The Right Opinion
The Great Debate
WASHINGTON -- Here I am on the campaign trail, frenetically promoting my book, "The Death of Liberalism." I appear on scores of radio interviews, in and out of the studio. I appear on Fox News and C-SPAN. I hardly have time for dinner, but it could be more demanding still. I could be invited to appear on mainstream media, as it is still quaintly called. Yet I am not. ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and MSNBC do not call. I, the editor of a major magazine from the right that has been around for 45 years, have written a book arguing that a major political ideology, Liberalism, is dead, and no one in the mainstream media seems to think it merits even a spitball. Things have changed even more than the mainstream media knows.
Thirty years ago, when I came out with a book, all the above networkS -- at least all the above networks that were then in business -- would have me on. They thought I was crazy, but they would have me on. Through all these years, my views have not changed or radicalized. They remain pretty much fixed, though possibly I am a little bit more liberal. I am more tolerant of sexual diversity. I have flipped and oppose capital punishment. I am open to reforming the criminal justice system to treat nonviolent crime differently from violent crimes. But today, the mainstream media is alien country to me. I cannot get in even with a green card. Three, possibly four, presidents have been my friends, but I remain persona non grata with mainstream media, especially when I talk about politics.
The voices of conventional mainstream media never tire of mawkishly saying that something has changed in America. In this I agree with them. Yet as my hordes of publicists spread out through medialand, tempting the personages with appetizing morsels of my thesis, only the conservatives bite. The Liberals turn a stony face. In 2009, when Sam Tanenhaus came out with a book titled "The Death of Conservatism," they clapped their hands, though there was no evidence in the book to support its thesis, and a year later, on October 19, 2010, as the conservatives were about to have their mightiest victory in decades, the unfortunate Tanenhaus came out with a second edition now in paperback!
Today, of course, the mainstream media bewail how polarized the political landscape has become. They fret over the violent language, the dirty tricks, the lack of dialogue. But what they are fretting about is that there has over the past thirty years appeared a point of view that disagrees with the serried ranks of Liberalism. It is the point of view held by 42 percent of the American people. It is the point of view that has dominated politics since Ronald Reagan's election and gained emphasis since President Bill Clinton threw up his hands and said, "The era of big government is over." It was in retreat in the last years of George W. Bush and perhaps the first six months of President Obama, but now it is again dominant. It is also a perfectly respectable point of view.
As I continue on my campaign, I am increasingly aware that what has changed in the country is mainstream media. They are less hospitable to conservatives. They act like a political party, an especially partisan party. Conservatives have emerged in media to express their point of view on major issues of the day. This is diversity of opinion that the increasingly partisan mainstream media cannot countenance, and so they say it is shocking. It is incendiary. It is closed-minded.
Actually, one of the rare figures on television or radio that strenuously works to include both the left and the right in debates is -- prepare yourself -- Sean Hannity of Fox News. He really works at it. He airs people who disagree with him and he lets the left and the right have at each other. As for mainstream media, if it airs a debate between the left and the right, the person on the right is usually a critic of the right who feigns a therapeutic message for conservatism, say, David Frum, a man with no standing on the right.
I say wherever I go nowadays that Liberalism is dead. One piece of evidence is mainstream media. It pretends the dominant political view in the country, conservatism, does not exist.
COPYRIGHT 2012 CREATORS.COM
4 Comments
wjm
Thursday, May 24, 2012 at 11:02 AM
Liberals are so deluded in their thinking, and the stooges that Hanity has on prove their intellectual incompetence. I hope the harm done by these traitors has wakened America to the failed ideology of Marx, but we are a long way from home with the Dept of Indoctrination warping the young minds of America. The media today is nothing more than a 30 minute infomercial of propoganda with a goal of electing Obamao. They have no credibility, and are sorely lacking in any integrity or morals, they are Democrats.
billy396
Thursday, May 24, 2012 at 2:41 PM
The 'mainstream media' have stopped even trying to appear unbiased. They're almost as unbiased as PBS and NPR. They act as cheerleaders for Oblunder and studiously ignore his every gaffe, just as thoroughly as they jumped on every perceived mistake or mis-spoken word by G.W. Bush. It's absolutely sickening that the Socialists have taken control over the media, the insurance industry, the auto industry, the Healthcare industry, the energy industry, and just about everything else in America in just a few years. Unless you're going to praise Barry Oblunder, your chances of getting any time with the major networks is pretty small. The worst part is the fact that many otherwise seemingly intelligent Americans get their "news" from these sources. They're so busy living their own lives, and staying current with popular 'culture' that they can't be bothered to do any research of their own. With millions of people who have "Dancing with the Stars" as one of their most important parts of the day, it's a wonder anyone even bothers to vote. Their kids are being programmed at school to back the Socialists, the gays, and any "minority" that they can't be bothered to learn any of the enduring legacies that were left to us by our founding fathers. Oblunder will never change his view that we should continue to raise taxes and raise spending, therefore those youngsters will live their lives as slaves to the state, paying tax rates that will be about 70%, in another 30 or 40 years. I'm glad I'll be gone by then. If I had any children of my own, I'd be in a huge quandary on what to tell them to do. I'd probably tell them to move to Canada if Oblunder wins a 2nd unearned term.
murray abraham
Friday, May 25, 2012 at 1:00 PM
If you had bothered to come up with a book about how Conservatism is alive you probably would have been invited.A week doesn't go by without a conservative hit job on Liberalism. The topic is exhausted.
Gene Greathouse
Friday, May 25, 2012 at 5:50 PM
Aside from the whine, which of course is what this is, my heart goes out to you as the victim of a wicked MSM plot to keep your book under wraps, you and Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein ought to go on a self-funded book tour. Neither of you are getting any love from the MSM. There is no conspiracy of the MSM to hush you or them up, neither of you fit the story the MSM chooses to tell. You and your story are irrelavant to them. Ever since BushCo, the MSM has been a propaganda arm of News Corp, Viacom and the other media giants. If you don't fit the story they wish to tell, you become invisible. We are all behind the information eight ball, progressives and conservatives, both. The MSM has no inbterest in US knowing what's really going on. If we know what's happening, we will be less easily managed. This is not a left/right issue, this is a 99% issue.