Who's Sorry Now?
Bloggers are going back and forth on Drudge's comments about Air America and CTG "failing" the ratings wars. Whatever. Little Green Footballs vs Daily Kos.
Could it be news fatigue? The news cycles are SO short today...less than 2 weeks. Remember the frenzy over the Dubai Ports? Poof! All gone. The CIA leaks? Poof! All gone. Immigration? May 1 will come and go and we'll see.
Everybody on both sides gets emotional...the bloggers get all worked up, the talk show guys get all worked up, the average listerner/reader gets all worked up....for what? Blink and it's over. No satisfaction in "winning" or "losing" an issue because it isn't around long enough.
As an independent observer we want to take a step back and realize that news and entertainment have blended and blurred the lines.
We do believe the rightie talk shows have "legs", as they say here in Hollywood, because they realize that it's all about entertainment. The big daddy here, Rush, will tell you so. He's very clear on the fact that he's an entertainer first and a political activist second. Yeah, the politicians are happy to use him as a channel and he's willing to pass through their message, but he claims he's an entertainer. On the other hand, the rightie blogs stink, for the most part. That's because they're preachy, which equals boring.
Do the libs view themselves as entertainers? Not in our opinion. They see themselves as "bearers of truth". Borrrrring. Okay, we need to hear truth, etc., but these guys need some marketing help! We've tried to listen. Stephanie Miller is pretty good - kind of a balance to Laura Ingraham (who is also borrrrring because she's so smarmy about being 'right'). We like Ed Schultz - he's pretty easy to listen to, "entertaining" and passionate about his beliefs as a lib. The lib blogs are great. Passionate, funny, irreverent. We love Wonkette, CrooksandLiars.
Let's see what happens as the 2006 elections come around. We predict the lib bloggers will make terrific traction, which should be fun to watch. They could even give the rightie talkers a run for their money!
