talk radio for the kids
Conor revisits the talk-radio conundrum at his new Atlantic digs. I was thinking about this the other day actually. (surprise!) I sometimes try to watch a bit of Hannity or listen to some Limbaugh just to stay up to snuff on the latest talking points. I usually only last a few minutes. But what strikes me about these guys is how family-friendly they are. Or rather how not family friendly they are.
Isn’t there just a little irony in that? Aren’t these guys supposed to be representing the generic “family values” coalition to some degree? And yet, the things they say – not just the way they say them – but just the gross dishonesty and disengenousness of it all as well as they really over the top, at times racist or even marginally violent things they say…is that really family friendly? Would you want your kids to listen to Mark Levin tell a woman that her husband should blow her brains out?
I’m not saying that conservatives should necessarily be obliged to represent the family values people, but if they do, or if they say they do, then they should at least try. But what I think keeps them from this is that family friendly tv and radio just doesn’t pay the bills. So they have to be sort of racist and outrageous and over the top because that’s what keeps ratings high. And it’s odd to me that so many people who are ostensibly worried about family values can listen to these guys. Such disconnect. I don’t get it.
“Family Friendly” allows for compartmentalization.
There’s stuff you say in front of the children.
There’s stuff you say in front of the women.
There’s stuff you say in front of the women and children.
And there’s stuff you say when you know they are not around.
This is not hypocrisy… anymore than my saying “awesome!” in front of you and your wife and child is hypocrisy (when, if it were just you, I’d say “f’k’n awesome!!!”).
The fact that babies cannot eat steak does not make men eating steak hypocrisy.Report
Yes but are these radio shows on for the adults only? Are they late night shows? Or are they daytime shows you put on while the kids are at home? Or riding in the back seat?Report
Security through obscurity works. When I was a kid, I was usually at school when Rush would have been on. In the Summertime, I normally would have been outside… and Rush would have come across as merely one of those boring adults talking and I would have gone outside again… by the time I was old enough to pay attention, I was old enough to listen.Report
Just curious, because I listen to Limbaugh, Beck and Hannity while driving around town, when any one of them is on, but I’ve never heard anything racist from any of them. As a matter of fact, I hear them leaning over backwards to distance themselves from racism — probably because they know they would be burnt at the stakes if they didn’t make themselves clear. Can you give me an example of racism? You make the claim with such certainty, you must have a couple of examples I’ve missed.Report
What was that song that Limbaugh wrote about Obama? And all this finger-pointing about Sotomayor? Isn’t the whole flip-flopping of racialism just a tad…I dunno…racist? Are they out-and-out racists? I don’t think so. But do they play it to their advantage? Yeah.Report
It was Barack the Magic Negro. The brilliance of that was the stupidity of Rushbo. A magic negro is a black guy in the movies who comes in and fixes a bunch of white people’s messes.
Like this couple that got married at my church who had for the final song: You are My Sunshine/My Only Sunshine.
Which if you only listen to the refrain sounds like a great love song. Until you listen to the verses and know what the song is about–the woman has left the guy, he’s depressed laying in bed. It’s just about the saddest love destroyed song ever–and here they are singing at their wedding. Classic.Report
E.D.
Between talk radio and Fox and a few print outlets and some blog sites, well, that’s it for conservatism.
“You people” have perky Katie, NBC, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, all the major newspapers, Hollywood, NYC and all the major cities, and the LOOG!
Gee wilikers, ya want it all?
My goodness, we even lost Buckley!Report
See, Buckley was a loss. But that doesn’t make Limbaugh a gain.Report
I’m not sure what to call it, but what the hell is “halfrican” or wahtever the hell limb called O?Report
Yeah bob, i guess we killed buckley.Report
I thought he died from old age and lonliness? I once exchanged a couple of letters with “Bill.” He truly was a gentleman and very considerate of others. Just like me.Report
Besides thinking that the MSM as embodied by CNN et al is working in some sense for “you people” as in apparently me and the other OG’s is just preposterous. I’m a limited govt. fan but more so an anti-corporatist and those stations and news outlets are all shills for the corporate/government hegemon.Report
dude, I’m getting a wiff of paranoia here! Also, we need a post on the firing of that Walkins, Watkins, whatever, dude that His Excellency fired at the IG office.Report
Oh I’m being over the top on purpose. But yes, I think there are perfectly legal and legitimate ways that corporations and the state can work together and in so doing destroy all the finer things in life. The news organizations are hardly trustworthy half the time.Report
I thought the “Barack” song came from a title in the LA Times — that’s what was being satirized. I think it was the LA Times that got the allusion mixed up — I might be wrong.Report
I’m not defending anyone, just trying to be objective — and I’ve never thought of any of them as being racist, despite what other criticisms could be leveled.Report
“Racist” is too strong, I think. But I think they use race to their own personal advantage – being edgy, gaining ratings – over the larger conservative cause. That’s my point about all of them honestly. They strike me as being wholly in it for themselves – very unlike WFB.Report
I don’t’ think racist describes a lot of what they say, although a lot of the discussion about immigration is pretty thinly disguised racism. But the sense of whites being oppressed and suffering suggests some “interesting” beliefs.Report
Does anybody like Glenn Beck? One thing about the talk radio people, almost all of them have a sense of humor. Have you noticed that liberals don’t seem to have one. Why is that?Report
Oh yeah, Beck is way funnier than Stephen Colbert or Jon Stewart.
Sorry, but Beck is laughable which is simply not the same thing as funny….
Then again there’s no accounting for taste, which is why assuming that “liberals” aren’t funny but “conservatives” are is just a bit silly….and the opposite would be just as true. Those libertarians Penn & Teller and the South Park boys are pretty damn funny.Report
But what strikes me about these guys is how family-friendly they are. Or rather how not family friendly they are.
Agreed. I used to turn on Limbaugh, Hannity or Levin every once in a while while driving to see what they were saying, but when I’m in the car these days, my almost three-year-old son is usually with me, and there’s no way I want him to hear some of the things the hosts, particularly Levin, say on those programs.Report
Bob- I have a great sense of humor. Jon Stewart and Colbert are hilarious. But really does calling people traitor, saying they are un-American, want American soldiers to die or that people should shoot themselves count as humor? Maybe it does, but that sounds more like a lame excuse to me. Beck is hilarious although not intentionally.Report
g.
there’s a certain tension here at LOOG, “you people” need to relax, take a breathe, after all you won the election. Say, how’s that Obama thing workin’ out for ya?Report
Its working a hell of lot better then if mccain had won.
FYI If you are part of group that has been historically marginalized or persecuted (jews in my case) “you people” does not have a relaxing tone. It comes off as a way of saying (insert racial epithet here) without coming out and saying it.
But really I have never met a conservative who is just fine and peachy with being repeatedly called a traitor and that they hate America. I have tried that with a few and their “it’s just a joke” tone disappeared real fast. People are free to say what ever they want, but how would you like to hear that for years?Report
g,
Peace bro, you’re assuming way too much. And, help me out here. You were called a ‘traitor?’ Why? By who?Report
Actually, I’ve heard libertarians are crazy, naive, dishonest, utopian, and total losers for many years. I think it’s funny. I learned my self esteem lessons in the 80s. I’m ok.Report
oh please, those things have been said numerous times in the con media over the last years. Ann coulter any one? Yes mike my self esteem is fine. so you agree that over the top name calling is childish and our country deserves better.Report
Good point about the family “unfriendliness” of conservative talk radio. Remember earlier this year when Rush made his “I hope he fails” comment, he followed it up with some remark about how the MSM wants conservatives to concur with the president’s agenda, phrasing it something like “they want us to bend over take take it in the backside.” I could totally understand why Rush would say “I hope he fails” to Obama’s program–he’s a committed conservative and regards Obama as a dangerous liberal–but why the need to compare politics to, well, butt rape? Why the vulgarity?Report