In the news…
Yesterday there were two items in the shadow of health care that interested me…
First, Fox News has been cut off by the Obama administration (at least for the remainder of this year) as retribution for their network refusing to carry the Presidential health care address and its sub-par editorial standards. That was something I thought was long-overdue, but I wondered what Republicans thought of it.
The second story that I think could be particularly important is that Rush Limbaugh is having trouble purchasing a football team. I’ve said it before in other venues, but I’ll say it again here: the reason Rush Limbaugh is so influential has nothing to do with his audience size, per se. After all, only 20 million (out of over 300 million) Americans listen to him in any given week.
No. The reason Limbaugh is influential is that of all the “news” media personalities, he dwarfs his competition. Chris Matthews has an audience of, on a good day, 2 million. Bill O’Reilly – the highest-rated TV host, doesn’t even come close to 5 million in a night. Even the network news anchors can only salivate over Rush’s numbers; nobody else in “news” media comes close.
So what ends up happening is that all of these egos that spend their time chasing ratings look over at Rush and attempt to follow his lead.
What they forget is that Rush is an entertainer. You cannot maintain journalistic integrity and draw the numbers Rush gets. You have to hype fear and unwarranted victimism. That’s the formula for Beck, O’Reilly, Dobbs, Hannity and everyone other Limbaugh mini-me.
Alas, if you are an ego chasing ratings, that lesson comes hard.
Anyway, here are a few videos of me chasing these stories:
Steve King:
John Kline:
Phil Roe:
(btw: As you know, for the most part I’m not particularly fond of Republicans. But I like Phil Roe. He, like I did, spent some of his youth growing up in a home with a dirt floor and no running water. After he got done with this interview, he hopped on the subway. I’m not sure of this, but I believe our Representatives get a per diem to cover transportation costs. Any Congressman Roe chose the subway instead of a cab or car service. Kudos to him!)
Hi Mike,
Congratulations on your new web site. I am with you; I would not want Phil Roe speaking on behalf of the Republican party. He is too likeable.
Seriously, though, thanks for what you do. Unlike Rep Roe, I do not count on the traditional media for my information. I prefer new media sources such as yours.
Finally, two story ideas:
1) Is it possible to know the annual salary of the cable news anchors and principal correspondents? I know they are paid a lot, but I believe seeing actual numbers next to their names would help people realize why “access” rather than “truth” has become the primary journalistic pursuit.
2) It would be nice to see profiles of individual representatives. We are all familiar with Alan Grayson, but because the House is so large it is harder to know who’s who.
Thanks again and keep up the great work!
Randell Carr
15 Oct 09 at 6:19 am
Mike, you’re doing a great job! I just paypal’d u $25, and thats just for starters,
…and the opportunity to give you some advice.
change ‘without comment’ to “add comment’
If you ever get ANYONE from the Utah delegation (including Matheson) ESPECIALLY Jason Chavetz (serious wingnut, who beat Chris Cannon in the primary by going further right), please let me know so I can cross post it on http://www.oneutah.org.
Keep up the great work!
Cliff
15 Oct 09 at 8:28 am
…and do not moderate comments. I promise it won’t bite you in the a$$.
Cliff
15 Oct 09 at 8:29 am
This being a new blog and all, it took me a while to find the comment moderation panel. The last time I had a WP blog, it emailed me whenever a new comment was posted. I was surprised to find that there were no comments for so long! Anyway, I finally noticed the pending comments on my admin panel.
Re – took your advice re comment verbiage. Found the stylesheet and fixed it. Better now, I hope.
Re – Utah Reps: I will look for them. Give me something specific to ask if you have it; I want to provide the local service if and when possible, but I don’t hear every story from every district, so I have to depend on y’all a lot for that.
Mike Stark
16 Oct 09 at 10:08 am