| Rush Limbaugh is the master of talk radio and he is also the head of his own "Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies." Limbaugh, leader of the pack, grand pooh-pah, or in the African-American vernacular, "High John the Conqueror," is the gunslinger extraordinaire with the fastest LPS ratio in the business. Rush is followed closely by his disciples: Bill O'Reilly with his "Factor" as well as Shawn Hannity with his sidekick, Mr. Colmes, Pat Buchannan, and the like. Aspiring to be like the master, the disciples have made major strides by increasing their LPS ratios in their meteoric rise to the top of the talk radio and the shock jock television mediums. What, might you ask is the "LPS ratio?" The LPS ratio derives from their ability to tell more Lies Per Second than anyone else in the industry. They are second to none! I must admit, whenever I find myself at a loss for issues to write about or to give commentary for The Hues, I turn to the prime time slots for the Limbaugh, O'Reilly and Hannity axis and they never fail to let me down. I don't have to spend too much time waiting for them to deliver for me either! Their LPS ratios have made them very efficient when it comes to obfuscation, lies, and half-truths. Recently, I had occasion to visit with two of my older brothers who are both retired and residing in Virginia Beach, VA. The brother who is my closest age-mate is a retired US Marine with 24 years of distinguished service including two tours in "Nam." With so much free time on his hands, I quickly observed that he spent most of his idle "TV" time watching Fox. Without going into any detail, you can believe that he and I had some very spirited conversations about the war in Iraq, U.S. Foreign Policy, and many of the issues of the day. At the end of the week I hope that I somehow left him with the notion that it was not intellectually healthy for him to get all of his news from one source. Nobody should get ALL of the news from one source! The sources for getting news, views, and opinions have never been more bountiful. Anyone who makes minimal effort can get access to cable news channels, newspapers, and radio stations locally, nationally, and even world-wide. Indeed, the fact that so much is so readily available has made it hard for many of us to figure out where to go to get pertinent and reliable information. Rush Limbaugh's "Institute for Conservative Studies" is neither! Bill O'Reilly "Factor" plays fast and loose with the "facts." The most laughable of all of them is Hannity and Colmes who recently celebrated their 10th year on Fox. Here you have the ultimate setup with the proverbial straw horse -- Mr. Colmes. He plays the role of the "loyal liberal opposition." Colmes is the "Tonto" for "Keemasabbi" or the Washington Generals for the Harlem Globe Trotters -- he comes close with his arguments but never wins! And then there is Patrick Buchannan, the national syndicated columnist whose recent book has been released just in time for the upcoming election where he has transformed "Willie Horton" into "Jose" Horton. In Wisconsin, we have the up and coming arch conservative youngster Mark Hyman on our local Fox affiliate and the syndicated columnist and shock jock extraordinaire Charlie Sykes who regularly sends his ideological barbs across the state from Milwaukee! All of them work very hard to push their "unfair" and "unbalanced" ideological agenda! Let me be out front and state my bias directly. I don't subscribe to the right wing's agenda nor their view of reality and the world. Does that mean that I close them out and refuse to listen to what they have to say? Absolutely not. And that is not certainly what I would have recommended to my brother or anyone else. Fundamentally, everyone should ask himself or herself the questions, "From where do you get your news?" "What sources do you have to give you a broader perspective, to give you the 'other side?'" Just as it is prudent to get a second opinion when it comes to surgery or major medical decisions, everyone should seek to obtain as many independent sources as possible for their news. One has to give the right wing conservatives the credit for backing their opposites into an undesirable corner. Their deliberate strategy was to make everything good into something that is bad. A major step in this process was to equate everything associated with being a "liberal" into something that is evil and bad, akin to a leper or some type of dreaded disease. I remember when the concept of "political correctness" emerged for the first time. Think about it, if being "politically correct" was not a good thing, then the only acceptable alternative was to be "apolitical" and "incorrect!" In a recent interview, Larry King asked Walter Cronkite how he would characterize the state of affairs for the American people and our nation after more than 50 years in the journalism business. Mr. Cronkite lamented the fact that the American people appear to be more naive, gullible, and capable of being manipulated more so than at any other time that he could recall in our nation's history. Cronkite's comments bring to mind a famous quote that gets at the heart of this issue. Carter G. Woodson -- the Father of Black History Month -- said in the 1930s in his book, "The Mis-Education of the Negro," "When you mis-educate a Negro, you teach the Negro to always enter through the back door. In fact, this mis-education of the Negro will not only teach the Negro to enter through the back door, but it will equip him with the mental tools to construct a back door when there is none." What is happening in our nation is that the increased concentration of the media by right wing ideologues like Ruppert Murdock and all of his friends on Fox have contributed to the "dumbing-down" of the electorate with hot-button, religious, and social issues with the result that many have come to support politicians and legislation that undermine their own political and economic self-interest -- and by extension, the greater good of our nation. Fortunately, there are many other alternatives for news that can provide one with different and critical views of Fox and some of the right wing conservative pundits. For many years, I have been a regular viewer of Chris Mathews on MSNBC. More recently though, his "Hard Ball" show appears to be morphing into "Soft Ball" or perhaps even "Whiffle Ball" as he gives more deference and panders increasingly to the right. The show that follows him each evening during prime time is Keith Obermann's "Count Down." Obermann's ratings continue to skyrocket, particularly from viewers left of center. He has taken on Bill O'Reilly head on and his segment "Playing Odd-Ball" seems to be poking fun at Chris Mathews. The Sunday morning talk shows also provide more perspective. I like Tim Russett's "Meet the Press" on NBC, "Sunday Morning" on CBS, and especially "This Week" with George Stephanopolous. In the latter, I find the discussions between George Will and Fareed Zakaria most enlightening. Similarly, while most of the focus of "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace are almost always to the far right of center, NPR Correspondent Juan Williams does very well in pushing the liberal view against Brit Hume and Billy Kristol. For the print medium, I suggest the New York Times and The Washington Post, both of which can be accessed for free via the web. Finally, two other good sources of news using comedy as a medium can be found by tuning in to "The Daily Show" and Al Franken on Air America. The bottom line is that as we move closer and closer to this very key mid-term election and beyond, we all need to take extra steps to incorporate as many voices and perspectives as possible if we are to make informed decisions on the issues and votes we support on November 7th. |
| The Literary Divide/ Dr. Paul Barrows The Institute, the Factor, and the rise of the LPS ratio |
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