Hey, liberals: Time to give the Beck bashing a rest

[bluefrog]

LINK

Is the constant mockery of these bloviating right-wing demagogues really the best use of precious center-left media time? I think it’s likely to backfire on liberals, for several reasons:

It makes other far-right Republican conservatives look moderate. Mockery of Palin, Bachmann and Beck may backfire on the left by making conservative and libertarian politicians with equally nutty ideas but more statesmanlike gravitas appear to be more moderate than they really are.

Kind of a "don't feed the trolls" or "ignore them and they'll go away" kind of article. She only mentions Beck, Palin and Bachmann though. I don't know why Limbaugh, Hannity and O'Reily get a pass. Maybe she doesn't want to draw the ire of the entire conservative community

The center-left needs its own village explainers, with their own charts and their own blackboards. In the plain language used by FDR for his Fireside Chats, they could show how liberalism is rooted in American values and history, instead of being an alien transplant from socialist Europe. They could sketch the relations between today’s radical right, with its loony theories about a Muslim-leftist world revolution, and the similar conspiracy theories of the Liberty Lobby in the 1930s and the John Birch Society in the 1950s.

The left doesn't really have "village explainer". Jon Stewart is the closest thing but he definitely appeals more to intellectuals. The right has done a good job painting liberals as snobs or elitist and liberals have done very little to shed that label.

What dumb thing did Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann or Glenn Beck just say? You don’t need to watch Fox News to find out. The progressive media will tell you. The economy is still in a coma, revolution is rocking the Middle East -- but you can be sure that Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews will take time to snicker at something silly that Palin or Bachmann or Beck said in the last 48 hours.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

Jon Stewart appeals to "intellectuals"? That's why its on Comedy Central.

The left has these things too..Michael Moore, Bill Mahar, Rachel Maddow. The thing is they spend all their time bashing people like Palin, making them more famous instead of focusing on new issues (well, except for Moore really).

 

[hasoos]

Jon Stewart appeals to "intellectuals"? That's why its on Comedy Central.

The left has these things too..Michael Moore, Bill Mahar, Rachel Maddow. The thing is they spend all their time bashing people like Palin, making them more famous instead of focusing on new issues (well, except for Moore really).

Yea, because mostly intellectuals are the only one's who get his jokes. Most bonehead conservatives don't even know they are being made fun of.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

Yea, because mostly intellectuals are the only one's who get his jokes. Most bonehead conservatives don't even know they are being made fun of.

an example of:

The right has done a good job painting liberals as snobs or elitist and liberals have done very little to shed that label.

YEAH! Conservatives are so beneath us all! They don't understand the ironic smugness of Jon Stewart! did they not get the MEMO? THE FUCKING MEMO!!!!

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

MEMO!!!!!

 

[bluefrog]

Jon Stewart appeals to "intellectuals"? That's why its on Comedy Central.

Comedy ≠ Stupid
You have to be aware of politics and world events to get most of his jokes.

The thing is they spend all their time bashing people like Palin, making them more famous instead of focusing on new issues (well, except for Moore really).

Uh, that's the whole point of the article. You should read it, I think you would agree with a lot of it.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

Comedy ≠ Stupid
You have to be aware of politics and world events to get most of his jokes.

Uh, that's the whole point of the article. You should read it, I think you would agree with a lot of it.

Most of his jokes come from inside jokes and opinion pieces from liberal news blogs. Basically born from shared facebook and twitter feeds.

 

[bluefrog]

Yea, because mostly intellectuals are the only one's who get his jokes. Most bonehead conservatives don't even know they are being made fun of.

I think that's more Stephen Colbert type humor

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

Uh, that's the whole point of the article. You should read it, I think you would agree with a lot of it.

I've been saying that forever, why MSNBC spends most of its time as free advertising for Fox News.

 

[bluefrog]

Most of his jokes come from inside jokes and opinion pieces from liberal news blogs. Basically born from shared facebook and twitter feeds.

And you know this how? Are you a writer?

 

[bluefrog]

I've been saying that forever, why MSNBC spends most of its time as free advertising for Fox News.

I'll have to take your word for it. I don't watch MSNBC but they show FOX at the gym so that's my only point of reference

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

And you know this how? Are you a writer?

Yes.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

I'll have to take your word for it. I don't watch MSNBC but they show FOX at the gym so that's my only point of reference

I flip on MSNBC sometimes and they just seem to spend a lot of their times bashing not only fox but conservatives in general. Its kind of off-putting instead of offering good analysis.

 

[bluefrog]

Yes.

I wouldn't have pinned you as a guy who spends time on liberal news blogs but you prove me wrong once again

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

I wouldn't have pinned you as a guy who spends time on liberal news blogs but you prove me wrong once again

You can get links to them from any internet forum where there is a politics section.

 

[Nate4Prez]

I flip on FOX sometimes and they just seem to spend a lot of their times bashing not only MSNBC but democrats in general. Its kind of off-putting instead of offering good analysis.

Funny how this works both ways.

I prefer only to read Associated Press articles on the Google news feed.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

Fox doesn't really spend their time bashing MSNBC. Most of it is Obama and the democratic politicians. big difference.

 

[Nate4Prez]

Fox doesn't really spend their time bashing MSNBC. Most of it is Obama and the democratic politicians. big difference.

Yes they do. You just don't feel like they do because you agree with Fox News' opinions.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

like who then?

 

[agoo]

I think Fox ripped on Olberman a fair amount of times.

I'm about to get shouted down from both sides for this comment, but for me, the old MSNBC (with Olberman) line-up was basically the same as the Fox lineup. Olberman and Beck are both out of their damn minds (though I'll find myself nodding in agreement with Olberman). Wallace and Hannity are too smarmy and angry for anyone to really like. Maddow and O'Reilly are the ones that you can disagree with without being disagreeable, most of the time.

Not sure where its at now, as the Ed Show is just too angry to counter Beck and O'Donnell doesn't seem to have a counter part there either unless Shepard Smith has moved to more of the opinion side of things. Of course I don't really watch enough Fox News to see what else they have with O'Reilly, Hannity, and Beck.

 

[Denny Crane]

Watch MSNBC most of the time. I think maybe Jon Stewart might have found the humor in Lawrence O'Donnell counting the times Obama was interrupted by O'Reilly in the recent interview (73 times!) while MSNBC hosts Chris Mathews' show and he's the king of interrupting his guests.

 

[Nate4Prez]

They both (Fox News and MSNBC) went back and forth all the time. Using clips from each others talking heads to point out how biased the other is. If you can't see that they are both biased, it is because you agree with what one is saying.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

I really don't even watch Fox News. I watch Red Eye, that's about it.

 

[Eastoff]

an example of:



YEAH! Conservatives are so beneath us all! They don't understand the ironic smugness of Jon Stewart! did they not get the MEMO? THE FUCKING MEMO!!!!

I'll just leave these two maps here
http://www.maproomblog.com/2010/10/us_college_degrees_by_county.php

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/vote2004/countymap.htm

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Comedy ≠ Stupid

That's true. See Al Franken, uh, er, wait a minute. Oh never mind.

 

[bluefrog]

That's true. See Al Franken, uh, er, wait a minute. Oh never mind.

I liked his daily affirmation with Stuart Smalley.

It's weird that you don't see many conservative comedians. Dennis Miller is conservative but he's not funny anymore. It's kind of like the lack of liberal radio talkshows.

 

[Denny Crane]

Off the top of my head...

Dennis Miller, Bill Engvall, Jon Cryer, Drew Carey, Jim Belushi, Adam Sandler, Ben Stein, Craig T. Nelson, Jamie Farr, Jeff Foxworthy, Joe Pesci, Kelsey Grammer, Leslie Nielsen, Vince Vaughn.

 

[BrianFromWA]

Only in Chicago can you still count Leslie Nielsen.

 

[Denny Crane]

Only in Chicago can you still count Leslie Nielsen.

I suspect a lot of comedians in the black and white movie/TV days were conservatives.

Larry the Cable Guy, Patricia Heaton, Ray Romano, Penn Jilette (well, Libertarian).

 

[bluefrog]

Off the top of my head...

Dennis Miller, Bill Engvall, Jon Cryer, Drew Carey, Jim Belushi, Adam Sandler, Ben Stein, Craig T. Nelson, Jamie Farr, Jeff Foxworthy, Joe Pesci, Kelsey Grammer, Leslie Nielsen, Vince Vaughn.

Out of that list I would say only Dennis Miller, Bill Engvall and Jeff Foxworthy are outspoken conservatives. I wouldn't really even consider Ben Stein and Joe Pesci comedians.