When I complained about the tone of the Sean Hannity show a couple of weeks ago Frank Staheli pointed me towards the Neal Boortz show broadcast on Freedom 570. Over the last couple of weeks I have been listening to the station. I have heard many of the shows as I have listened at various times and found that I was really enjoying the tone of the shows being broadcast – it was an essentially civil island in the midst of the ocean of conservative talk radio. Neal Boortz is not my favorite of their shows, but his tone was so much nicer than Hannity.
Today I discovered a mud puddle in the midst of the Freedom 570 lineup. I drove home earlier than usual today and heard the Todd Schnitt show for the first time which had more of a Hannity tone. While it may not be fully representative of the show I was disappointed to hear Schnitt’s coverage of the apparent uproar over a picture of Meghan McCain that got posted on the internet (by Meghan apparently). Schnitt had to take the time to rave about Meghan’s physique and insist that the picture get a more prominent place on his website.
I have not seen the picture, but I have enough information from what I head from Schnitt before turning the show off to comment on the situation. Schnitt has demonstrated his immaturity and lack of class by the types of comments he felt compelled to make. Meghan has shown her naivety by even posting the image and acting as if the uproar was not predictable. Apparently some have called her a slut – without even going to see the picture I think it’s safe to say that she was just plain foolish. The only good that came out of it is that I now know to pass on opportunities to listen to Schnitt.
Most of the ‘conservative’ radio pols are simply taking the tactics that have been employed by the progressives over the past 150 years and turning them around. The basic premise is us vs. them. This enemy-centric approach necessarily invites and revolves around negatives, caricatures, exaggeration, and logical fallacies. The approach also requires a level of entertainment to achieve ratings.
It’s OK. These factors have been employed by various players in free speech for a long time. But I find myself mostly turned off by talk radio shows. Although I may portray a different image online, I’m just not that into contention.
I’ve never seen you portray that image online. I’m sure I portray that image online at times, but the contention devoid of rational information is what I have disliked about most talk radio. Even on Freedom 570 there is some of that, but it’s not nearly as rampant as I have seen on programs with wider audiences.