February 3rd, 2009
It’s axiomatic: Bridgestone ran a light-hearted, playful, and G-rated ad with Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head in a car, (which was also the Super Bowl’s funniest commercial), and feminists found a way to take offense. Animal rights activists also got into the act, as did sociologists. Feministing didn’t even argue it that it was sexist. They just threw up a post with the words “Superbowl sexism,” as if the commercial’s alleged misogyny speaks for itself.
The term “political correctness” has been outdated for a while. Shouldn’t the underlying assumptions that gave birth to it be disappearing as well?
Via Hot Air: Washington D.C.’s only progressive talk station, aptly named Obama 1260, is switching to a business-talk format. Now where will residents of our nation’s capital find a liberal point of view?
Oh.
I’ve always believed that the right’s dominance in talk radio is directly related to supply and demand: liberal talking points of varying quality can be found anywhere: In the classroom, at the movies, and in the hearts and minds of anxious young people all over America. News outlets such as NPR, PBS, and the big three networks provide information in a manner sympathetic to liberal sensibilities. When they deal with politics, the majority of stand-up comedy and television shows are often so predictably liberal they’re unwatchable.
Because good talk radio isn’t purely issue driven, liberal talk radio can’t compete with the deluge of leftist networks on the straight news front. Since radio isn’t as versatile a medium as television, stations such as Obama 1260 can’t offer their viewers something on par with The Daily Show when it comes to recreational outlets. More entertaining, more respectable and simply many, many more liberal perspectives are readily available to anyone who might be in the market for Randi Rhodes. Paradoxically, the liberal dominance of popular culture makes it much more difficult for progressive radio outlets to succeed.
In contrast, conservative talk radio introduces people to a point of view they’re not tripping over every day. In general, Americans actually have to tune into Beck, Hannity, and Limbaugh to hear conservatism articulated in public. The biggest threat to Fox News and its lineup of right-wing commentators would be another network just like it.
Anyone who truly wants liberal talk radio to succeed needs to acknowledge this. But the left’s insistence on viewing itself as perpetually victimized on all fronts will keep liberals from learning this lesson. This is what happens when your ideology is shaped by a coalition of self-conscious “victims.”
But everyone has their own theory about this. What’s yours?
Cross-posted at Modern Conservative