Here it comes, again, folks: hate. Once again, members of not only the Left, but also the Right are attacking conservative talk radio. The charge? Hate speech. Specifically, they accuse such radio hosts as Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck of hating John McCain and illegal immigrants.
Talk about déjà vu. T
his isn’t the first time that talk radio hosts have been attacked, by any means. In fact, it seems like it happens every six months or so. Yet, liberal talk hosts like Jesse Jackson are untouchable.
There are several ironies about the whole thing, though.
First, talk radio’s hateful attackers accuse talk radio of being totally and irreconcilably against McCain for president, yet I heard one, just the other day, chastising callers for saying that they would never vote for McCain, and that’s not an isolated case.
Second, I’ve never heard a talk host say that they hate illegal immigrants (other than the fascist Michael Savage, but he’s so far right that he’s out of the political spectrum), only the act of breaking the law.
Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, the very same people that are attacking “hater” talk radio hosts are espousing hate themselves. Take Jim Shea, for example, in his column in the Hartford Courant: he calls them “mullahs of the microphones” and “the Big Kahuna of Hate his own self, Rush Limbaugh”, among other things. Moreover, the whole tone of his column is hateful: the whole thing is viciously sarcastic. Yet, when talk radio hosts use satire (much as standup comics and late-night TV host) they are attacked for being hateful. What we have here is a decisive case of failing to practice what you preach.
All this is indicative of a larger problem in this nation: those that call for love and tolerance are themselves hateful and intolerant of those that don’t fit their criteria. Hypocrisy runs rampant, not just in the left, but also in many religious, professional, and social circles. Hate is a problem in America, but the first place to look is yourself, not others.
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Talk radio hosts are political entertainers. I take nothing away from their comment that is worth a dime. I will not go to work and argue on behalf of something that Sean Hannity says anymore than I would argue on behalf of Jon Stewart that Bush was "beat-boxing" through his state of the union address.
I don't worry about people attacking them. They love the exposure, that is what gets them out of bed everyday. Heaven knows it's not the intelligent discussion that they are there for. That goes for both sides.
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"Faith is to believe what you do not yet see; the reward for this faith is to see what you believe"-- St. Augustine
I can't say that I agree with you. Jon Stewart is obviously satirical, while just about everything talk radio hosts say comes with a straight face. Their arguments are actually accepted political theory that is practiced and pushed by other people than themselves.
They do much more than get up and talk all day. Many of them are involved with political activism, for example. I might be wrong, but it doesn't sound to me like you've listened much (if at all) to talk radio, because a lot of the time the discussion actually is "intelligent."
"A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have." - Barry Goldwater
"... the ostensible means [diversity] of acheiving a desired end [equality] had become the end itself." - Clarence Thomas