In Defense Of Talk Radio

Let me first praise Howie Carr, the one of a kind Boston-area talk radio host who is one of the funniest men on Planet Earth. He is that good. Think "National Lampoon" at its edgiest. He is frequently cruel if not sadistic. He is knowledgeable, insightful and vicious. Mostly, he is entertaining in a way that Hannity and Levine can never imagine. I hesitate to use those not so humorous men as comparisons. Imagine a better-informed, never PC, George Carlin and you have some idea what "The Howie Carr Show" delivers twenty hours/week.

Something is amiss in Howie Carr Land and I don't know what that is. The video alludes to his ongoing dispute with WRKO but others are speculating on health problems. I don't like to advance rumors but you have to read between the lines a little bit.

Back to Andy Rooney's daughter. Fast forward to 1:45. She calls talk radio dumb and repetitive. I want to briefly refute those assertions.

1. It is the Fourth Estate--AP, newspapers, the networks, etc.,--who all sing in unison. They are woefully intolerant of even the slightest dissent. John Stossel, Lou Dobs, Juan Williams and Howard Kurtz seek asylum at Fox News. Sharyl Attkisson and Bernie Goldberg are simply shown the door. It is the Fourth Estate that is dumb and repetitive.

2. Unlike the Fourth Estate, there is amazing diversity in commercial talk radio. There are talkers who embrace civil liberties, talkers who hate the premise of civil liberties and talkers who believe domestic spying is good just so long as the right people do the spying. There are isolationists, military expansionists, neutralists and who cares where they bomb so long as they get Congressional approval. There are people who want to bring back the draft. There are libertines and prudes and not too long ago the late libertarian Gene Burns advocated the shunning of divorced people. CTR celebrates diversity.

"Right Wing" is a scrap heap for any and all who do not march lockstep with the Mainstream Media. It has come to mean anyone who has an independent thought of any kind.

3. Most people who bash commercial talk radio never listen to commercial talk radio. They have no idea what goes on there. The biggest misconception is that they believe talk radio is all about expounding opinion. Yes but declarations and such are not the main event. Nope.

There is a staple that unifies and defines commercial talk radio and consumes almost all of its programming. Talk radio mostly refutes the Mainstream Media, the vaulted Fourth Estate. If ABC, NBC, CBS and Andy Rooney's daughter were not so dumb and repetitive, if they did their job and told the truth even when the truth is, in the words of Brian Williams, divisive, there would be no talk radio. Rush Limbaugh would be a disc jockey and Howie Carr would be on television.

Most of my Dem friends and most of my family hate commercial talk radio but they have no idea what is being said on the air waves. They hear third hand quotes out of context and on these quotes they form a mountain of hate. I see CTR as a healthy antidote to the drip drip drip of MSM propaganda. The talkers refute the dynastic media. That is why the privileged Fourth Estate feel threatened by the less prestigious medium.