KMA-628

In a previous thread, I noticed that the TFP members to my left spent more time listening to Conservative Talk Radio then I do (which, on a different note, I find quite amusing).

That got me thinking about why I don't listen to Rush, O'Reilly, Hannity or whomever and I really couldn't think of a good reason. On the whole, I don't disagree with them, I just don't enjoy listening to their shows.

Anyway, something happened last night that reminded me why these guys annoy me.

I went out for late night take-out last night and had my radio tuned to a local AM station. As this is not a normal time for me to be in the car, I had no idea who would be on the radio. It turns out that the Talk Show host was none other then Michael Savage. In my opinion, Savage is to Conservative Talk Radio as Art Bell is to Conspiracy Radio, so I never listen to the guy.

Instead of switching the channel, I listened for the few minutes it took to get to Panda Express and one thing struck me: This guy plans his show around The Drudge Report. No kidding, everything I heard him talk about had been a headline at some time yesterday on Drudge (Drudge Report is one of my homepages).

Then I remembered that they all seem to do that (I have never listened to Hannity or O'Reilly, so I don't know about them). Local or national, they all seem to pull their stories from Matt Drudge, even Rush. No kidding. Browse the Drudge Report during the day while listening to Conservative Talk Radio and you will see what I mean. You can practically predict what the talking points will be in any upcoming show.

Why listen to their opinionated blather? I can get the same stories without the noise by just checking out Drudge.

So, in a nutshell, that is why I don't like most conservative talk radio (I have two that I will listen to - neither use Drudge as their constant source). They don't do anything for themselves, they just copy from someone else. Hell, I could copy Drudge stories all day long and yammer about them on the radio, what makes them special?

My Question:

1) Has anybody else noticed this? Is it annoying to them as well?

2) If you listen to Liberal Radio, do the stories seem to come from the same source?

TheFu

They get alot of their stuff from Neals Nuze too. Boortz posts his show notes before the rest of the guys have had their coffee and shaken off their pee boners. Anyway, these guys all rely on each other, and the other media for sources. Boortz often cites Drudge when he uses something on the radio from there, not something the others do I have noticed. It doesn;t bug me.

Glad to hear you're not a fan of Savage. I think most of the hate and ill will between the extreme right and the left comes from asshats like Savage. That is the impression I get from him and his callers at least.

pan6467

KMA,

I am pretty left and I like Limbaugh and I'll tell you why. Limbaugh started this movement on his own. There may have been others, but Rush was pretty much the first full national conservative talk show host that got anywhere. He did it because of his passion and his belief to be heard. That's great, he is entertaining and while I very very rarely agree with him, he does make some good points and he is fun to listen to, because he does it for the love and his beliefs. I also believe he is not as hateful in person, but his persona on air is to be abrasive to help get ratings and have that friction with listeners like me. He is probably the only one in any media that is actually true to his beliefs (although I do think he sold out and that he went to far and is a shadow of what he was.)

As for all the others O'Reilly, Savage, Hannity and especially Coulter, they are doing what they do for 1 of 2 reasons or both.

1) MONEY MONEY MONEY, They see what Limbaugh has done and have copied his style because they know that is the trend for the money right now. Hell O'Reilly got his big jumpstart on a Current Affair or Hard Copy (one of those tabloid tv shows.... Hard to take anyone (unless they are young and just starting a career) that hosted one of those seriously. (This is also probably the majority of the local talking heads also, like Mike Trivisonno in Cleveland).

It's funny how a lot of the radio talk shows were libs then CC bought their station and now they are all conservative (Mike McConnell, Bill Cunningham, Trivisonno, and others)


2) They truly are hateful whack jobs that have no sense of how badly they truly sound. (Some of these people are so far right and sound so idiotic that I could be led to believe they are Liberal plants.) Coulter and Beck fit in this category.

Then you have Drudge, he's just a guy who got lucky, one of these times he'll get burnt badly and he'll be done. It's funny how he can talk about how biased and bad Rather is when Drudge has done the same thing. EVERY NEWS AGENCY I AM SURE HAS.

Fox News, Rupert Murdoch is a right winged nutjob but he is also a smart business man. He saw that Limbaugh had carved out a niche and that there was a need for a different News source out there. Plus Ted Turner and he truly hate each other, so he saw an oppurtunity to maybe hurt Turner and CNN and formed Fox News. But again it's all about money.

Now, before I end I want to address one more thing. I have been criticized in the past for being one-sided and listing only conservative talking heads and then only MM and maybe CNN and such as liberal (like when I called an end to mudslinging). The reason I don't name any more liberals are there aren't any out there that reach the audiences that the right does. If someone could honestly show me a liberal, (that talks hate and is all one-sided) that does then I'd name him also. Who does the left truly have Franken? Larry King? Al Gore? Who? which of these guys has a national show that reaches even 1/2 the number Limbaugh does? Trust me if I could find a good one I'd listen to him.

Anyway hope I answered your question.

__________________
I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"