Hate Speech 101

Amidst the polarity of partisan pundits jousting away, I've noticed one thing glaringly stand out. I noticed that conservative talk shows are routinely popular whereas liberal talk shows do not get the near the ratings of their counterparts.After the abysmal performance by Air America, which flopped after only two years of it being on the air, fringe liberals have taken to the airwaves again with a much publicized effort of NOVA M RADIO. I say "fringe liberals" because quite frankly its application is astoundingly radical in nature, not like the more moderate liberals I know.My wife and I tuned in last night for the first time after seeing billboards put up all over the city. I'm not exaggerating when I say within the first minute (i.e. 60 seconds), we heard what sounded like mean-spirited children on a playground. The amount of childish ad hominem used by grown men to support their distaste of everything conservative could have been laughable if it weren't so sad and pathetic.Whenever a conservative caller joined the fray they were immediately met with not just overt hostility, but they were absolutely flamed and wouldn't be allowed to speak. The host, Mike Malloy, stated, "Don't overtalk me. You must be some kind of conservative idiot. You're a jackass. Don't do that to me. Right wingers are not welcome on this show. I'm not interested in playing with you idiots and morons. Don't call me because I don't like you. Go somewhere else with your jive turkey talk. Freak."Wow... Cerebral.... Malloy's tirade is in direct contradiction of the way conservative radio handles its broadcast. Disagreements and varying opinions are often encouraged on most of the conservative talk shows I've listened to. Its eloquent, polite, intelligent, thoughtful-- basically everything opposite of what I heard on NOVA which was hateful, spiteful, vindictive, childish, nonsensical, unintelligent, etc... What's progressive about that?Is it any wonder why liberals themselves seem to prefer listening to conservative radio over their own ilk's?With having said all of that, I'd like to hear from our resident liberals if this kind of behavior is embarrassing or liberating or humorous? What kind of appeal is there in it?

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"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell." -C.S. Lewis

Unlike conservatives, liberals don't need the idiot box to tell us what to think.Malloy generates nothing but liberal anger porn. That's what he does - he just yells. But honestly he's basically just an angrier Sean Hannity, only the things he says tend to be truer. (Or are obvious hyperbole, like when he talks about the Bush "crime family." On what planet is that even true? Between Hannity dumping callers at the slightest hint of disagreement, to Limbaugh's commands for black callers to "take the bone out of your nose", to the Bill O'Reilly "No 'Spin' Zone, where 'spin' means 'any mention of Keith Olbermann's name'", Malloy is the perfect mirror-universe liberal version of the majority of conservative talk radio. What universe do you live in where conservative pundits are doing anything on their shows but repeating RNC press releases, generating new myths and falsehoods to be endlessly repeated by know-nothings in the mainstream media (like the Obama-madrassa myth), hawking their ridiculous books, and dumping any callers who object? None at all, for me. I listen to The Young Turks and Democracy Now. As far as I'm concerned those are the two most enjoyable/informative liberal/progressive programs on the radio (to the extent that Sirius counts as "radio.") On your TV, tune into Keith Olbermann. There's a reason why his ratings go up as O'Reilly's go down, and it's not people trying to catch the beginning of "Scarbourogh Country", I can tell you that.

Nemesis, you should try to talk to a wall at least once. Try to convince the wall of your various political positions. Try to explain human decency and kindness to it. Try to teach it some humanity. Very quickly, you will find that trying to talk to a wall is very frustrating because the best you could get back is an echo. If you're like me, after a while you will be frustrated enough to want to bang your head on the wall repeatedly.That's how a lot of us liberals feel.

I won't claim to speak to all of conservative radio, but you must not be including Rush Limbaugh's show in this assessment. He show is quite often ascerbic, childish name calling and full of ad hominem attacks and ad hoc justifications of egregious activities by various conservatives. Over the course of a week, about 25% of his programming can be summed up as little more than "I know you are but what am I."I've never listened to the program you describe so will not try to defend it. My point is simply that this sort of thing comes from both sides of the aisle and anyone who doesn't see that is a blindered knee-jerk something or other, depending on where they see angels or devils.

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Those who would sacrifice an essential liberty for a temporary security will lose both, and deserve neither. -- Benjamin FranklinWe see monsters where science shows us windmills. -- Phat

If simply listening to a radio broadcast equals people "telling you what to do," then by your own admission, The Young Turks and Democracy Now tell you what to do.Or we just like the dialogue of our respective channels bring. That's putting it mildly. Sean Hannity is no where in the same ballpark as Malloy. Hannity and Olbermann are more analagous in the way they argue. Malloy is just on another level of anger. The man needs some counseling.

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Malloy's tirade is in direct contradiction of the way conservative radio handles its broadcast.

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Earth... Welcome to it. Not even in the same ballpark, again. If Hannity, O'Reilly, or Limbaugh are considered inflammatory, then so is Olbermann. I actually enjoy Olbermann to a degree. He's witty, he's not a complete fringe liberal lunatic, he makes good arguments, its intelligent, and its humorous, none of which could be heard on Air America, and from what little I heard of Nova M last night, it won't be found there either. I don't know what that acronym stands for so I can't comment on it. I don't know what the Obama-madrassa myth is, so I can't comment on that either. They write great books. And whether or not you agree with the thrust of the argument, I doubt you could claim otherwise. The only callers dumped are irrational screamers who don't have an actual point, they just repeat mantra's, like, "Bush lied, kids died." You can't speak to a person like that and trying to just degrades the show and wastes everyone's time. The soft-spoken, articulate callers with an actual point are encouraged to stay. This is completely opposite of what I have heard in the past with Air America and now so far what I've heard on NOVA who will simply dump the call, call you every name in the book, simply because of their political view. Democracy Now is unmistakably left, but they aren't insane in their approach. The host is soft-spoken and simply presents the issues that concern her. That's what should be expected. I have the most basic cable there is right now. I no longer watch O'Reilly, Olbermann, Hannity and Colmes, etc. And that reason would be?

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"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell." -C.S. Lewis

I find Democracy Now informative, and Young Turks entertaining, but I don't listen to either that frequently; mostly, I stream Jim Aquino's "Fistful of Soundtracks" on my computer. And I listen to a few podcasts, including Skepticality, Taverncast (a world of warcraft podcast), and the Dungeons and Dragons podcast put out by Wizards. I guess if "dialogue" constitutes "bloviating conservative pundit being told how great he is by carefully-screened callers", sure. In terms of being essentially content-free, they're identical. But, yes, Malloy is pretty angry. Inflammatory is one thing, but outright race baiting and dissemination of falsehood is another. Conservative talk radio has the corner on that stuff. I know; I've listened to it pretty extensively. You're a conservative who's never heard of the Republican National Committee? Chaired by Ken Mehlman? Why do I find that very hard to believe? No webpage found at provided URL: http://mediamatters.org/items/200701300007Depends on what you mean by "great." Well written and informative? Negative. Top-selling? Negative. Influential? Negative. Honest and truthful? Negative.Actually I guess I have no idea what you mean by "great." Are we talking about Coulter's documented plagarisms and falsehoods? Are we talking about O'Reilly's made up "Culture War" that he hilariously styles himself a "warrior" in? (If all it takes is a goofy windbreaker to make you a warrior, I guess Bush can outfit troops for Iraq from an Land's End catalogue.) Michelle Malkin's "How dare liberals hit me back!" whinefests? No, those are the hosts. You must not listen to much radio, I guess. What, a liberal? That was sort of the point, wasn't it? The point is, no matter how articulate and calm you stress your arguments to people like Hannity and Limbaugh, they're going to cut off your call and shout at you about how much you hate our troops and hate America and all the rest. The sort of insightful dialogue you refer to is not something that I ever heard in several years of listening, daily, to people like Hannity and O'Reilly on the drive home from work.What I did hear was "Hello, Sean, you're a great American; wouldn't it be great if San Francisco fell off into the sea?" I mean, Sean Hannity said that preventing a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives was something literally worth dying for. That's supposed to be the measured, restrained, intelligent dialogue you're so excited about?That's a bloviating ideologue, that's what that is. That people are tired of the collusion between the mainstream media and conservative punditry/Bush cult of personality, and they're eager for someone who talks some sense on the boob toob. Hence, the popularity of Olbermann and Stephen Colbert, etc. People are tired of conservative blowhards who shout down opposition and don't have any plans or strategies or solutions.

Why don't I find that hard to believe at all. LOL

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Not to drag this off topic, but... Where can this be found and what does it contain?(From a Lvl 62 pally, among other things)

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Those who would sacrifice an essential liberty for a temporary security will lose both, and deserve neither. -- Benjamin FranklinWe see monsters where science shows us windmills. -- Phat

Just so we're on the same page - a "podcast" (aka "netcast") is a kind of prerecorded audio file that you download from the internet. Usually the adopt the same sort of formats you hear on the radio, but they tend to be about subjects that don't have the same kind of broad appeal necessary to go out on broadcast radio. Taverncast: Pure 100% FunIf you're an iTunes user, you can add it to your subscribed podcasts list and get past episodes, as well as have all the new ones download automatically. Other programs exist to subscribe to podcasts (they're like RSS feeds), or you can always just go and download them like any file.Basically a group of people get together over some beers and talk about playing World of Warcraft. They're a little less than hardcore, if you know what I mean. But they have a casual approach to the game (and an enthusiasm about the in-game lore) that can be a lot of fun to listen to.If you're desperate for hardcore, high-level raiding information and strategy, they don't really do that. They mostly just figure out ways to have fun with a radio show about a video game.(from a 64 Night Elf rogue)

Yuh-huh.It wasn't a caller, but here's a fun transcript of Bill O'Reilly cutting the microphone of an interviewee. The only one who started screaming was O'Reilly.http://www.oreilly-sucks.com/transcripts/oreillyglick.htm

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"I know some of you are going to say 'I did look it up, and that's not true.' That's 'cause you looked it up in a book. Next time, look it up in your gut."
-Stephen Colbert

You have it backwards in your attempt to throw yourself and political persuasion a pity party. Liberals have the loudest voice, bar none, and utilize to that gain footing. The liberal echo chamber is a constant source of leftist sound bites.The only avenue that is clearly dominated by conservatives is radio talk shows and books that routinely go to number one. Movies, television, or any other apparatus that provides visual stimuli is unmistakably dominated by progressives.

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"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell." -C.S. Lewis

That might have been true in the 80's and 90's, but it definately isn't now. From CNN featuring Glenn Beck on the evening news, to Rush Limbaugh's brief racist stint as an NFL announcer, to Coulter hawking her books on Good Morning America, to conservative speakers on every talk program, to Chris Matthew's "feeling [John Boehner]'s greatness", to the Obama-madrassa smear covered on eleven different networks with absolutely no fact-checking, to "the Path to 9/11" which contains anti-Clinton scenes that the producers admitted were entirely fictitious, conservative viewpoints and narrative frameworks (i.e. "Republicans are strong on defense" no matter how their policies result in greater defensive weaknesses) dominate every mainstream media channel.The myth of the "liberal media" is just that; it's a successful strategy for increasing conservative influence even as conservatives deny that they're doing that.

If God had ever intended us to listen to talk radio, He wouldn't gave given us the electric guitar.

I haven't heard Limbaugh speak in about 8 years. I guess the cities I choose to live in can't stomach him, even amongst conservatives. That is probably due to his proneness to justify any and all conservatives simply by virtue of association and due to his antagonistic tone.I think another reason why not too many modern conservatives give him mention is because he's too far to the right, to the point where he believes the right can do no wrong. That's fanatical and whether its extremism to the right or left doesn't much matter because the truth is usually found somewhere in between the extreme left view and the extreme right view. Mike Malloy is a firebrand and that is the one we heard the other night. Last night my wife called in the show to debate him and she made it past the screener and was scheduled to speak, but he and another caller were taking up most of the show. She may try again this evening. And to be fair, some of the other segments are not quite as virulent as Malloy's, but in my opinion they are equally misguided on the issues.For instance, somebody called in the show, (I'm certain it was a prank call that went over his head) and the caller said something to the effect of: " Yeah, I started working at Wal-Mart and when I got my paycheck they took out all of this money of mine for something called FICA. Wal-Mart is the evil because they took my money."Malloy responded, "Ah yes, Wal-Mart strikes again. You see people, this just shows that those cronies of the right actually want to keep people poor." What? They're called "taxes," something that Malloy and his ilk love and want to deduct more of. And yet he indicts Wal-Mart for taking out FICA, but I'm certain that on his own paycheck he'd see the same deductions.I also should comment that I agree with you on the assessment that some see angels and others see devils depending on their general outlook. As much as I think both parties, in theory, would like to eradicate partisan politics because of the nasty rift its caused, it seems unlikely that they'll go away because of the diametric opposites in rationale.

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"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell." -C.S. Lewis

Malloy may have screwed up on the whole tax thing (I don't know what FICA stands for, but I do know that I have taxes taken out of my paycheck).however, as far as liberals go, we want a greater equalization of wealth (and yes, this is a vast generalization--you have your socialists who want to go to the extreme, and you have your moderates who would like to see a strong middle class again).wal-mart pays crap. The people who run Wal-Mart (forgot the family name, but the five of them together have 100 billion dollars) are super rich. The rich execs get, and stay rich, by keeping wages as low as possible. (note that this applies to companies who can afford to pay more. I only get 8.25 at REI. REI, however, provides incredible benefits. Plus, they're a hell of a lot smaller, profit wise, than wal-mart. we just broke the billion dollar barrier in sales)

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Question. Always Question." . . .and some nights I just pray to the god of sex and drugs and rock'n'roll"--meatloafWant to help give back to the world community? Did you know that your computer can help? Join the newest TeamEvC Climate Modelling to help improve climate predictions for a better tomorrow.