Atheist image dump

[Davin]

[Davin]

[MariaEvri]

[MariaEvri]

[Cecilie]

Ignorant people are fun to laugh at.

[Tank]

Oh FFS! What a moron!!

[MariaEvri]

funnier when they get angry

[missedtheboat]

[Sophus]

[oscarstrok]

[Sophus]

[Tank]

It really does make one wonder about TV on America when a raving lunatic can get prime time air time just because he wears a suit and tie and claims to believe a mainstream delusion. F***ing incredible! He'd be laughed off air in the UK and probably most of Europe too!

[fester30]

It really does make one wonder about TV on America when a raving lunatic can get prime time air time just because he wears a suit and tie and claims to believe a mainstream delusion. F***ing incredible! He'd be laughed off air in the UK and probably most of Europe too!

I've got ideas about that, mind you these are just personal opinions with no studies to back them up...

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/06/pdf/talk_radio.pdf

Okay first thing to note, again, is that I'm about to speak just from my opinion.  I'll point out that the report in the url above was done by a self-labeled progressive group, and that any study of conservative vs liberal has to be taken with a bit of skepticism due to those labels being subjective.  

That report lays out some ideas of that group as to why conservative talk radio is winning by a landslide over liberal talk radio.  It doesn't really matter for the sake of my argument why conservatives are dominating the talk radio airwaves, just that they are and have been for quite a long time.  When MSNBC and Fox News both started up in 1996, they both had lineups of "anchors" that had talk radio experience.  It would make some sense to do this if you wanted your shows to have interviews of pundits and experts, and wanted some entertainment value.  There wasn't a huge pool of talent to pull from with a lot of television experience in this area.  Also, taking a successful radio broadcaster and putting him on television potentially brought radio listeners into your television channel, boosting ratings.

Fox News, early on, had names such as Bill O'Reilly, Neil Cavuto, Hannity and Colmes.  MSNBC had names such as John Gibson, Ann Coulter, and Laura Ingraham.  All of these names for both channels were noted conservative hosts.  Yes, even at MSNBC.

During the 2000 presidential race, Fox News positioned itself as anti-Gore, whether intentionally, or by virtue of its hosts.  Since its inception, Fox News has repeatedly lured successful conservative radio and tv hosts to its network.  In the last few years, they got Glenn Beck and Lou Dobbs from CNN (although Dobbs went to Fox Business).  John Gibson, Ann Coulter, and Laura Ingraham have all aligned themselves with Fox News after starting out with MSNBC.  Fox News, in my opinion, has been winning the cable news ratings wars for a few reasons.

They get the top talent from conservative talk radio, which brings more viewers than the top talent in liberal talk radio.
While other cable and even network news channels split viewership from liberals and independents, Fox News has successfully positioned itself as THE place to go for conservatives.
Fox News panders to paranoia in politics, religion, and even race.  While American culture is continually updated with the cultures of immigrants from around the world, as well as culture shifts from inside our own borders, Fox News brands themselves as the defender of what they call American values.  This really means they are standing up for the conservative white culture that appreciates Jesus instead of Muhammad; saying Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays; wearing pants at the waistline instead of sagging; adult contemporary instead of rap music; apple pie, Chevrolet, baseball, and Joe the Plumber instead of fried ice cream, Toyota, soccer, and Juan the Gardener.  They play on the fear that some Americans have that immigrants and minorities are out to steal their jobs, and immigrant and minority cultures are out to replace rock n roll with hip hop.  Just look at atrocities such as Beastie Boys.

What's really dangerous is they do get huge ratings, and their viewership votes.  MSNBC in recent years has marketed itself as the progressive alternative to Fox News, and has seen ratings improve.

[Sophus]

[fester30]

From your HAF weather nerd.