Maybe the lack of liberal talk shows has more to do with the lack of a liberal market. If your audience would rather be listening to something besides talk, or would rather hear a music historian review a new book/CD set about Hoagie Carmichael (heard on NPR the other day), that's what you give them.

My grandfather once told me that I had two ears and one mouth for a reason: I was supposed to listen twice as much as I talk, because I would learn things that way. Having become curious about talk radio a while ago, I listened to some, and discovered most hosts apparently have two mouths and one ear. And Americans wonder why we are ruder to each other... People are listening to this in their cars on the way to work, and that right foot just edges further to the floor as the adrenline levels and the blood pressure goes up. Road rage, anyone?

Rush, at least, I can now excuse for all the yelling. My older relatives who are hard of hearing yell quite a bit too. They think they're talking in a normal tone.

Remember the last section of the Post article, Tom? It begins:

Now, Harrison surmises, "we're getting dangerously close to saturation."

Politics tends to act like a pendulum in this country. Beware.

I especially liked the reference to the Lone Liberal. Since ordinary liberals increasingly decline to cue up to be interrupted and yelled at and insulted and hung up on, some guy in a mask is hired to provide target practice. But I suppose that's the free market at work: if one can't attract the opposition with charm and scintillating conversation, one can always cut a check. Johns do it all the time.

Regards--
Mary Anne