The Bowtie Parade

Atrios has an article about Tucker Carlson, yet another wingnut television personality, possibly getting his very own show on MSNBC.

Carlson is one of those opinion guys: facts are irrelevant but wingnut opinions valuable to air. He's also on the PBS, the scummiest of the scummy in the SCLM (so-called liberal media). Carlson is like George Will in sporting a bowtie. A bowtie may be the new secret handshake for wingnut boys; it tells that the wearer has read the hundred greatest works of Western civilization and still hates the poor and the oppressed. A signal, if you like. Wingnut girls have a really short skirt as a similar signal.

So. Now we have a liberal media which is so liberal that it hands over all the choicest spots to wingnut bowties and mini-skirts. Note that there isn't a single far-left talking head anywhere on the mainstream television, not a single one. There is only one program left where the host is openly on the left, and that is Bill Moyer's old show, Now, which is going to be cut into one half of its length. And then there is Keith Olberman on MSNBC who may sometimes discuss lefty issues. That's it. Two shows or bits of two shows, and the media is liberal? What about Novak? What about the Fox News? What about Chris Matthews? Joe Scarborough? Pat Buchanan, for Chrissake!

It's not that the left lacks talent. Actually, the wingnuts lack talent. Many of these radical right shows are terrible, and the only requirement for the talking heads seems to be that they are to the right of the old Attila. Now this is what I'd call affirmative action of the foulest sort. Why doesn't Molly Ivins have her own show? Why doesn't Katha Pollitt have her show? Why isn't Al Franken on television? Then there's Ann Richards and Jim Hightower from Texas and so many, many more.

The answer is, of course, so very simple. The media is not liberal. It is owned by right-wingers, and the bits that are not are scared of our present government's maffia-like tactics. Those who speak against the government are punished: reputations are lost overnight, new jobs don't materialize and vilification will go on 24/7. You can get away with a little criticism if you are like Bill Moyers, well-known, respected and retiring anyway. For anyone else it's a really suicidal mission.