(no subject)

[jfb]

I removed the right-wing talk radio preset from my car radio yesterday. I guess that experiment is over.

Comments

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

Aaaaaah! I would never have the perseverance to try that experiment.

[jfb.livejournal.com]

Yeah. After the events of September 11, 2001, two things led me to it:

1. I was, frankly, scared of what might happen next, and I was constantly scanning the airwaves for new information. Talk radio made up for the lack of new information by spreading rumor and innuendo, or, more generously, dispersing information before it had proven to be true.

2. It was pretty clear that the political right was spoiling for both war and the abridgement of civil liberties, and I wanted to know what they were up to.

I'm not sure I can articulate any of what I learned.

What finally made me give up was talk radio's blithe support of Trent Lott. When conservatives in other media were making cogent arguments that Lott was, at worst, a racist and a liar, and at best, too problematic a figure to lead the party, every talk radio host on my local station just parroted a party line, mostly "Some Democrats are racist too!" which seemed like about the weakest defense one could have come up with.

In the end, it's not that they were offensive or wrong; they just weren't saying anything interesting.