What are the prospects for a left-wing analogue to Fox News?

Great Debates
121

I don’t watch Fox News, but Alan Colmes’ radio show is on every night when I’m driving home from work, and I can’t stand the guy. I don’t think he isn’t a real liberal, but he’s just such a wimp. He is easily flustered, he lets the callers (and especially the guest co-hosts, who always seem to be hardcore conservatives) walk all over him, and he misses obvious opportunities to make obvious points. He’d be good at writing editorials, but he just doesn’t seem cut out for the kind of rapid response, shout down or be shouted down environment of talk radio.

Luckily, Mike Malloy is on at the same time on Air America, and he has the balls Alan Colmes desperately needs.

122

And I’ve never heard Alan Colmes (or Hannity or O’Reilly, or any of the other radio talkshows for that matter) on the radio…only on Fox. So I don’t know how he is on the radio to be honest. He seems pretty calm on Fox, but its a different format so perhaps he gets easily rattled like you say in the more high pressure radio environment. How popular is his show btw?

-XT

123

Well, I don’t know anyone who likes it. :wink:

Someone must be listening to it, though. I’m not sure where to look for ratings, but he’s been in radio longer than TV (bio), and his show is on Sirius’s TalkLeft, XM’s America Left, and presumably on all the other local stations that carry the same spliced up pseudo-Air America format that XM has.

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Pacifica isn’t a station, it’s a network. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacifica_Radio:

The shows are also broadcast on many community radio stations – “affiliate stations” – including WMNF 88.5 FM here in Tampa. You can find a complete list at http://www.pacifica.org/stations/affiliates/. This list is alphabetized by station call number rather than city or state – how dumb is that? – but it’s not that long a list so it should be easy for you to find the affiliate nearest your home.

At this point, I’d love to hear from a Doper who is familiar with both Pacifica and Air America Radio(http://www.airamericaradio.com/), who can give us a comparison of their content and quality. I’ve never heard Air America myself; no station in the Tampa Bay area carries it. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_America_Radio:

125

You can listen online for free, man… what are you waiting for?

126

Huh? How do you do that?

127

Go to their web site and click the big green “LISTEN LIVE” button on the left.

128

:slight_smile: Thanx! I’ve been listening to the Al Franken Show! So far it sounds like nothing I’ve ever heard on Pacifica – it’s not news or serious talk but satire, like a radio version of the Daily Show. Much more fun to listen to than Rush Limbaugh, anyway.

129

Isn’t that just damning with faint praise, though? :wink:

130

Brain Glutton, I still can’t believe you didn’t know you could stream Air America on the net.

Are there any radio shows that can’t be streamed on the net?

But keep in mind, the number of streaming listeners doesn’t affect the ratings. IOW, the market is there for the taking…

131

The Young Turks, an excellent liberal talk show on Sirius. It’s also on some local talk stations (where it has doubled or tripled the ratings of the stations that picked it up), and you can find archives online, and maybe even some sites that stream it off schedule, but there’s no live stream.

132

Actually, though it embarrasses me to admit this (seeing as how I’m a network engineer and all)…I didn’t know you could stream all those stations across the internet either, though I did know you could stream SOME stations.

I’m grateful for the links…going to listen in and see if I’ve been missing anything, and to balance my Fox time with some (hopefully) good liberal talk radio. :slight_smile:

-XT

133

You’re OLD. :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: (relax; I’m 40, looking at 41)

Seriously: Don’t the networks make that clear in adverts? I’m thinking now there is an untapped market out there. Do advert costs reflect streaming rates?

134

:o Please bear with me. I’m still clinging to the hope that computers are just a passing fad.

135

Are you suggesting that the ABB/lukewarm Kerry vote was largely comprised of disaffected conservatives? I should think that most of that faction was lukewarm on Kerry because he was seen as being too far to the right himself.

136

True dat! According to the Political Typology developed by the Pew Center for the People and the Press, “Liberal Democrats” comprise fully 10 percent of registered voters in the U.S. – which would make their proportion of the Democratic Party much higher. See http://people-press.org/reports/ and http://helios.acomp.usf.edu/~jfbohren/floridairvcoalition/pew_typology.htm.

137

Sorry to pull up an old-ish thread, but this caught my eye today:
White House paid commentator to promote law:

Raises some ethical and legal questions that might be worthy of a new thread (feel free, anyone), but as it pertains to this OP as well, I thought I’d bring it to your attention here first.

Why don’t the left-wing money people simply purchase pundits? Ethics aside for now, the amount paid to this guy would be chicken feed for someone like Soros.

138

  1. Dissimilar situation. Armstrong Williams was already an influential voice in the black community, he had influence to sell, and apparently he was able to square NCLB with his principles, and could do so without compromising his credibility. (At least, until this payoff story broke.) Can you same me any pundits who (1) are already influential enough to be worth buying; (2) are not already promulgating a left-wing message, but could be persuaded to do so if the price were right; and (3) would not, by doing so, lose credibility in the eyes of their existing audience or readership?

  2. Doesn’t really address the issue. We already have dedicated left-wing pundits who do not need to be bribed to put out that message. The problem is that you have to read their arguments in magazines like The Nation, Mother Jones, or In These Times – publications read mostly by people who are already passionately interested in left-wing politics. Preaching to the choir, you know? Because those pundits are not on television, they do not have access to a wide enough audience to be truly influential on our public policy debates. A left-wing news network might correct that.

139

Which kind of brings us back full circle (IMO anyway) to the core question: If there is a market for a left wing equivelent to Fox (or any left wing broadcast or cable show) where is it? Why isn’t it already out there…or forming up as we speak? After all, if there is a nation wide market for it there is money to be had…just like when Fox was first formed for the purposes of pursueing the right wing national market.

Any theories on exactly why there is no such beast already…or why, at least afaik, no one is proposing one? After all, as you say BG, it would be the perfect forum for left wing pundits to state their cases to a nation wide audience…like (supposedly) Fox does with its forum. And there are no lack of rich left wing patrons for start up capital out there…I can think of a dozen millionares off the top of my head with left wing leanings…and one very rich one who has shown he’s willing to pony up millions for the cause.

-XT

140

  1. Yes - although their influence and/or worth might be debatable. Another alternative would be to groom someone just coming up with promise.

  2. The existing pundits worth buying would not already be publically promulgating a left-wing message. There are a few who have privately shown signs of dissatisfaction, but fear for their job security. This could be explored…

  3. This is the tricky part. My idea would be to go with subtle, if not outright subliminal. Kind of like a “manchurian candidate” type pundit.

There are a number of ways to achieve this (eg, In this very thread, we have Xtisme saying he doesn’t perceive Bill O’Reilly as a dedicated right-winger - there’s something to learn there). But there are other - more subtle, complicated, or devious - ways to do it.

Basically agree, but a dedicated left-wing network will be seen as preaching to the choir, and demonised by the Right, before it even gets off the ground. Witness the comments about Air America on these boards. Which is why you might want to consider going with my “manchurian pundit” idea…

Admittedly a questionable breach of ethics, but hey, I’m just speculating on the possibilities. I can’t afford to buy influence so I’m not subject to the temptation…