September 30, 2012

The Talking Point for Reelecting Obama

If you read the comment posts from blog posts about whether or not liberals should vote for Obama in the 2012 election, you will eventually come across the following talking point from someone who plans to vote for Obama:

Obama will be quite a bit better than Romney on a number of issues that matter.

When making this statement, the person never mentions the issues that matter or describes how Obama would be better than Romney on any of them. It's apparently self-evident so there's no need to back up the statement with any evidence.

July 30, 2012

Who NBC News Serves

As you're probably aware the Olympics are going on right now. NBC is airing Olympic coverage on multiple networks, including their two cable news networks: MSNBC and CNBC. MSNBC is a general news network, and CNBC is a business news network.

Because the Olympics are in London, providing live coverage involves televising during the day in the United States. NBC is providing weekday coverage during the day on one of their news networks. Guess which one.

If you guessed MSNBC, you're right. This decision shows NBC's news priorities. Business and Wall Street news is more important than general news. Remember that the next time some TV news windbag tells you about how important the news is.

July 10, 2012

Why Liberal Third Parties Aren't Viable

You can find the answer in an online chat with Bill Press where he talked about his new book, The Obama Hate Machine. The chat has several hundred comments, but you don't have to read them all. Press hints at the answer in two comments. The first comment is Comment #13.

Just want to make sure everybody knows that my daily radio show is now broadcast live on Current TV. Check Current.com to find out how to find Current on cable provider you have at home: Verizon, Comcast, Direct TV, or whatever. Show airs M-F, 6-9 a.m. EST. Check it out!

The second comment is Comment #82.

The only way for liberals/progressives/independents, whatever, to offer a choice is to organize and form a viable third party. I’m all for it. But until we’ve got one, I’ll choose between the two options we’ve got. And there’s NO WAY I’m going to turn the White House over to Bain Capital and give Mitt a chance to further stack the Supreme Court.

Media exposure would help a third party become viable. Press broadcasts 15 hours a week on radio and television. If Press cared about having a viable third party, he could invite members of the Green Party on his show. I'm sure they would appreciate the exposure. He could talk to a Green Party member once a week for 15 minutes; 15 minutes out of his 15 hours. 15 minutes a week would help the Green Party become viable.

Liberal third parties aren't viable because liberals like Bill Press would rather spend their airtime bashing Republicans and making excuses for Democrats than helping a party with liberal values become viable.