Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for August 06, 2010

Or left-wing / so called liberal talk radio, for that matter.

Yeah, turns out that the average liberal isn’t interested in being pandered to by yammering clowns, so Air America went kaput.

GEE1A: Isn’t NPR still on the air?

On another note, I think BP should have hired Baghdad Bob instead of Duke.

A tried and true way to deal with dirtbags, that’s for sure. ;-7

AKHenderson, PLEASE! NPR? NPR actually reports news. And their commentary comes from both angles, is never disrespectful - and is often far more conservative than a lot of their listeners would like. I listen to both and if you can’t tell the difference in quality, you have certainly drunk the Kool-Aid.

when i drive in the excited states i tend to listen to NPR above any other type of radio. at least they play classical music.

Who pays the bills?

Except for NPR most stations are there for the sole purpose of making a buck, not spreading a message. Rush is a paid entertainer (?). He’d be selling Kool Aid if it paid more. This is commercial radio. They sell soap suds, not ideas. It’s the bottom line that matters, not if it’s right or left. NPR on the other hand eases the consciousness of liberals who hate to admit they have done alright by themselves in a capitalist society.Send $100 to public radio and go buy a new German car.

justice 22: or is it just us 22. cdward is correct. rumor has it 25% is paid by the taxpayer. if you are trying to say they are 100% taxpayer you are sadly mistaken. and using your formula, with npr getting 25% from the taxpayer, npr should have a right leaning comment or commentator only 25 % of the time…

@Lewreader: Surely, you mean, “conscience?” If I ever “eased my consciousness,” I’d be a vegetable. ;-)

@Lewreader: I listen to NPR but I can’t afford to send in a hundred bucks until I get my Ford Focus compact paid off. What I have also found interesting is that once in a while NPR runs a story and the conservative side of the story has flatly refused to participate in spite of being invited to offer their side of the issue. Does this mean the story should not be covered? If it is an important topic, it should be covered and if one side chooses to not address it, that is their choice.

Most of the time I find NPR tries to present both sides of an issue (if it is an “issue” sort of story). I admit that once in a while I hear a reporter use a word or phrasing that may carry some implicit slant but not often. Most other news outlets range from a minor bit of slant to the full-press advocacy of one position.

I also applaud WildCard for catching your semi-homonym error. My brain automatically corrected it to the word you intended rather than what you wrote.

Right wingers are too dumb to tire of the pandering.

Today’s squabble over radio talk-shows (“Does he or doesn’t he?”) lowers the political discussion here to Duke’s level. We need to hear what Neolib (i.e. any Bush-hater) thinks of these partisan audiences. Pirate227’s comment expresses Neolib’s arrogant contempt, but it lacks her usual cocoon of rationalizations.

Or maybe Neolib will just ignore the shows and walk away from them, like Toggle

Billdog, I would agree w/ Lew that Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer. His overwhelming desire is to get your attention—like a two-year-old. Indeed, if I think back to the times I have listened to his show, his mental level approximates that of a two-year-old: simplistic, black-&-white, misinformed, gullible, highly emotional, self-centered, & lacking reason. I don’t know of anyone who takes him seriously, and I am constantly surprised when Republicans or others in the media take him seriously. That Newt Gingrich called him an honorary member of the House shows how little one should attend to Gingrich & how easily he will insult the House.

That the mainstream media—of which Limbaugh is certainly part–lean rightward is patent: one piece of evidence is the rampant prevalence of mini-Limbaughs on the radio, both nationwide & local: all of them parroting talking points fed them by the Republican Party & those to its right, the Tea Bag folk & so on, and all of them using distortion & emotion over facts, evidence, & reason.

Studies have shown that the more one attends to the mainstream media—with few exceptions, N.P.R. being one—the more misinformed one becomes. It’s no wonder that Toggle is tired.

I think “Toggle” works for a recording studio and not a talk show. He was “canning” some of Duke’s commentary for BP. Duke certainly won’t pay for material unrecorded so the studio loses money.

I am an Minnesota Public Radio sustaining member. $15/month.

Recently, NPR, after reporting on some action by the Democrat controlled Congress will air comment(s) by the Republican opposition. For me, many of these comments are inane or outright lies. Most of time NPR simply airs them with no commentary. Many times they do not air a Democrat response. The fact that NPR does not comment on these Republican pronouncements indicates that they are at least neutral if not right leaning some of the time.

Here is how NPR is funded

32.1% from listeners in the form of pledges, memberships, and other donations

21.1% from businesses via corporate underwriting

10.1% from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which is federally funded

13.6% from licensee support (including colleges and universities)

9.6% from foundations and major gifts

5.8% from federal, state, and local governments

7.6% from all other sources.

C’mon, Mike. Stop holding back. Tell us how you really feel.

:D

Gee, Mike, I sense a bit of hostility in your posting. As for changing anyone’s way of thinking, you’ll not do it here. This is just a medium for venting your frustrations or angering your antagonists. Occasionally a word of wisdom spews forth.

Where could I get an erotic pic of Palin? Would be better than the nightmares I have of Limbaugh.

I have just a minute, Billdog, for a quick response: I think that Lew is sincere in his assertions that he does not listen to Rush Limbaugh and that he considers him an entertainer and in no way a credible source of facts or opinion. Limbaugh portrays himself as unimportant when it suits his purposes. He shuttles between over-estimating & under-estimating his influence, which is truly fairly small, because most of those who believe him do not find their way to the polls. The under-estimates, however, are part of the campaign that he & those who listen to him are part of a victimized minority. It is part & parcel of the contention that the mainstream media comprise a left-wing machine, when all the evidence shows something of the opposite. If Limbaugh did not portray himself as a victim, then he would need to take responsibility for his words and he would not have anything against which to rail.

Okay gotta go: photocopy & teaching demand my attention. Thanks, Poohbear, for the facts.

Good day, all.

Neoconthing,

Neolib is not a real word.

Neo-liberalism is an economic theory which:

controls most of the world’s economies &

advocates screwing everybody but uber-wealthy.

You may do a Google search on your own time.

Reply to SuperGriz:

I provided a definition of “neoliberalism” on this site eight days ago (on 7/29). I also explained that “Neolib” is not a concept but my generic name for anyone on the site whose insights are enslaved to a blind hatred of Bush and his policies. Neolib cannot imagine, for example, why anyone might have voted for Bush’s policies in 2004 as well as for Obama’s in 2008. And yet that is exactly what a majority of voters did in both elections. (See my avatar)

Sorry, Neocon, but you can hardly claim that it was the same 59 million who voted for Bush-Dick in 2004 & for Barack Obama in 2008. The vast majority of Obama’s voters were part of that 55.5 million who voted for Kerry in 2004. In addition, Obama received millions of votes from people who hadn’t voted in 2004.

BILLDOG I don’t know what you expect for an answer. Would you rather that I say “comedian” than entertainer. You you believe that anyone who is right of the center would believe his words.Because I believe the Great Society started this country in the wrong direction doesn’t mean I believe in prison and work-houses. Did you burn down the ROTC building to protest the war? I didn’t think so.So guess what, this man who will vote in the Republican Primary Tuesday doesn’t believe in stoning unwed mothers. I’m not scared of moderates left or right. Are you? Or do you believe in one party?

WILDCARD Thanks for catching my typo. Or was it?

Lewreader, actually it was FDR & his ugly spouse that started it all with the New Deal. Lame Brain Johnson just rekindled the fire & the fed it to gargantuan proportions, with the backing from teddy(don’t allow your daughter to ride with him)kennedy. bobby kennedy aided this, until he took one in the head. BTW, FDR & LBJ have the distinction of having been married to the uglist women, ever to inhabit the WH.

OK, how about this: People who listen to Rush, Sean, et al; lack the ability to entertain themselves by reading anything more serious than a comic book. Since they are unable to entertain themselves, they turn to radio. Those who would be prone to listen to Air America have retained the ability to read and thus don’t really need to listen to talk radio.