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Blog Entry 179 of 204 The Subversive Liberal
"If by a "liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties — someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "liberal." – President John F. Kennedy...................... Some people find me and that sentiment subversive. I'm here to set the record straight and offer the real typical liberal point of view. Some call it subversive, I call it patriotic.

Blog Url: http://denver.yourhub.com/~BingVanGorden

Left of the dial
Contributed by: Bing Van Gorden   on 7/24/2008

When progressive talk radio started, no one really gave it a shot. A lot of predictions were given, a lot of false reporting and a lot of mistakes were made. But compared to the career of the standard bearer of talk radio, Rush Limbaugh's, most of the shows have done quite well. Having virtually 0% of the market share within a couple of years they now have about 10% of it. On their TV and radio conservatives have demeaned and predicted the demise of it continuously, media monopolies have less owners and much easier manipulation of the marketplace, and the odds of a new format working at all.

The first hurdle surely hurt investment and didn't help public opinion. The second can be illustrated in the several examples of buy outs of smaller radio stations that dared broadcast liberal talk. In Utah, in Chicago, in New York, and in smaller markets stations were purchased and the format dropped. Few people know this but when Sean Hannity is aired in a market, those stations have to air immediately after Rush Limbaugh, to get his listeners, and other shows offered by FoxNews radio networks must also be aired. That's hardly a fair market place.

Despite the odds, many shows have them beat. Randi Rhodes, on live at 1PM on AM760 has been a liberal radio pioneer, broadcasting locally in West Palm Beach for years before going national. On the same station that has Rush Limbaugh, who also broadcasts out of West Palm. Randi carried AirAmerica on her back, being the only real radio host with any meaningful experience on the network when it first began a few years back. You might remember, she made some rather lewd comments about Hillary Clinton a few months back and was effectively forced to resign. She made radio history. Within the next week and a half she was back on the air in most of the same affiliates she was on when she was working for AirAmerica with a new broadcast partner, NovaM. She moved back to West Palm Beach, and stills goes on right after Rush on the station she broadcasts from. And she kicks his a$$. One might be put off by her style and her mood swings, but she has her facts straight. She does a tremendous amount of research and despite providing a lot of that ifno on her web site she always encourages her listeners to check things out for themselves and to not trust her or any other talk radio host.

Another host out of Fargo, the meat eating, gun toting lefty from the heartland, Ed Schultz took a different path. A former broadcaster in sports and a little conservative talk, he was made an offer he couldn't refuse. A group of Democrats agreed to fund his show and got him on a couple of stations. In short order he was successful enough on his own to pay his backers back. His show was picked up by the jones Radio Network and the former initial investors of none other than Rush himself. Ed is the coolest, and if markets really did provide the best product he's be bigger than Rush. He has conservative callers and guests on all the time. Richard Vigory, a conservative legend comes on every couple of months to politely disagree for example. But that's not all. He isn't afraid to rankle the "liberal establishment" either. He will address criticism if he is deemed too soft on a guest or caller not liberal enough for some with his refrain "this is where America comes to talk." He means it. If you honestly enjoy a show with a dialogue between the left and the right with a fair amount of respect, this is your show. Make no mistake, he will go after conservative's and some he treats with more respect than others, but if you call his show, he'll give you a shot to make your case.

Locally, Jay Marvin in the morning on AM760 from 6-10 is on just before Ed. If you aren't familiar with the name, he's bounced around from town to town, packing and unpacking, up and down the dial for decades. Admittedly, usually the lefty the punching bag for a right wing host with a right wing audience. The Colmes to another's Hannity, if you will. Over the few years I've listened to him, I've heard an angry guy turn into a more empathetic and fair host. Instead of calling certain callers "brain stems" when he strongly disagrees, he tries to hear them and to be heard by them too. He used to be part of the old World Wrestling Federation as a ring announcer, and spun country music records back in the day. Another host, who will try to treat you fairly, even if you disagree. And another host, not afraid to beat back criticism from the lefties who want someone to tear people a new you know what.

Thom Hartmann is broadcast at 7PM on 760 on a delay. Probably one of the smartest men on the planet today. He's written books on ADD to economics, our founding fathers and a tome on the JFK assassination that concludes the mob probably did it that was made into a special on the History channel. He has a conservative guest on pretty much every day to debate. From the Cato Institute to the Ayn Rand Institute. He'll interview authors like Jonah Goldberg who wrote a book on "Liberal Fascism." Of course they disagree. But it is always respectful and he leads his callers after words to not attack the guest but stick to facts. This guy raises the level of discourse to the nth degree. Though he does have a kind of out there theory about pigeons really being alien robots sent to spy on us. When you hear him tell it, it makes so much sense. Of course, he is kidding. Or is he?

I'm asking anyone out there that hasn't checked out progressive radio to give it a shot. Even if you don't dig talk radio in general. It's not the same as the right side of the dial and it ain't NPR either.


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Showing 1-10 of 44 comments
Submitted By: Bing Van Gorden
posted on 8/4/2008 @ 1:31:33 PM
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I explained quite clearly. Now that people want cheaper gas, the Republicans want to interfere with the markets. There is available leases for drilling right now, so drill already. I get it just fine, you apparenty don't. No I don't like to argue for arguments sake but I see you are pretty good at repeating yourself, just not so adept at listening. I have no idea where you got I confused the Senate and the House of Representatives. I'm well aware of how our gvmnt works, I'm a student of our history and caryy a copy of the Constitution in my bag with me wherever I go. Don't talk down to me pal. You're the one acting rather immature.
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Submitted By: David Brown
posted on 8/1/2008 @ 10:43:54 PM
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Psst. The Senate and the House are two separate things. The liberal (4 or 5 of them) republican senators can't tell the House Minority Leader anything. The only person Boehner has to deal with is Pelosi, who threw them out of the House today. I know you know all of this. I think you like to argue just for argument's sake. I was like that when I was 17.
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Submitted By: David Brown
posted on 8/1/2008 @ 10:37:13 PM
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Dang Bing! You have got to be the most economically inept person I've ever exchanged views with, with all due respect. "The Republicans want to 'interfere' with the markets?"" WHAT?? Where on God's green earth does that come from - it's the most absurd thing I've ever heard! Just admit it, will you? You hate all things oil and your crackpot "news" sources have influenced you beyond repair. You're hopeless. Listen, the right is willing to develop your green energy methods and all we're asking is that we drill to lower the price of oil while we develop those methods. THAT IS NOT TOO MUCH TO ASK!! If you knew anything at all about the futures markets, you’d know that traders trade based on the FUTURE. Announcing TODAY that we’ll drill in the FUTURE will influence prices today! Get it? (No – you’ll never get it.)
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Submitted By: Bing Van Gorden
posted on 8/1/2008 @ 11:37:00 AM
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The game has changed because the oil industry was succesful in making it's product the only game in town. They have a monopoly, they game the system and as a result we are slaves to them. You may remember Cheny's secret energy meetings that were with the oil industry. This mess was all the Republicans doing and now that people are feeling it, they want to blame the Democrats who have been stymied by veto threats and filbusters by the Republicans. The Dems want to tax big oil to relive someof this stress, but Republicans won't let them. They believe if we just give oil copanies more, everything will work out magically. I find it amusig that Boehner complains he wants an up or down vote when his pals in the Senate have prvented that again and again.
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Submitted By: Bing Van Gorden
posted on 8/1/2008 @ 11:32:02 AM
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The lobbyist 1st Amendment thing is an error. The Supreme Court decided money was speech. Correcting this ridiculous idea that violates the equal protection clause would solve the wealthy influence in DC. Poor people should have as loud a voice as the wealthy. Money should not equal speech, just like orporations shouldn't be considered persons. I don't rust Boehner one bit and I don't believe him on thi Bill. The guy actually has a page on his website with Glenn Beck. That's not going to win any converts. I also am skeptical of this because he offers very little info about it on his website. It reeks of smoke and mirrors. I do see however he has plenty of room to blame Democrats for high gas prices. As I said before, I find it ironic that Republicans now want the goverment to interfere with the markets when it suits them politically.
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Submitted By: David Brown
posted on 7/31/2008 @ 3:49:39 PM
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You wrote: "They have lobbied against alternative energy research and been succesful at both killing and writing legislation." That was in a different time. The game has changed completely now. I asked you once if you supported Boehner's "All of the Above" bill and you didn't answer. By that I mean lets do it all. Can we do that?
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Submitted By: David Brown
posted on 7/31/2008 @ 3:48:06 PM
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You said, "Can we agree our government is too influenced by corporations and the wealthy? And can we agree the government provides welfare for entire industries liek the recent bail outs of Fannie Mae and Freedie Mac as well as the Savings and loans?" Yes and Yes although I would take "the wealthy out of this quote. I'd like to get rid of lobbyists completely but we have this 1st Ammendment thing - sort of gets in the way of that. So we're stuck with them. But Congress didn't have to bail out Freddie and Fannie! (That's a separate topic.)
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Submitted By: Bing Van Gorden
posted on 7/31/2008 @ 8:54:22 AM
(Not Rated)
One last thing, there is a long history of big oil guiding markets away from alternatives to their product. Big oil has succesfully beat back cafe standards for better milage in cars for example. They killed the electric car becuase it would cut into profits. They have lobbied against alternative energy research and been succesful at both killing and writing legislation. These actions denied other entrepenuers, other technologies from being developed etc. And one only has to ask did we as a country benefit or did this industry?
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Submitted By: Bing Van Gorden
posted on 7/31/2008 @ 8:51:38 AM
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You say corporate interests more times than not is in your interests. I'm not saying everything corporations do is bad. Our founding fathers would be called socialists by today's tandards because they feared tyranny from the wealthy and corporations. Can we agree our government is too influenced by corporations and the wealthy? And can we agree the government provides welfare for entire industries liek the recent bail outs of Fannie Mae and Freedie Mac as well as the Savings and loans? It seems when we relax regulations, industries get drunk, spend too much and need to be saved by the tax payer.
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Submitted By: Bing Van Gorden
posted on 7/31/2008 @ 8:45:57 AM
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Yes, I want the oil companies to sacrifice something for the country in which they reep record profits. Yes I would work for free for my country and volunteer work certainly applies. We can talk about the need for wefare programs another time however.
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Showing 1-10 of 44 comments
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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Bing Van Gorden

Longmont , CO

Bing Van Gorden has posted 204 blog entries and 979 comments since joining on 3/28/2007. Bing Van Gorden 's average blog rating is 3.5.
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