hate speech vs. political speech
 

Last week Tom Daschle was all over the news talking about conservative news media and how unfair and potentially dangerous they are. His major point was that talk radio and Fox News bring out negative emotions in people and that threats increase for elected officials because of them.

I'm a conservative and I don't think he has a leg to stand on. Does anyone support Dashle's view? With or without citing examples, can you explain why you believe he's correct or why he's not?

Speaking as a liberal, I think he's being a fucking whiny baby. Daschle irritates me...he's too much of a weenie.

For the most part, television and print lean liberal with some notable exceptions (The Washington Times, Fox News Channel). I don't watch Fox News for the most part, but they're free to lean whichever way they wish. (I personally prefer MSNBC, as it seems to be the most balanced of the 3 cable news networks. Every now and then, conservatives like Pat Buchanan and Curtis Sliwa say things that I actually agree with.)

I don't think that the conservative media (and this includes folks like Rush and Bill O'Reilly) are particularly dangerous. From what I've seen though, conservative media seems to spur more "crazies." But I blame that on the individual, not the media.

Speaking as the Local Expert on "Crazy" ...
 

The severely mentally ill folks I deal with tend to be more from the liberal end of the political spectrum, actually ...

I'm not referring to the affiliation of the crazies...just the effect that conservative media seems to have on them.

Recently , that seems to be true. It must be the "subliminal messages" they send. :)

I agree with you on the MSNBC choice. A month or so back, I was watching an interview/debate between Chuck Schumer and Wayne LaPierre. This was a sniper inspired gun control debate. I think it was CNN, but I'm not sure. It was so blatantly biased , I just stopped watching. The host let Schumer have so much more time it might as well have been called the "Chuck Schumer show".

I don't own and rarely watch TV. I do see that MSNBC has a good selection of video clips I can watch on the puter. They are much more balanced than CNN in my opinion and they have more video clips. The shows seem to give equal time for debates and interviews, at least a lot more than many others.

Re: Speaking as the Local Expert on "Crazy" ...
 

That's only because of the demographic. Go to an Arkansas <a href="http://us.f1.yahoofs.com/users/21b7c626/bc/statehospital.wav?BCmdv59AIIsxnCEj"> State hosptial</a> and I think that would change.

Slang, "crazies" may be a poor word choice on my part. Let's try "easily gullible and upset." :)

I've always been a fan of MSNBC, but even moreso since the summer. My particular fave is Curtis & Kuby, although I'm not sure if they're even on anymore. Nevertheless, WABC-AM in New York is streaming some of their programming live again...and they're on from 5-10am. I'll definitely be tuning in Monday.

"easily gullible and upset and well armed"



<center>:rattat:</center>

Not the liberal types though...remember, most of them don't like guns.

He's right, nearly all talk radio is conservative. The only exception is Neal Boortz. Whether that's bad or not is really just a matter of opinion.

I don't deny that for a minute. I have talk radio playing in the background most of the day. Some of the shows are more conservative than others.

I think that Mitch Albom and Jim Bohannon are more middle of the road. Both of these guys are neutral on abortion and in favor of more gun control.

Bill O'Reilly is not a conservative in my opinion. He draws an audience from both political poles. He believes in more environmental protections, kicks Bush's ass on his not controlling the borders, regularly chews Ashcroft a new one, but at the same time thrashes Jesse Jackson. I love his radio show, but he's not really conservative on many traditional issues. Fox News is considered right, but I dont think Bill is, he's middle. I respect his opinion.

Boortz has a radio show but I never hear it. His audience must be pretty small relatively speaking.


If there was a liberal show on, I'd go out of my way to listen to it. There just doesn't seem to be one on radio.

Oh, that's easy to explain!

Those crazy freedom fighters can't get to newspapers very easily when they're out in the middle of East Bumfuck. And you pretty much need electricity to run a TV (the battery-powered ones can drain quickly).

But a couple of AA's in a small AM radio will last you for a while...they'll only need to make a trip into town once a week.

Hope that clears things up for everyone! ;)

<IMG src ="http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/tsmileys/9.gif">

Do you know the "secret handshake" too?

There's a lot of truth to that but let me add:

Old cars didn't have FM for the longest time, and since we only drive cars worth about $500, they're old and from the pre FM era.

We're too busy working to watch a lot of TV! (myself excluded) We need to work extra hours to buy a vehicle that doesn't have plants growing out of the back seat, or have a PTO (power take off for hydraulic and mechanical connections , such as a manure spreader would require)

Slang, you forgot the Confederate flag bumper sticker and the 8-track player with staples such as Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers Band. For the younger folks, the tape deck with classics such as Ratt and Winger.

actually....now that you bring it up, I have spent much more time

<LI>piss drunk</LI>
<LI>riding in a 4 x 4</LI>
<LI>with little if any exhaust system</LI>
<LI>traveling way too fast</L1>
<LI>down curvey Pa backroads</LI>
<LI>with rifles clunking me in the head from the rack</LI>
<LI>between the hours of midnight and 4am</LI>
<LI>spot lighting deer</LI>

while listening to<a href="http://us.f1.yahoofs.com/users/21b7c626/bc/ccr[1].wav?BC2Vw59ACy.V8TZp"> this classic tune.</a>

But, that was back in the "bad ol'days". They say, ya gotta get it out of your system. I'm glad it's out.