The New Road

Radio contrast

On my morning commute I switch between 960AM Air America, 560AM Hot Talk KSFO, and 910AM Crackpot Nonsense. 960 is left wing. 560 is ridiculously right freeper radio, and 910 is right, but not insano (until Michael Savage gets on in the afternoon).

The big contrast is between 960 and 560. On 960 they do get a little derogatory on the president and his close cabinet. Usually in the form of adjectives like ignorant, incomeptent, lots of talk of incompetence. 560 on the other hand, goes for the name calling. They have names for everyone. One commentator this morning even lamented that she had gone to the bucket and run dry of names to call Michael Moore (what a shame). And then they go into hate speech, like this classic from Lee Rodgers two days ago:

"Somebody should take him in an alley and stomp on his nuts"

In regards to one TV political talk show guest who called John O'Neill a liar. Seriously. Think about that one. He said that on the radio. Can you even say that in your office? Can you get up right now and say that out loud? It's not only obscene, it exhorts extreme violence.

The contrast is really frightening. The liberal radio hosts tend to talk about issues and occasionally get nasty. The conservative radio hosts spend a couple of seconds on facts and then immediately get into name calling and hate speech.

I'm confused by the dichotomy. On the one hand you have a party that is supposed to stand for what's best in America, god, home, family, values, and respect. And on the other hand you have the proponents of that philosophy using name calling and hate speech on a routine basis. And it's not just the morning crew, it's Limbaugh, it's Hannity, it's Novak, it's Coulter, it's the whole chain. They all do it. The best and the brightest of the conservative camp use name calling and hate speech as their primary method of communicating their principles and ideals.

These adults use words and phrases we teach our kids not to use in order to swing us to vote for the supposedly pro-family values party? The hypocrisy couldn't be clearer.

It's said that in some cases, the right has clear and compelling positions on relevant issues. Positions that, if they were communicated properly, could drive people into their camp and to the polls. But yet they are mired in this hateful speech and name calling which only serves to undercut their arguments and to drive would-be believers away from them.