Media Leanings

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It is impossible to create this type of contentious debate without presenting rhetoric from both sides of the aisle.

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Well...what do you mean by "both sides of the aisle?Where is the very left-leaning "liberal" side of these debates?I generally see very right-wing views represented on the right, and, at most, moderate to conservative left-leaning views on the left, if they are left-leaning at all. Often times it is not a debate between "left" and "right" even though it is presented that way. It is often a debate between "far right" and "moderate right", with the "moderate right" being painted as "liberal".Hell, we have the NeoCons in congress gunning for Arlen-frigging-Specter because they view him as not being a "real Republican".So, we see far right-wing Republicans represented all the time.Where are the far left wing liberals?

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What will happen when everyone rushes to the right? Won't that leave a void that begs to be filled?

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The "void" has been there for a long time already.I think as the general populace has become less educated and spends it's time consuming corporate entertainment, including dumbed-down TV news, instead of really working to educate themselves on and understand complex issues, it has become more conservative.Specifically, it has allowed the rise of the NeoCons.This message has been edited by schrafinator, 04-14-2005 07:39 AM

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But again, it's all relative.

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And that is exactly the point, monk.When you have a show where one side is presented as, let's say, "conservative Republican" that actually is, and the other side is persented as "Liberal" that actually does not represent many or any true liberal views, that is evidence of a large shift to the right.

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Then give some examples that you consider to be "left wing".

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Somone else mentioned Noam Chomsky, he would be a good choice.How about Ralph Neas from People for the American Way?Or Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, or Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation?There's also Barry Lynn, director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.How often do we ever see anyone from Organized labor? Or from human rights organizations?This message has been edited by schrafinator, 04-14-2005 08:04 AM

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C'mon, you don't think Paul Begala and James Carville represent liberal viewpoints?

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Don't confuse political hacks who flamboyantly cheerlead for the Democratic party as being representative of a liberal viewpoint.The Democrats as a party haven't had much in the way of a liberal viewpoint for a while now. They are more like Nixon-era republicans.

You might also want to read Mother Jones, and Ms.

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I do understand the sentiment that what most people (not those here) would consider extreme liberals aren't represented,

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But the extreme right wing views often are.I have seen Jerry Fallwell on CNN more than once.

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but I think that's more indicative of the political atmosphere of the country than anything else.

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...and where do most people in the country get their political news from? Where do they hear ideas being batted around?It's a feedback loop.

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The majority of the people I know don't even know who Noam Chomsky, and probably wouldn't agree with most of what he says.

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Everybody I know knows who Fallwell is, and disagrees with everything he says, but he still gets on TV news, and fairly frequently, and is treated like he isn't a crazy religious extremist.Why don't they know who Chomsky is, and the fact that they probably wouldn't agree with him is the perfect reason to put him on the TV, and often....that is, if TV journalism is supposed to have any sort of responsibility to the public to present many viewpoints and spurring thought, discussion, and debate of the issues facing our world and isn't simply in the business of maintaining the status quo, not offending those in power, and making money for their stock holders.