Laura Ingram- fair and balanced?

[toombs]

Laura Ingram is filliing in on the Factor on Fox..I thought this was a no spin zone..I thought this was a fair and balanced show.

How is fair and balanced is it when she and Karl Rove are discussing what conservatives need to do to be more successfull? Laura's fair and balanced solution is to be more conservative.

Why can't Bill O. find somebody..anybody... in this world, who is not biased to, fill in for him?

This show is a travesty to good journalism when she fills in.

 

[raccoonradio]

On her radio show, she sometimes has liberal/left leaning guests on though I think some decline to come on
so the usual suspects (Mark Steyn, Byron York) show up.

Fox is supposed to be fair and balanced with NEWS coverage. Commentary's another thing. Though maybe
it makes up for the liberal tilt of the other channels. Does Olbermann get a conservative to fill in for him?

 

[jimwalsh2001]

More to the point, Ingraham is one crashing bore of a talk host.

 

[New Castle]

I interviewed Laura many, many moons ago when she was a college girl at Datmuth. Back then she was best known as quite the collegiate athelete. Not only was she extremely beautiful (hubba hubba), but also exceptionally intelligent. Laura smelled good too. Way better than the sows I saw you sniffing around Mr Walsh. I listen to Laura just about every morning and I find her to be the best in that time slot. Beck gets a little too strange for me, John Watson has gone off the deep end for Obama and there's Al Machete on 1150; definitely an escapee from that special place on Dupont Highway.
Conservatives are the fair and balanced members of the media. Everybody else is off their meds or suffering an undiagnosed ailment.

 

[alg2468]

Laura Ingraham is the best talk show on the radio -she is equal time by far. And I would say that despite the mere hatred when their names are mentioned on this board, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh are very fair to callers, and those who do not think so should actually listen to their shows with a objective mind, relax, have a sense of humor, and don't take everything so seriously. .

 

[cm454]

relax, have a sense of humor, and don't take everything so seriously. .

It would be a lot easier to do that if listeners didn't think of these guys as journalists instead of entertainers.

The audiences of these shows often accept the mistruths and distortions as fact. THAT is a problem. It creates false impressions---and people VOTE based on those false impressions.

I'm so tired of the double standards and the peculiar belief that conservative hosts and sports hosts are all that people will listen to in the spoken word format.

People have truly put the cart before the horse.

 

[jimwalsh2001]

Conservatives are the fair and balanced members of the media. Everybody else is off their meds or suffering an undiagnosed ailment.

In other words, if you agree with their agenda, they are, by definition, "good"...

It must be nice to be so easily pleasable...

 

[dustintv]

Conservatives are the fair and balanced members of the media. Everybody else is off their meds or suffering an undiagnosed ailment.

I will agree that Ingraham is a good and fair host, but I find that statement to be over generalized because many from both sides are just plain nasty. Examples of hosts who not fair and balanced in my own analysis are:

Mike Gallagher
Michael Savage
Randi Rhodes
Hugh Hewitt
John Gibson
Mark Simone
Amy Goodman
Laura Flanders

 

[raccoonradio]

Laura Ingraham is so boring that she has millions more listeners than the likes of Air America. Surely
those who think Al Franken did an exciting show would find her boring I don't agree with every
thing she says, but her show is truly your healthy....radio...addiction and at last count is up to
well over 300 stations plus she's on XM (but so is the Air America channel, etc.; I think she's also on Sirius)

And she has had people from "the other side" on. I remember when someone from Lawyers Against The
War was on. Laura had a simple question for her: were we better off with Sadaam out of power. He
refused to answer (operation change-the-subject). Asked again, then again, politely. Finally the
man hung up in disgust (how dare she ask that question!) and he called back and called Laura a nasty
thing, to her producer...

"Now on 340 radio stations, Laura takes listeners on a wild ride through the colliding worlds of politics, the news media, and Hollywood....Her latest book, Power to the People, debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller's list. " (from lauraingraham.com)

 

[jimwalsh2001]

What the Sam Hill do AA and Franken have to do with anything?

I say a pox on all their houses: Ingraham, AA, Franken, and anyone who thinks adhering to the proper "agenda" (whatever that may be) is a substitute for doing powerful, compelling radio.

 

[justareporter]

Okay...by their very nature and current job description, talk show hosts cannot be fair and balanced. They are supposed to have strong held opinions. there was a time when talk show hosts **tried** to be impartial, it didn't last long becuase sparks ultimately create more heat even if a flame creats more light.

Limbaugh and to a lesser degree Hannity are entertainers. Not even **close** to being journalists. Ingram's voice is best described as nails on a chalkboard. She is REALLY bright and relatively easy on the eyes but isn't "fair and balanced" and needs a good voice coach.

 

[brian65]

I find Ingraham's radio show far from fair and balanced. She might bring on a guest with an 'opposing' point of view, but why bother when she ends up talking over any point they begin to clarify.

She does the same thing as a host on O'Reilly's show. I think she is more concerned with winning an argument than having any sort of discussion about a topic. (All too common in talk radio/tv)

Actually, I would describe her radio show as depressing to listen to but my only AM alternative at that time is Mike McConnell, who's show is increasing taking on the aura of an internet radio broadcast. He never got his edge back after being bumped back to local from syndication.

A great FM alternative 10-11 is the Diane Rehms? show as they at least present a topic for a full hour and discuss it. It may lean towards a liberal point of view but it at least rises above dueling bumper sticker arguments. She has a 11-noon hour but its not usually a hard news topic.

 

[indydood]

I find Ingraham's radio show far from fair and balanced. She might bring on a guest with an 'opposing' point of view, but why bother when she ends up talking over any point they begin to clarify.

she's about as *fair & balanced* as fnc is

 

[toombs]

After watching Ingram do the show the next two nights after my original posting..I just don't think she has the skill set to do a show like this.

1. She is too abrupt in transitions
2. She definately doesn't want to hear an opinion that differs from hers. All she wants to do is hammer her opinion or her views at an opposing guest. That is fine on her radio show. But not on a show that claims to be a "no spin zone"
3. Maybe if she did a show like this on a more regular basis she would soften her rough edges, but for now I really don't like watching the show when she is the host and it has nothing to do with her politics.

O'Reilly needs to find a substitute who doesn't come on the show with a agenda that he or she is trying to push. You can be entertaining and edgy without being biased one way or the other.

 

[MusicMaestro]

Of course, she is going to have very strong opinions, as well she should! What many of you good people fail to either admit to, or understand about the popularity of many of the hosts that lean to the "right" is this: after decades of "left" dominance of major media(NY Times, LA Times, Washington Post, ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, NPR, Time, Newsweek, etc), it is very fair/balanced to have those on the right to express themselves, to be able to get ALL opinions out there to the general public! And remember this folks: we have the ultimate control over ANY MEDIA FORM: don't buy, don't watch, don't listen! ;D

 

[justareporter]

Oh god here we go again....the media is dominated by left-wing extremist whackos. Gotta tella ya...spent my life working in radio and TV stations across the country and it just ain't so. Most folks are in the middle. Some are right wingnuts and others are left wingnuts.

And then some are just nuts.

 

[toombs]

Here is my theory on the whole left-right thing.

For many years the right wingers (Rush..etc) were bombing the left wingers on the radio with virtually no opposition. That led to the left countering in ways outside of radio since liberal radio has been basically unsuccessful.

I have been waiting for the radio audience, in general, to turn from both extremes. I think we are getting closer to that point. Some day somebody out there, who is edgy but neutral, should be able to step in and build a large national audience out of the people who are sick of hearing one side, hour-after-hour and day-after-day. A host who doesn't just do a one-sided mantra day-after-day like that annoying Hannity.

 

[jimwalsh2001]

I have been waiting for the radio audience, in general, to turn from both extremes. I think we are getting closer to that point.

We are indeed. The talk format is in serious trouble in a lot of markets. The answer is not wishy-washy neutrality but independent thinking and a new focus on talk as entertainment. ;D

 

[toombs]

Why wouldn't this work.

An unbiased, yet edgy host who is willing to rip either side, while not spinning positive one way or another out of obligation. If your a neutral you have more targets to take a shot at. Wouldn't a show like this attract a more diversified audience which could perhaps be an even larger audience. Does anybody do a show like this? Is Boortx a close facsimile?

 

[HHH]

New Castle wrote:

"Conservatives are the fair and balanced members of the media. Everybody else is off their meds or suffering an undiagnosed ailment."


Oh what a bunch of Kool Aid crap-ola.

I suppose Rush accusing Michael J. Fox of "faking it", or Mike Gallagher caught dubbing in giiggles during a Dixie Chicks audio snip from ABC-TV, yelling "see...they are giggling through the whole interview" is considered "fair and balanced". (note to Einstein Gallagher: Don't alter the audio of a broadcast that so many people have the original of!!!"). Or maybe O'Reilly's tiresome rants about Liberals posting the vast majority of tasteless comments on the internet, when all he had to do was read the AOL posts about Ted Kennedy to see thousands (literally) of the filthiest, dirtiest posts that I have ever read from a crowd who makes a big deal about rappers and Hollywood coarsening society.

Get real. These talk show hosts are all decedents of the yapping, self-serving, Walter Winchell. Go read about what became of him.