Reply #3: Sounds wonderful, but... first of all, welcome to DU!

[blondeatlast]

:toast:

After you've been here a while you will realize that we, as LW, have no cohesive message like the Radical Rights do. For more on the reasons why, I would direct you to "The Republican Noise Machine" by David Brock, must reading for anyone concerned about the death of an objective press and the threat it poses to domocracy.

Until you read the book, it will be impossible to really get you to see the problems with your proposal, but I can point to this:

We finally have 24/7 progressive radio in the form of Air America. Yet here at DU we nitpick about the hosts and their messages. That's okay, but already we seem to have forgotten what a revelation AAR is for us.

It's already been suggested here that because AAR is broadcast on a few Clear Channel stations that they have diluted their message and are aiming down the center. I love DU, but we have an annoying tendency to go right ahead and look at that gift horse's teeth every single time.

"Republican Noise" explains why you NEVER hear this happening in the RW. It is a systematic effort to keep everyone on the message, all the time. Perhaps RW pundit A has a pet issue that seems to contradict RW pundit B's view. A meeting is held, and it is determined that this week RW pundit B gets to have his pet issue aired. Next week may be RW pundit A's turn.

No one is EVER allowed to go off message; if they do, they stop getting booked on the talk shows.

It's the modus operandi and raison d'etre of the tax-exempt, blatantly political, RW "stink tanks" like the Heritage Foundation, American Enterprise Institute, and Cato Institute, plus dozens of others.