 I had the choice of Jesus, Jesus, HITLERY WILL ABORT YOUR GUNS, Jesus, Jesus, elevator-worthy classical, Jesus and craft talk for people who can’t count to three. Maybe NPR comes on at eight?
Anyhow, here is my transliteration of the five minutes of winger talk that I could stand before jumping to some catchy gospel.
Segment 1: Giuliani has become the latest magnet for crazy lefty hate. Tsk.
Segment 2: Will Hillary ever shake her perception as a castrating frigid man killer? All present agreed that it was unlikely.
Let’s open the floor to discussion. Do rightwing radio hosts honestly have the self-knowledge of a fruit fly, or are they businessmen fleecing an audience of gullible chumps? If you think that the answer is some (a) and some (b), give examples to illustrate your point.
Now back to conferencing…
Walker
It is freakin’ Sunday. What NPR talk shows are you expecting early Sunday? Hell, I have never seen two NPR stations have the same weekend schedule. Some play Gerrison early Sunday, others play music. But most of the time they just put their weekend talk shows (Car Talk, Wait Wait, etc) on Saturday.
Downpuppy
(c)They’re employees saying what their bosses want them to say.
One of the less important reasons I don’t drive anymore is the ratio of bad radio to Mary Gauthier is 500:1.
Mike S
That is what the vast majority are. The way I know is that I listened to them for years and while they started out as rational and reasonable they became irrational in order to attract more listeners. Dennis Praeger is a perfect example. He started out with “Religion on the Line” where he had leaders from all of the religions on for great discussions. Then he went into normal talk radio and was still fairly rational.
Then he was offered syndication. Since then the Muslims are all horrble murderers adn the left “hates America.”
Not surprisingly his wife recently filed for divorce. My guess is that she didn’t like what he became because now he probably buys his own shit.
RSA
So which papers (or which topics) is everyone talking about?
Richard Bottoms
This just in: Republicans are intolerant religious zealots.
Film at eleven.
Incertus (Brian)
You really have to take it on a case by case basis. Limbaugh’s not really as stupid as he acts, but Hannity is. And then when you get down to the Liddy/Savage realm, you’re talking about batshit crazy, so the point really becomes moot.
calipygian
You mean there are frequencies on the radio dial in Washington that are not 88.5, 90.9 or 88.1 if I’m on the northern part of the Beltway? Whodathunk?
cleek
well sure. they’re preaching the religion of Republicanism instead of the Gospel, but it’s still preaching to the unquestioning faithful, and passing the plate, of course – only in this case, the parishioners don’t have to pay; the advertisers do it for them.
Dreggas
When will texas simply execute the clause in their agreement to joining the union, you know, the one saying they reserve the right to secede at any time?
The way I see it that eliminates a large part of the land between the U.S. and mexico which means we just build a fence around the country of Texas and thereby keep the nutjobs out of the U.S. (they’d be illegal after all). Then we start deporting anyone who wants to live there and revoke their citizenship here. We also cut down on our exposure to illegal immigration from Mexico and points south by effectively reducing the size of the border, this should make the nutjobs who hate brown people happy, at least in the midwest, and those who don’t want to be deported.
Bruce Moomaw
I believe it was Pete Hamill who noted 15 years ago that “compared to his imitators, Limbaugh comes off looking like Henry Adams.”
Bruce Moomaw
If Texas reserves the right to secede from the Union, doesn’t that mean that the Union also reserves the right to secede from Texas?
Actually, I had never heard of that clause — but I AM aware of the other one they insisted on as a condition of joining the Union, allowing Texas to split itself into as many as five states without Congressional permission. Ten Senators from Texas — doesn’t that thought warm the cockles of your heart?
craigie
I thought Rush was a fruit-fly.
bains
No worse that the screeds regularly published in most dailies, broadcast on most networks, and no different that the swill written on this and many other leftie blogs.
Dreggas
Well if you want to ignore the fact that most of the “swill” written here is the truth *shrugs*
Invigilator
At 7:00 on WAMU this morning was “Speaking of Faith.” Christa interviewed Jim Wallis, the progressive evangelical. Good show, and I say that as an atheist.
pseudonymous in nc
(b) and I’ll cite David Foster Wallace’s ‘Host’ as an example.
On Texas, the ‘split-into-five’ agreement is somewhat moot, since the governing supreme law here is Article IV, Section 3. (Though it might be argued that the 1845 Joint Resolution already counts as congressional agreement.) There’s no right to secede, though: Texas vs. White is settled law.
Invigilator
I suppose if you had just caught a sentence or two you might have thought it was one of the preachers’ lalapaloozas.
Ed Drone
WAMU FM, 88.5 on the dial, is the best NPR station near the Beltway, and runs “Weekend Edition” on Sundays at that hour. This morning included a long piece, part of a series, on the Ganges river in India. That’s what I awoke to.
Ed
Ross
Ultimately, isn’t job of these talk radio jockeys (and all corporate media) to deliver advertisements to the ears of listeners? Viewing them in that sense, it doesn’t really matter what the individual people believe; they’re just part of a bigger machine.
alphie
Couldn’t the same question be asked of wingnut bloggers?
From my experience, their belief in a supernatural being has erased any reason from their brains.
If they believe in something, nothing can change their minds.
What do they believe in?
1. Brown people are bad.
2. Democracy is for Europeans.
KG
I stopped listening to talk radio a couple years ago. Then I got satellite radio and life improved immensely because of no commercials, and the fact that there were more than two radio stations that played rock.
As for what drives talk radio, I don’t know. I’ve found the local guys here in Southern California aren’t too bad… they do have their own little crusades, but they’re equal opportunity hot heads (meaning they rag on Republicans as much as Democrats, at least they did when I use to listen to them). The national guys, I’m not sure about. Rush always struck me as fairly honest, Hannity was always Republican first, everything else second, I’ve actually met Hewitt (went to the law school that he teaches at), and liked the guy personally, but couldn’t even think of taking his con law class.
srv
Tim,
A year or two ago you were raving about some new asian sauce availble in the US. Wondering if you remember?
caustics
I keep hearing this – yet judging by his mostly embarrassing ventures outside of The Bubble, he still comes across to me as a naive hack with a limited understanding of how the majority of sane people in a diverse society generally relate to each other.
But yeah, as a business model, non-confrontational smear radio will continue to have its market share and imitators.
Because at least 28% of us will always be pathologically angry little outcasts.
jnfr
On Sunday you should be watching CBS Sunday Morning. That is all.
ImJohnGalt
Because there isn’t an open thread, and BJ is always good for hating the troops, here’s a fun story.
craigie
I wonder, seriously, if “settled law” actually means anything in the post-Shrub era. Isn’t obeying the law so pre-9/11?
incontrolados
I’ve always listened to wingnut radio (like John visits wingnut sites) and it’s about a third of what I write about. When Houston had more local hosts, I called in a couple of times, but mostly communicated with the hosts via email.
First, they are in to sell what their advertisers want them to — on the all-wingnut-all-the-time station here — it’s all the same advertisers: Bennett, Gallagher, Praeger, Medved, Hewitt all sell the same things — except Hewitt has gotten on this turducken thing that is bordering on ridiculous — he even asks his guests about them. They serve their audience — one that I think is skrinking, but because I’m not part of the industry, I can only rely on either journalists to confirm or deduce from the actions of local stations.
One thing is for certain — wingnuts don’t really like callers unless those callers fit what the host wants to do. With other types of local radio, it’s the reverse, of course. I once spent over an hour waiting to get on the air with a host who was spouting off about a topic I knew he was wrong on. He finally took my call, said he didn’t believe me, and then right after my call changed the topic of his show.
/rant
craigie
Yes, because criticizing the people who direct the troops is exactly the same thing as hating the troops themselves.
STEVEinSC
They had a great show on 60 minutes tonight. Virtually all the million Christians of Iraq, who lived with equality and peace under Sadam have either all been killed or driven from the country. Where are all the psalm-singing bible-thumping hypocrite main-stream religions when their co-religionists are being destroyed? George Bush, the “good Christian man” has caused the destruction of a centuries old community who lived in peace with their muslim neighbors. These people’s tradition went back so far that their services were in Aramaic, for Christ’s sake.
Kyle
I hear ya, asshole. {kidding}
jake
Welcome to DC! I have no idea who the hell would be listening to Squawk Radio in this area. Must be a coven of fRigthies somewhere.
B. They’re all Talevangical preachers who are too stupid to retain the requisite Bible verses and/or too ugly for TV.
Damned at Random
Best right wing radio host by far is Rusty Humphries – the Spousal Unit calls him Crusty the Clown. He’s at least clued in to his audience, I swear, once he siad that he knew most of them never read books – cracked me up -from some of the calls I’ve heard, the funny papers would challenge them.
Jay
WAMU is 88.5 FM. Should have had *something* at 7:30, although I think weekend edition comes on at 8. You didn’t dial down far enough.
Chuck Butcher
hahaha
I’ve got a choice of 4 stations, 1FM Oldies canned nationwide, 1FM countrywestern, 1FM xtian, 1AM right talk. A ten minute drive and you start losing reception of one or more. I forgot 1FM NPR if you’re lucky.
TenguPhule
Tim, invest in a tape deck. Stick in some audio books and never look back.
Brian
Living in the Bay Area, at least we have KGO, which ranges from left wing Flamingly Gay but loyally Democratic and not very smart (Korel) Liberal Democrat (Bernie Ward) a variety of moderates (who are again largely Democratic Party loyalits) to “libertarian” gourmand (Gene Burns) to “lock up the environmentalists so we can build more nuclear power plants and dams (Dr. Bill Wattenberg). Clear Channel owns most of the stations, and they’ve pretty much moved the Hate Talk (Savage and his ilk) to 500 watt KSFO. I find Gene Burns the most interesting, and Korel can be fun to listen to.
Brian
Sacramento has Air America. God, is that bad. Totally Democratic Party hackery “Hillary will save us all.” They can’t write, and the hosts are utterly puerile and unfunny. And I even kinda liked Al Franken’s book.
r€nato
Having known people in the radio business, I have a pretty piss-poor opinion of them all. My theory is that, unless you own the station or are a big-name talent (locally or nationally) or are selling ads at a big station, there’s not a lot of money to be made which leads to a lot of back-stabbing and willingness to say and do ANYTHING to get ahead.
So, I think it’s both A and B. Firstly it’s about selling airtime, which means drawing in listeners, and reasoned, enlightened discussion doesn’t really pull in the ratings. AM hate radio is all about controversy, which draws listeners. Which means they ARE entertainers first and foremost. You think it’s easy to sit in front of a microphone and jabber for an hour and sound good at it? Give it a try sometime.
As far as B) goes, I really don’t think a radio host could sell left-wing bullshit one day and right-wing bullshit the next (unless his name was Mitt Romney). As an example, our local Air America station (the first version of it – long story) had a libertarian morning drive host. He was very successful because he didn’t talk at all about his libertarian nutty goodness like getting rid of the income tax or gold standard or black helicopters. He stuck to the Bush-bashing and that of course has been a gold mine for some time now. Since then, he moved on to a station which does more of a financial news/right-wing talk format, and now he hews more obviously to the right than he did at the AA station.
So, that’s all a long-winded way of saying, yeah they do believe some of their BS and even if at first they tell themselves they are ‘just entertaining’, if you sit there and repeat that crap day after day – especially if it’s making you money – you’re going to start believing it.
Is that ‘stupid’, or is that believing your own bullshit? I think it ends up depending on whom you’re talking about. I definitely think Hannity is just really that stupid. Same for O’Reilly. I can think of other examples where I think they’re just, to a certain extent, telling people what they think they want to hear because it makes money.
And actually, I think that’s more insidious and evil – people who are willing to sell hatred and lies to make a buck, versus people who are just too stupid or ignorant to know better. At least the motives of the latter are ‘purer’, in a sense.
r€nato
I’m really sorry I missed that tonight. I’m sure the “Christians are so persecuted” brigade will get right on that one.
r€nato
Dire Times For Iraq’s Christians
R. Stanton Scott
C-Span Radio is on in DC–90.1 I think.
They had a Venezuelan official on Washington Journal yesterday mornong talking about the elections there.
Carnacki
That’s why I got XM Radio. Now that I got a MP3 players I’ll probably drop XM. But many on the way to DC each day listen to WTOP – which is a station that spends 37 minutes of each hour promoting WTOP with traffic, weather and news in between the WTOP promos and commercials.
grandpa john
You never know what you can find out there. surprisingly here in upstate SC, I tend to listen to WMUU which just happens to be the Bob Jones U radio station. During the daytime there is very little preaching and only mild regurgitation of wing nut talking points, that only requires a brief change of station. The music ranges from classical to showtunes which makes good background music in the car or shop
Notorious P.A.T.
See, that’s what I used to think too. Then he went on ESPN. All he ever wanted was to do sports talk; it was his lifelong dream. Then, for some reason, he gets the chance to do it. All he has to do to keep his gig is offer up Madden-esque “turnovers will kill you” but what does he do? He spouts off with racial slurring of Donovan McNabb.
Barry
My advice – CD player. Once I had a car with a CD player, my radio time dropped to nil. Of course, now it’s that and/or satellite and/or MP3’s.
Then just leave your radio tuned to the local news/weather/traffic/sports station. In Detroit, there’s one at AM950, which does a loop every ten minutes. That way, if there’s a question in your mind about traffic conditions, you can turn on the radio, and find out before you hit the freeway.
Zifnab
Ok, but that’s a far cry from the depths of Limbaugh stupidity. And at that point he’d branded himself to such a degree is a right wing shock jock that to say anything else would have left him “out of character”.
Rush Limbaugh is to talk radio what gay porn is to TV. There’s a very select audience out there that wants to absorb the content, but everyone else is generally grossed out.
Punchy
Wha? Fruit fly? WTF? Only the best collection of Canadian rockers since Bryan Adams and Celine Dion.
craigie
I can see an awesome supergroup in the making.
Poopyman
Yep, C-SPAN is 90.1, and if you spin leftward (heh!) a little more to 89.3, that’s WPFW. Not the most professional-sounding staff, but it’s our local Pacifica station. And while you’re at it, how about sending some lucre their way? They could use it.
I see by the schedule at wpfw.org that “Spirit of Jazz” is in the 6-9 AM slot on Sundays, if that’s your thing.
ATS
You should have heard DC talk radio right after 9/11. That was about the time Lou Dobbs was sneering about what he would “like to do” with “arabists” at America’s Universities.
Then there was the White House press corps questioner who asked on live TV, “why would the US even talk to these animals?” He meant muslims as whole. No one uttered a peep.
Then there was the AIPAC conference just two years ago when the Israeli Ambassador generously said:
“Some say not ALL muslims ate terrorists and this might be true, but . . .”
Might be? Again, not a peep.
David Hunt
Ah Hah! They must have been traitors because they were working with the islamo-facists! /sarcasm
Nice turn of phrase. It was, indeed, for Christ’s sake.
ImJohnGalt
Clearly my snarkinator is malfunctioning.
If you have a chance, click that link above. The Army that wrongly jailed and dishonorably discharged a bunch of black Soldiers at the end of WW II, overturned the ruling and reinstated the back pay to *one* of the 80-some-odd that is still living. How much did they give him? $750.00. No interest, no nothing. “We owed you $750, 60 years ago. Sorry it’s late – here it is.”
Seems fair, eh?
jcricket
Mission accomplished? Maybe this was part of the goal to whiten-up Christianity, which in recent years has only been growing in the “brown regions” of the world?
Actually, one of the “funny facts” that never seems to penetrate the thick-skulls of the he-man-islamofascist-hating-club is that most Arabs in this country were, until recently, Christians. These are Christians from Arab countries (like Lebanon, Egypt, Iran, etc.) that fled persecution or economic hardship for a better life in America. What they got instead was being called rag-head, jihadist and racial profiling.
America, fuck yeah.
jcricket
(this odd sentence means that, the Arab immigrants were mostly Christians, until recently, when a lot more Arab muslims have been immigrating to America. Not that the Arab Christian immigrants have converted to Islam.)
Tim F.
At the time I wrote the post, extracellular matrix, but the seminars cover topics from all over the field. For me by far the most valuable time is spent snagging people on the poster floor, making contacts and ideally picking up some mistakenly dropped inside info.
BIRDZILLA
Thats the big trouble with liberal eletists they think becuase their se wealthy they have prilages better then our constitutiona rights THEN WHY DONT THEY GO LIVE ON ANOTHER PLANET SQUAWK SQUAWK