The media is kind of weird these days on politics, and there are some major institutional voices that are, truthfully speaking, part and parcel of the Republican Party. Fox News Network, The Washington Times , Rush Limbaugh — there’s a bunch of them, and some of them are financed by wealthy ultra-conservative billionaires who make political deals with Republican administrations and the rest of the media.
- Al Gore
The question, of course, is not only CAN the Liberal Left develop their own media empire, but SHOULD they? Do we really want to mirror the sort of slavish media lapdogs that already do the bidding of conservatives- or should we simply allow outlets such as Fox News Channel to continue as parodies of legitimate, impartial media sources? "Fair and balanced" is obviously in the eye of the beholder.
While I believe that the Left needs a strong and committed media presence, I'm not so sure that we would be well-served by trying to mimic the methods of overtly Conservative media trolls such as FNC or the Washington Times. Frankly, we can do better.
As for a "Liberal Radio Network", I'm wondering if anyone will even listen. Conservative talk radio is fueled by ignorance, reaction, and intolerance- noise and bombast rule. I really think that most Liberals have better things to do than beat their chest on a call-in talk show.
Of course, I may be wrong here. If the Left is able to create a media empire, my biggest hope is that it will at least have a sense of humor- something that the Conservative media desperately needs.