Fraters Libertas

To Be Or Not To Be?

Say what you will about the Liberal Radio Network, it's already among the most entertaining entities in all of broadcasting. And they don't even have any shows on the air yet. Who knows if they ever will? Instead, every month or so we get riveting updates on their continuous Hamlet-like deliberations over their very existence. Who are we? Why are we here? Is there a marketplace demand for our product? Not exactly questions you want to start asking yourself AFTER you've made your investment. But classic business model theory has little to do with the Liberal Radio venture. All they know is they want to lessen the influence of conservative talk radio so as to win more elections and they're convinced they're the smarter and funnier people and that's enough to get the business off the ground. The little details like actually producing shows and finding ways to attract and hold listeners apparently will take care themselves.

The latest update comes to us from Byron York on NRO. Apparently the first group of visionaries and investors in liberal radio have dropped out and a new more media savvy and experienced group has taken over. They're calling themselves Progress Media and led by Mark Walsh, a former America Online and HBO executive. And he does seem to understand that any radio program will need to be more than politically correct. It will need to be entertaining too, which hasn't been the case with previous attempts:

While some liberals have blamed the demise of those shows on a poor distribution network, Walsh has a more honest take. "They weren't very entertaining," he says. "On the progressive side, we're often accused of having radio or entertainment that sounds like eat-your-vegetables scolding. It's got a slight air of education, of 'I'm right, and you're going to learn why.' And we just concluded that that's not a winner."

Well, at least he gets the conclusion correct. Liberal radio hasn't been entertaining for a non partisan audience. But it's hard to appreciate Walsh's insight through his condescension. Notice how he's subtly blaming the listeners for not appreciating the substance of the “progressive side,” because it has an “air of education to it.” And in their minds that doesn't work with the talk radio crowd. (Which is why all I want for Christmas is a drool cup, for when I'm listening to the education-free mumblings of Prager, Medved, Hewitt, et al.).

It's this very contempt for the audience that threatens to doom their efforts to nothing more than an NPR sized niche audience. Also threatening to doom them is their proposed remedy for the failures of the past:

To guard against creeping earnestness, Walsh has hired Lizz Winstead, one of the creators of Comedy Central's The Daily Show, as his head of entertainment programming. Indeed, the company's executives often point to The Daily Show as a model of the kind of programming the new network will showcase. Talk to any one of them for any length of time, and they'll tell you over and over that they want it to be funny.

Lizz Winstead - head of programming? Ugh. She's a local girl and used to ply her alleged comedic talent around town. I say "alleged" since my memory of her act is an angry leftist rant interspersed with sneering social commentary (think Garrison Keilor without the washboard thumping). As an example of her style, she's listed on something called Brainy Quotes:

I think, therefore I'm single.

To repeat: ugh. As my retort, I paraphrase a true comedic genius, Krusty the Clown: "These female comedians always talking about their periods and about the last time they went to the bathroom. Do they really wonder why they can't win a husband?”

The Daily Show is a funny program, but only because of its current creative team, led by host Jon Stewart. It's excellence has nothing to do with Lizz Winstead. She quit in a thin skinned huff years ago over some allegedly sexist comments former host (and Minnesota native) Craig Kilborne made to a magazine.

And the show was painfully mediocre during the Kilborne/Winstead years. Winstead may have been one of the creators of it, but at its essence it's just another news satire program. It took no creative genius to come up with the concept, it suceeds or fails on its execution alone. And for that she has no track record of success. Or a track record supporting any of the other Progress Media goals. Comments from Mark Walsh:

With a new name and new money, the new owners are trying to redefine the idea of liberal talk radio. For one thing, they don't want to call it liberal. Walsh prefers "centrist": "To label ourselves as liberal radio out of the box is a little regrettable, and something I'm trying to avoid," he says. Part of his goal, Walsh explains, is to "scrape off the taint of negativism" that has come to be associated with the word liberal -- a project which he acknowledges "is going to take some time."

From Lizz Winstead, an essay she wrote after the September 11 attacks:

”It's our job [as comedians] to challenge our politicians and our policies. It's our job to hold them accountable for whatever role our country has played in a world theater that brings out a level of hatred so deep that innocent lives are destroyed here and elsewhere. It's our job to use our ability to reach millions of people in a way that informs as well as entertains.”

There's some centrism for you. And I can't wait to find out how she intends to "entertain" people by discussing why the US is responsible for causing the World Trade Center to be blown up.

Earlier Walsh was quoted as saying: "... we're often accused of having radio or entertainment that sounds like eat-your-vegetables scolding. It's got a slight air of education, of 'I'm right, and you're going to learn why. And we just concluded that that's not a winner."

And more from Lizz Winstead:

The best comedy rises from anger that has done its homework and courageously steps forward. This is the kind of work that we will never, ever have to apologize for. Done right, it is anything but trivial. Done right, it speaks the truth.

Whoa - angry, pedantic, and arrogant. No wonder she's the sweetheart of Sigma Chi.

And finally, Winstead's view of the intended audience of Progress Media:

Lizz openly disdains the modern comedy audience and theorizes on how Jerry Springer killed the comedy star: "I don't know that stand-up is great anywhere anymore. It's just hacks. We have a generation of people schooled to be an audience by watching daytime talk shows. It's horrifying."

The head of entertainment programming calling the tastes of the intended audience “horrifying”? Maybe she does have something in common with Progress Media after all.