Word: righting
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...little background. One: I'm on the political left - which might seem to make me part of the "liberal media" (is there any other kind?) against which the Radio Right froths and fulminates. Except that to me, Tom Brokaw and Judy Woodruff are not liberal; whatever their private beliefs, on camera they are part of the genteel, gray center, straining for the appearance of impartiality. By traditional standards of left and right, the network anchors deserve the liberal tag no more than NAFTA-loving, welfare-abolishing Bill Clinton does. I'd call Clinton a moderate Republican. The Radio Right would...
...time when the economy was robust and, for most Americans, the rest of the globe ceased to exist (Bosnia, Belfast, world hunger... yawn). On radio, the sports-talk format took hold; so, late at night, did the extraterrestrial conspiracy theories of Art Bell and his guests. The Radio Right needed a new hook, and a close presidential election was just the thing to energize the commentators and their faithful. Gore might not have excited his fans, but he certainly energized the fanatics...
...Nader liberals and Buchanan conservatives, Bush and Gore may be barely distinguishable: gush and bore, or Tweedledumb and Tweedledull. Their platforms agree on most important issues, ignore many others. But to the evangelical right - and regardless of religious affiliation, the radio reactionaries are evangelical in their fervor, their certainly, their tendency to demonize the opposition - Gore had to do as the new Clinton...
...didn't matter that the vice president lacked Clinton's musk; that he was a flustered understudy pushed into the limelight when the star's run had ended. The right could fluff Gore up to satanic status, for nearly the same reason late-night comics could turn his stiffness into schtick. In a business less interested in issues than in personalities, one group of entertainers needed somebody to laugh at; the other group needed somebody to be furious at. The impulse had as much to do with showbiz as with politics. When the post-election fray was joined by Jesse...
...Russo were doing their usual Martin-and-Lewis routine. But not about sports: about the election. And guess what? They both voted for Bush. It wasn't until late Wednesday night, on Joe Benigno's encounter-therapy session for Jets and Knicks fans, that I finally heard an anti-right suspicion voiced on New York radio. Doris in Rego Park, the nattering Queen Mum of sports-station callers, said of Florida Governor Jeb Bush, "He's gonna make sure that his brother is elected...