upstate29651 said:
Lkeller said:
It's quite another thing to give air time to a man who's clearly on the fringe of public opinion, and keeps spouting wacky conspiracy theories.
Says who? You? Media Matters?
He's #3 on cable news, STILL beating anything on CNN & MSNBC. That's hardly fringe.
G
Whoa - I'm being attacked from both sides here. ;D
To "Upstate": fringe wacky people have been getting great ratings on TV for decades. Morton Downey Jr. and Jerry Springer both had great ratings, but their shows wouldn't be appropriate for a respectable cable news outlet. And as far as I know, neither Downey or Springer ever gave support to end-of-the world (as we know it) type conspiracy theories. The point is - the content of their shows was 'fringe' and wouldn't have been appropriate for a news channel. Beck is spouting more than opinion (like Hanitty & O'Reilly), he's asking people to believe in some pretty wild theories. Did you see his appearance on
The O'Reilly Factor? Bill expressed skepticism about one of Beck's theories, and the best comeback Beck could deliver was "
you can't prove it's not true.". Well, yeah...I can't prove that suicide bombers don't get 72 virgins when they go to heaven, either - but I'm reasonably confident that it's bulls__t.
quote author=Goat Rodeo Cowboy link=topic=188599.msg1660563#msg1660563 date=1302135384]
Lkeller said:
It's one thing to have opinion shows like Hannity and O'Reilly who hold reasonably mainstream views about the world.
Were you able to write that while maintaining a straight face?There is right wing, mainstream and left wing. "Mainstream" they ain't!
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To GRC: I probably did smile a bit when I typed that. But I try to have an open mind. I'm sure there are some reading my posts here who assume I'm on the left-wing fringe, but really I'm just a moderate Democrat. I have a couple of friends with the same political beliefs as Hannity and O'Reilly, but even though I disagree with them about politics, they're otherwise terrific people who I have a lot in common with.
So I try not to stigmatize...that's all.