Tough Times in Liberal Media

Well, everybody deserves a voice, but the market seems to be telling VP Al Gore and SNL Host Al Franken that, just maybe, CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, PBS, NPR, PRI, and most of the major dailies are enough.

Air America is involved in a funding kerfuffle with non-profits while ratings disappoint. (Maybe they should have given the Bronx Boys & Girls Club a network instead.)

VP Gore's "Current TV" network invites the cool kids to supply their own programming. I'm sure he didn't expect great reviews from the WSJ Ed Page, but you've got to admit there's some verisimilitude in this:

The stated premise of Current TV, the new channel co-founded by Al Gore, is that today's youth feel shut out by traditional media and yearn to be seen and heard on a station of their own. If its first few days on the air are a guide, however, Current TV has not yet discovered the magic recipe for sucking in the coveted 18-34 age group. Any adults who were worried that Mr. Gore and his Democratic partners might use their investment to indoctrinate and arm a generation can probably rest easy for now. Newsless, often clueless and usually dull, the new channel is a limp noodle.
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The content pods, also repeated ad nauseam like CNN items on a foreign hotel-room TV, are thin stuff. Many offer little more than brief action shots of guys doing guy things like base jumping and skateboarding. Some simply showcase "hotties" like the L.A. model who crows: "Apparently, I have the perfect black butt." And then there's visiting "Mentor" Deepak Chopra, dispensing such gems as: "The best way to find out who you are is to ask yourself, 'Who am I?'"
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Mr. Gore is said to be actively involved in programming decisions. With luck, he may figure out before it's too late that just because you call something "cool" doesn't make it so.

I certainly don't care for most of the right-wing talk radio, but admit that they have found a market and succeed with ratings and revenues.

Lefties have a tilt in all the media I listed above, and very strong Internet presences for partisan sites like Daily Kos (the biggest blog ion the web), democraticunderground, huffingstuff, and dare I include Slate.

I have watched their attempts to clone Rush Limbaugh with amusement. It's good to watch them waste their money (not Boys & Girls Clubs' money) on harmless things.

Media and Blogging Posted by jk at August 5, 2005 10:58 AM