DC Dem Consultant Slams Air America Radio (video, praises Limbaugh)

[ProSense]

From Taylor Marsh:

DC Dem Consultant Slams Air America Radio

Listen for "Democrat"!

[stepnw1f]

1. no thanks...

[madfloridian]

2. Here's her bio..

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/contributors/bio.php?nick=laura-schwartz&name=Laura+Schwartz

She was insulting to AAR and insulting to liberals.

[ProSense]

3. Imagine that! Thanks! n/t

[DocSavage]

4. Lets see,

she said that AA had no business model, she said that maybe, America is not a left as people here think, and she said Limbaugh is a good businessman.

If you think that is insulting, you need to meet some of my conservative friends.

[madfloridian]

5. I bet.

.

[ProSense]

6. Her version of America is the BS that gave rise to Bush!

It is the BS that Americans are currently rejecting! The country is solidly behind a party that has as its official spokespeople quite a few progressive Democrats. Progressive candidates are also leading in their races. Some moderate candidates have been forced to move a little left to accommodate the backlash against wishy washy positions.

She is a corporate shill!

[DocSavage]

15. It is

so amazing to read all the posts on DU crucifying any democrat that says somthing positive about a republican. Because she has a opinion different than yours, she is a corporate shill. come on now.

[madfloridian]

16. That is not what she was doing. My family are all Republicans...

except us and one daughter. My brother, uncles, aunts...everyone. So that is a bunch of BS.

She was putting down liberals. That talking point about the country being conservative is just not that true.

[DocSavage]

17. Did you

watch the video? I think she said that the country is not a Liberal as the audience that AA was going for. There is a bit of a difference. But seeing your family tree, it seems that your family is more conservative. Does that mean your family is representative of the country? Or does it mean, that while your family is conservative, most if not all are not far right wing conservatives (that even my conservative friends shake thier heads over and call lunatics). Get my point?

The target audience for AA was not there.

[madfloridian]

20. My family loves AAR.

So I am not sure what you mean. They love Al Franken, they love Randi, one of my uncles loved Mike Malloy.

Some of them still listen to Rush, but they are getting suspicious of him.

Of course there is an audience for liberal talk. There always has been.

They just keep saying there isn't.

[DocSavage]

33. Who is they?

If there were a audience, the ratings would have been higher, advertising dollars would have been going to the stations airing it. Well, as the stations, which are in business to make money, made no money on AA programing, they dropped it. If there is a market, AA did not find it. And if they cannot find the market in New York, Boston, San Fran, well...there is a big problem.

[madfloridian]

36. Do have the ratings?

So that you can prove that to me? I had to buy XM to get it, and we did it gladly. There is no way to reach it in my area with streaming it or buying satellite.

Are you sure it is not more bad management, or as some of us suspect...a finanicial type of sabotage?

I don't see the ratings, but I know people here are getting hungry for some liberal radio. There is none.

In Dallas, the station that carried it was bought up by the Catholic church. They are organizing there to get some way of getting it back on the air.

Now that had nothing to do with ratings, it was a power play by the Catholic. Someone turned their radio on to hear Sam Seder on the long drive home...and they got a Catholic mass.

Do not tell me there is no demand.

[DocSavage]

37. There

is absolutly nothing stopping someone from purchasing a radio station and broadcasting AA. Other than there may not be a AA to broadcast.

Here is a blog that discusses ratings. http://radioequalizer.blogspot.com/2005/05/new-batch-of-radio-ratings-released.html

Don't start throwing conspiracy around, it is not like the White house and Rove force people to switch radio stations in thier cars or work. XM is great, got 3 receivers.

[ProSense]

19. Damn skippy!

It's funny that you characterize her BS portrayal of the party as saying "somthing positive about a republican." Is the Republican supposed to be Limpy, the radical right wing jerk?

"Radical left wing..." Give me a break!

[brentspeak]

22. Did you even watch the video that you linked to?

She didn't call the Democratic party the "radical left wing". In fact, she said the opposite: she said that the majority of Democrats are not the "radical left wing."

[ProSense]

26. Stop playing the apologist. You're trying to justify her shill!

Democrats are on "radiacal left wing," but Demcrats are Air America's audience. So what does it mean to characterize their audience as radical left wing?

[brentspeak]

27. No, I'm not playing the apologist; I'm pointing out your misrepresentation

A deliberate misrepresentation.

[ProSense]

29. What misrepresentation?

Schwartz: "I really believe America is more moderate and Democrat than they are liberal, left wing all the time constantly...."

Fox host:"what I hear you saying is that there...wasn't an audience for that sort of radical left wing radio."

Schwartz: "Yeah, I really don't think there is as big of audience of radical left wingers out there that Republicans paint it to be..."



Who are the radical left wingers she's referring to?

[shimbo]

7. Air America's Failure Was Predictable

There's just wasn't enough popular interest. I doubt if its "business model" was the problem. I predicted its failure over a year ago based on simple datamining techniques -

http://www.realmeme.com/roller/page/realmeme?entry=air_america_meme_another_successful

[madfloridian]

8. It will succeed..

Despite all the right wing charts and downtalking.

Some of us just want it to keep its heart.

Welcome to DU.

[papau]

13. Limbaugh's business model is buying time for an infomercial via

Scafie money and then offsetting the cost with a few ads in the national ad slots in the infomercial's structure- the net Scafie loss being between $25 million (the lowest estimate I have heard) and $50 million (the most common estimate and the highest estimate of the loss covered by "special revenue"). I don't believe many stations make a lot from the fee paid them to run the program and the dollars from the few ads they are able to sell in their local market in the few slots allocated to local market controlled ads and/or news and/or station ID and promo.

[brentspeak]

24. Hold on. Wait a minute. Rewind.

How was she "insulting to AAR and insulting to liberals"? She said that AAR had its business model targeted at a left-wing audience that simply doesn't exist in the large numbers the station believed there to be. In response to an accusation made by the smary FOX host, she refuted his claim that the Democrats are mostly "radical left wingers".

So, what's the problem?

[blm]

9. Laura Schwartz is a Clintoniite and they want to control the entire Dem

message for the next two years - and that is FULL-ON CENTRISM. Air America HAD to close down because there is no controlling every voice that can access it. Clinton's can handle that much better through the corpmedia.

Laura Schwartz is always making snide remarks in her appearances as if only the Clinton message has any ranking in the real world.

She treated the withdrawal debate as if Kerry, Murtha and Feingold were renegades who didn't have a clue.

[tech3149]

10. I coulnd't even listen to that crap

The first RW talking point I hear coming from a "so called liberal representative" I know I'm being fed a cow pattie they're telling me is an omelet. I may be shit-faced, but I'm not stupid.

[sandyd921]

35. My reaction too.

I couldn't listen to the whole thing. I had to stop it because I was about to :puke:

I'm tired of hearing that there isn't a liberal/progressive audience out there. There is an audience, however there is also a ton of AAR detractors who have done everything they can since day one to ensure that it is not successful. Let's not forget that Fox didn't make a profit until recently and that most RW media are being supported by rich right-wingers and generally not making a profit. It's also sounding like some of those who don't want AAR to succeed are now part of the management of AAR.

In answer to this so-called liberal commentator: was there a huge audience for Rush when he started out? How long did it take to build that audience?

[SeaBob]

11. Laura Schwartz

I just sent Laura Schwartz a nasty gram explaining the a democratic consultant never praises Rush Limbaugh. they don't ever criticize him but they NEVER praise a repuke

[SeaBob]

12. laura schwartz email address

[email protected]
Enjoy

[brentspeak]

23. Why?

Send angry emails to her for what reason?

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

14. "Dem Consultant": based on the bio linked above, seems like she

essentially organized and catered the social events. No Carville or Atwater, she.

[brentspeak]

18. s/d

[brentspeak]

21. What, exactly, was wrong with what Laura Schwartz said?

She said: 1) American Democrats are mostly moderate, not radical left-wing (true)

2) Air America didn't have a good business plan (true)

3) She begrudgingly gave Limbaugh one plaudit: "He's a brilliant businessman." (wrong word to use, in my opinion; he's a brilliant showman, ie. a skilled clown.)

4) Wall Street isn't Main Street; the success of wealthy investors has not helped Joe and Jane Lunchpail (true).

So, what's the whole point of your slam against her? All it does is alienate a Democrat who, from this appearance at least, doesn't deserve to be painted as "the enemy".

[ProSense]

25. Give me a break! Air America's audience

is not radical left wing! She is as guilty as anyone else in the media who is trying to paint a large portion of the Democratic base as fringe. It's BS!

[brentspeak]

28. She didn't say Air America's audience was "radical left wing"

That's what the host said, not her. She disputed the RW talking point that there's a huge bunch of radical left-wingers out there ("Yeah, I really don't think that there's as big a radical left wing audience out there that the Republicans sometimes paint it to be.")

[ProSense]

30. Wrong! I typed a snip of the comments in post 29!

The Fox person did not say that there was a huge audience, which he characterized as radical left wing. She agreed with the characterization as the reason Air America failed. That is saying their audience is radical left wing, which is BS!

[brentspeak]

31. All someone has to do is watch the clip

to know what was being said. Where did she say that Air America's audience was "radical left wing"? She didn't. In fact, it's impossible to really make any kind of negative judgement on her because she kept getting cut off by the host whenever she attempted to elaborate.

Based on what is shown on that clip, I'm not buying your mischaracterization of her.

[ProSense]

32. Make your own judgment. She is a shill! n/t

[ProSense]

34. Shill!

SCARBOROUGH: Is it not best for the Democratic Party to unify behind the Kerry position...

BUCHANAN: No, it is not!

(CROSSTALK)

BUCHANAN: You never do that, Joe! You never give the enemy a fixed position to attack! Rove and those people will blow them to pieces! They should have kept their maneuverability.

BEINART: The Democratic Party's biggest problem on national security for decades and decades has been they don't up and say what they really think. So what-Pat and I are actually talking about is what people should really think. That's what Democrats should be talking about. Put aside the polls. Go to the country and say what you really believe. And most Democrats, to their credit, do not want a fixed timetable for withdrawal for exactly the same reason that Pat gave, because they know that if this government falls in Iraq, there will be-it will be too nightmarish to contemplate. And they're right, and they should go and say that.

SCARBOROUGH: All right. Thank you so much.

SCHWARTZ: You're right. You're...

BUCHANAN: Go ahead.

SCARBOROUGH: Laura, go ahead. I'll give you the final word.

SCHWARTZ: Well, thanks, Joe. I really think that it comes down to taking debate to the people. This summer's going to really show a lot, as far as the grass roots organizations. But there's a great point to be made that this election and 2008 will be determined by the swing voters. The ones way on the left in our Democratic Party are going to hate our view of the war, are going to hate that-we're going to recognize and we're going to go forward with trying to win this thing. But we're going to get them, no matter what. Honestly, they're not going to vote Republican. But it's the swing voters and it's those moderate Republicans that we have to get.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13504283