26 November 2007
Finding a Balance
Posted by Terrie Soberg under: Talk Show Observations .
Talk show hosts are providing a valuable service for America by covering what the mainstream media does not. I think that many of them are also doing a dis-service by adding to the cultural war that is tearing this country apart.
First, there is Rush Limbaugh. What he does well is to encourage optimism. What he does wrong is turn some conservatives and many moderates into liberals. Psychologists have long taught that when we continually place a label on someone, they will eventually internalize that label. Today for instance, a caller was sharing concerns over the war. After the call, Rush referred to the previous caller as a liberal democrat. He continually does this, even when many callers identify themselves as a conservative. Most of the conservative talk show hosts do the same. If the caller questions any single part of the conservative platform, they are often treated harshly, called names, labeled a flaming liberal and often hung up on. So, in order to avoid a feeling of being out of step, isolated from our kind, people are corralled into swallowing every issue. A conservative cannot believe it would have been better not to get into the war. We are not allowed to believe there are a few problems with free trade that ought to be addressed. We definitely are not allowed to believe that perhaps there is a small problem with pollution effecting our environment. Even if we think that liberals take the problem of environment to an extreme, we have to swing all the way to one side or the other on the pendulum, no moderate view, no attempt for one side to understand the other to any degree. This degree of polarization forces the other camp to further entrench.
Sean Hannity does a great job of highlighting the problem of securing the border. He also warns us of the country’s dangerous march toward socialism. On the other side of the coin, he calls people names, like today, he called liberals vitriolic, deranged and filled with hatred. When a gentleman called to talk about healthcare, Sean played the words “get off the phone ya big dope” and hung up on the man. The caller used the word cronies but was not disrespectful and was only given a few seconds.
Mark Levin today had to cancel a book signing because of a liberal blogger who organized a rally to disrupt the signing of a non-political book about a dog. Part of the proceeds for the book will go to non-profit animal shelters. This kind of radical action is tearing people apart. I appreciate the fact that the safety of his readers was more important than any money that might be made, but Mr. Levin does not help the situation with his demeaning of any caller who does not stay perfectly in line with his thinking.
I am not attacking these men personally, but I would love to get out the message to them and others on both sides that are making the problem worse. People with a voice have a responsibility to help bind Americans in a cultural unity, not break us as a nation. Even when our tongues are loaded with ammunition, we can refuse to fire but can use reason and persuasion instead of hatred and labels. What I hope is that our readers will help get the message out that if we do not treat others with respect, then our culture is in trouble. Are we really supposed to believe that we should fight this word war until every single person in the country agrees with us? That is not going to happen. We absolutely must be able to allow others to disagree with us without treating them as the enemy.
Help us get the word out.
One Comment so far...
Joy Says:
27 November 2007 at 5:30 pm.
Terrie, interesting timing with your blog. Today Sean Hannity used the word respect more than once when talking with liberals and he was a lot nicer. It almost made me wonder if he read what you wrote. Probably other people are talking about this issue as well and maybe if we all do our part, we can get people to be a little kinder.
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