The Faithful Skeptic

Blogs and Talk Radio???
There’s a really interesting article here that discusses the political implications of blogging and makes a very interesting comparison of blogging to talk radio. The main difference between the two, however (as their argument goes), is that blogging keeps a history. The consequence is that your political foes (should you be so lucky as to have political foes) can go back and check your archives at any point. Talk radio, on the other hand, doesn’t provide the same convenience. One interesting argument is that people are surprised by the extremism of conservative talk radio because relatively few people are exposed to it, and it is much more difficult to track the history of what any particular commentator actually says.

One of the best examples is that of Rush Limbaugh’s short stint on ESPN. The author argues he was hired because the demographics of his show reflected the crowd ESPN wanted to reach. They never bothered to carefully check what he actually believed or had said. So Rush makes one comment that is construed as racist, and he’s gone. They argue that he probably wouldn’t have ever been offered the job if the producers at ESPN had paid much attention to the stuff he was saying.

Uh oh…so my posts here might potentially be derailing my 2008 run for the Presidency?!?! Better stop now.

posted by Brian @ 12:37 PM