from LK: As the name suggests, My Sedentary Life doesn’t get out much and spends way too much time in front of his laptop. But lucky for you this news junkie will be commenting on the latest media trends and highlighting the more interesting news items of the week.

If you’ve followed the news for the last week or so, it turns out the recent snow storms on the East Coast totally disprove global warming. According to Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and even Donald Trump, the snow on the ground tells us that we’ve got nothing to worry about. Says Trump:

“With the coldest winter ever recorded, with snow setting record levels up and down the coast, the Nobel committee should take the Nobel Prize back from Al Gore.”

If you want to trust this guy over many of the world’s scientists, be my guest. I’m just too depressed over the existence of this debate to join in it.

                          

The Democrats are making a huge mistake entertaining ideas about going forward with their attempt to reinstate The Fairness Doctrine. The purpose of said doctrine is to try to even out the bias of the content currently heard on the political talk airwaves. Think of it as the Dems futile attempt, through legislation, to overwhelm the might of Rush, Sean, Laura, Levin, and The Salem Radio Network crew, among others. All right wing, all masters of the medium. The left’s got no one with that kind of national penetration, with maybe Randi Rhodes having the knowledge and radio chops to compete, and Maddow and Olbermann making a stand on the cable TV side.

The criteria for getting air time and national syndication is pretty simple: attract listeners, lots of listeners. Radio’s a business. There’s nothing inherent in their material that accounts for the overwhelming advantage of the right. They’re just better at presenting their slant in entertaining and captivating ways.

I know Rush Limbaugh’s twisting the truth like a baker making pretzels, and Sean Hannity sounds way too smart to believe the lowest common denominator “you’re a great American” pablum he’s dispersing, but they, along with their compatriots, have found a groove that’s working, so there’s no reason to stop their mouth music. Their stations and syndicators care about ratings, not well reasoned and rational thinking.

The Dem’s mistake is trying to legislate talent under the guise of legislating equal time to polarized points of view. What they should be doing is taking Air America (which no one can turn around given the pool of insipid policy wonks the left offers as radio hosts) and treat it as Microsoft should treat Vista: junk it and come up with something compelling that justifies its own existence.

It’s as if the left is admitting defeat in the talk radio space and blaming it on the content, rather than the presentation of the content. The election demonstrated that the Dems were clearly on the winning side of the policy debate. And since these days more Americans get their news from talk radio than from traditional print media (witness what seems like a death a day of big city newspapers), the moderate-left politicos need to see the airwaves as a meritocracy they’ve got to compete in more effectively. In this case, like it or not, the messenger is as important as the message conveyed.

I don’t usually have much in the way of fondness for Rush’s positions, but he’s a hoot to listen to. The left needs equally attractive on-air characters, not legislation that’s the air-wave equivalent of book burning.

                          

As regular readers know, I voted for Obama, but railed vociferously during the campaign against Team O when they dropped the ball and let Hillary back into the game. They’ve done the same thing with their taxing cabinet and czar nominees, but this time it’s not Hillary being given the second chance, it’s the ultra-right Ministry of Communications, microphones on and pens at the ready.

I get an online feed from Newsmax, which is akin to a poor man’s American Spectator (the best and brightest the right wing has to offer) and here are some of their recent headlines since appointees began dropping like flies:

“Big Labor Buys Off Obama and You Pay”

“Help Defend Rush Limbaugh, Stop Obama’s Outrageous Plan”

“Daschle’s Paydays”

“Cheney Warns Nuke, Bio Attack Likely Under Obama”

This is not to say that criticism from the right wouldn’t have been hot and heavy regardless of Taxgate, but clearly this stumble out of the blocks by the Obama vetting crew has emboldened the pundits from the other side of the aisle.

Time for the new occupants of the White House to learn and recover from their mistakes, and realize that the stakes got a lot higher when they and their Blackberrys moved in.

                          

1. Chief Justice Roberts was clearly, consciously or not, bearing a grudge when he swore in the new President. He’d probably rather have sworn at him. Obama opposed confirming Roberts during the Senate hearings in ‘05. Roberts, rather than feeding the President conventional, easily digestible sound bytes (think “I pledge allegiance……..to the flag……..”), initially gave him a long and awkwardly worded phrase that the Chief Justice himself had trouble repeating when called upon to do so. The Harvard righty tried to sneak a curve ball by the Harvard lefty. The lefty didn’t swing. Ball one.

2. Not surprisingly, after Obama, quoting Scripture, implored us as a nation to “put aside childish things”, Rush Limbaugh claimed that Obama “botched the oath”. This while Rush was playing with his rattle, sterilizing his pacifier, which spends way too much time out of his mouth, and was otherwise obsessing on things childish. Sooner or later his listeners will wise up to the fact that he’s a great entertainer, not a provider of information or opinion that’s going to lead to better lives for them.

3. I thought O made an error of omission when referring to the sacrifices made by Americans in times of war, as he didn’t refer to Desert Storm or the Iraqi offensive/occupation in his list of sites where these sacrifices throughout American history occurred. He dealt with them a bit later in the speech and later on in the day, but the omission was pretty glaring, and surprising considering how he and his team attempted to touch all the bases.

4. It saddens me to say so, but he overestimated the state of the American people of 2009 when he said we’re no less capable than past generations. Past generations weren’t distracted by Wii and wrestling, which allowed them to concentrate on innovation and perseverance.

5. No doubt there will be right wing pundits connecting the 300 point drop in the Dow yesterday with Obama’s inauguration. If Bush were still in office, the damage most probably would have been worse. Banks worldwide took it on the chin on Monday, a market holiday for us, and no one will know how much lower indices might have gone were it not for the distant wail of rescue vehicles moving, however slowly, into position.

6. Finally, I think Barack and his brain trust decided to modulate the tone and content of the inauguration speech so that the nation didn’t expect too much, too soon. He wasn’t lowering the bar for himself, just being realistic about how quickly any nation with a checks and balances system like ours can dig out of the massive pit that W left in the backyard before flying off into the distance. Clearly Obama’s oratorical skills and mastery of the language have been demonstrated countless times before, but this was not a time to showboat, and it was not a time for high drama.

It was a time to hear the alarm clock, wake up, and get down to work.

                          

The Democrats are making a huge mistake entertaining ideas about going forward with their attempt to reinstate The Fairness Doctrine. The purpose of said doctrine is to try to even out the bias of the content currently heard on the political talk airwaves. Think of it as the Dems futile attempt, through legislation, to overwhelm the might of Rush, Sean, Laura, Levin, and The Salem Radio Network crew, among others. All right wing, all masters of the medium. The left’s got no one with that kind of national penetration, with maybe Randi Rhodes having the knowledge and radio chops to compete.

The criteria for getting air time and national syndication is pretty simple: attract listeners, lots of listeners.  Radio’s a business. There’s nothing inherent in their material that accounts for the overwhelming advantage of the right. They’re just better at presenting their slant in  entertaining and captivating ways.

I know Rush Limbaugh’s twisting the truth like a baker making pretzels, and Sean Hannity sounds way too smart to believe the lowest common denominator “you’re a great American” pablum he’s dispersing, but they, along with their compatriots, have found a groove that’s working, so there’s no reason to stop their mouth music. Their stations and syndicators care about ratings, not well reasoned and rational thinking.

The Dem’s mistake is trying to legislate talent under the guise of legislating equal time to polarized points of view. What they should be doing is taking Air America (which no one can turn around given the pool of insipid policy wonks the left offers as radio hosts) and treat it as Microsoft should treat Vista: junk it and come up with something compelling that justifies its own existence.

It’s as if the left is admitting defeat in the talk radio space and blaming it on the content rather than the presentation of the content. If the polls on the upcoming presidential election and the results of the recent special congressional elections are any indication, the Dems are on the winning side of the policy debate. And since these days more Americans get their news from talk radio than from traditional print media, the moderate-left politicos need to see the airwaves as a meritocracy they’ve got to compete in more effectively. In this case, like it or not, the messenger is as (if not more) important than the message conveyed.

I don’t usually have much in the way of fondness for Rush’s positions, but he’s a hoot to listen to. The left needs equally attractive on-air characters, not legislation that’s the air-wave equivalent of book burning.

                          

He’s got a near fraudulent endeavor going on called Operation Chaos that arguably swung the Texas primary (not caucus) to Hillary, thereby prolonging the Dem infighting and maybe just maybe clearing a path for McCain, who he claims to hold in high disregard as well, but, in the words of Randy Newman: “I have my doubts,missy, I have my doubts”.

Limbaugh does radio better than anyone alive, is a complete master of the art form, and has convinced blue collar America that he’s their champion while playing in the Pro-Am at Pebble Beach. In fact, the right does radio so much better than the left (think Rush, Sean, Laura, the Witches and Warlocks of Salem Communications, etc.) that LK is left with no choice but to dedicate a future column to the need for left wing radio hosts that have a mastery of the art of radio that at least comes close to their expertise as policy wonks. LK himself comes to mind. Broader strokes, higher Arbitron ratings. Bolder BS, more ad bookings and revenue.

And most importantly, however sadly, is that a radio host’s level of influence is directly proportional to his or her ability to self-importantly bloviate, something LK, however sadly, and yet declared with perverse pride, is highly qualified to do.

                          

Over the past couple of days, culminating in last night’s primary results, Obama learned the hard way that a jab to the kidneys and a knee to the groin are perfectly acceptable campaign tactics once the brawl reaches its current stage. These UFC maneuvers brought Hillary close enough in Texas that Rush Limbaugh’s diabolically brilliant plan encouraging his listeners to vote for her in order to create a deep blue logjam pushed Mrs. Clinton over the top.

Now that Hillary’s been hoisted back on the tracks, the party elders have to make sure there’s no train wreck down the line. If Obie still holds a slim delegate lead post-primaries, and the super-delegates decide the nominee and negate the will of the people, that may well keep enough Dems at home in November to color things red. Obie getting the nomination without a decent margin of victory and without winning any of the big swing states is just as problematic.

As noted previously in these pages, Dean Dean has to preclude a campus dispute.

Pragmatically, should Hillary win the nomination by hook and by crook, I’d have to hold my nose and vote for her rather than see the future changed for the worse by a McCain nominated Supreme Court leaning so far to the right it’d be a miracle if they didn’t fall over, while another 50-100 years in Iraq further accelerates the insolvency of social security and medicare.

Come November, gotta find the clothespins before proceeding to a polling location.