SLAMMING THE GASBAGS

This appeared in the Wall Street Journal last Tuesday and has some great takes on the right-wing radio blowhards.

McCain and the Talk-Show Hosts
By MARK HELPRIN
February 12, 2008; Page A17

(excerpts)

Half a dozen talk-radio hosts whose major talent is that, like hairdressers, they can talk all day long to one client after another as they snip, have decided that the presumptive Republican nominee does not hew sufficiently close to their gospel.

As anyone who has listened to them knows, the depth of their thought is truly Oprah-like.

Ostracism following tests of "right thinking" is a specialty of the left. Not that it doesn't exist on the right, blooming with great malice especially on the radio.

Even if, as the country veers left, living conservatives gnash their teeth and dead ones spin in their graves, a small class of conservatives will benefit. And who might they be? They might be those whose influence and coffers swell on discontent, and who find attacking a president easier and more sensational than the dreary business of defending one. They rose during the Clinton years. Perhaps they are nostalgic. It isn't worth it, however, for the rest of us.

So, rather than playing recklessly with electoral politics by sabotaging their own party ostensibly for its impurity but equally for the sake of their self-indulgent pique, each of these compulsive talkers might be a tad less self-righteous, look to the long run, discipline himself, suck it up, and be a man. And that would apply equally as well to the gorgeous Laura Ingraham and the relentlessly crocodilian Ann Coulter.

War Whore Ingraham wasn't to impressed with this piece and on Falafel O'Reilly's TV show¹ said this:

O'REILLY: We have two minutes left. This "Wall Street Journal" article by Mark Halperin says that Laura Ingraham is gorgeous.

INGRAHAM: Yes, well...

O'REILLY: Wow, look at that. Trying to butter you up. But it says the talk radio people are over the top and political orthodoxy is political death according to Mr. Halperin. What say you?

INGRAHAM: Well, I thought that piece was kind of bizarre and actually kind of sad and bitter. I mean, he started off by saying that talk radio hosts, like we're all monoliths, first of all, we're obviously not. I mean, you're in talk radio. You and I don't agree on everything.

But his point was that we all had the substance, Bill, of Oprah, like we have an Oprah like grasp of the issues, insulting both talk radio hosts and Oprah in the process.

And also going on to say, well, talk radio's doing this all for fame and like money. First of all, "The Wall Street Journal", last time I checked, wasn't against people making money. But the point that's odd about all of this is that how do you bring together a coalition of people in one of the more effective media outlets for that, you know, philosophy, conservatism, which is talk radio? How do they expect to bring talk radio into the fold by demeaning, not only the talk radio host with personal attacks, but then also by extension, demeaning the listeners.

O'REILLY: Well...

INGRAHAM: I mean, that kind of snobbery never does the Republicans well.

O'REILLY: ...no. And you see a lot of that in print. That's for sure. But I think the guy's point was that it's better for conservative talk radio hosts to have somebody to attack everyday.

INGRAHAM: Yes, that's what...

O'REILLY: That's somebody to defend everyday.

INGRAHAM: That's my calculation everyday when I wake up. I mean, our listeners, what he doesn't understand is the relationship between talk radio hosts, Bill, and their listeners. OK? He doesn't get it, and maybe he never will. I don't know this person, Mark Halperin. But look, they listen because they believe that we believe what we're saying. If they whiff opportunism or disingenuousness, they're not going to tune in, but they tune into the Laura Ingraham show for a reason...

O'REILLY: All right.

INGRAHAM: ...because I say what I think.

O'REILLY: Ms. Laura, thanks very much.

INGRAHAM: Thanks.

WWI is wrong about her listeners. They tune in because they agree with her, not because they think she's sincere.

¹Fox News Network
February 14, 2008 Thursday
SHOW: THE O'REILLY FACTOR 8:00 PM EST
Talking Points Memo and Top Story
BYLINE: Bill O'Reilly
GUESTS: Laura Ingraham
SECTION: NEWS; Domestic
LENGTH: 1820 words