Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

The New Media continues to rile the left. They try to compete, bless their little hearts.

The millions that tune into nationally-syndicated Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and a legion of right-leaning local hosts across the country daily has spooked the left for years.

In response to conservative talk radio, liberals launched Air America Radio, now heard on 53, yes 53 stations, nationwide. The latest "personality" to join their team is Jerry Springer. Enlisting the wit and wisdom of Jerry Springer is their most recent sign of desperation to boost their dismal ratings. The only problem there is the radio doesn't allow for images of catfights by overweight women over a dentally-impaired scrawny man.

I find it very amusing that the radio voice of the left has brought Springer on board. One could argue his long-running television program was an exercise in exploitation at its best and positively demeaning at its worst. It seems a bit inappropriate for the self-proclaimed enlightened left to look to a man who built a career on raunch and the degradation of women to be their radio voice. Nonetheless, Air America looks to Springer for reasoned commentary.



Another arena that the right rules is the Internet. Enter Arianna Huffington from stage left.

She is establishing "The Huffington Report" to combat Matt Drudge's phenomenally successful and politically influential "Drudge Report."

From Variety:

In a move unlikely only because it's taken this long to happen, pundit-about-town Arianna Huffington is extending her hosting largess to the blogosphere.

This month the wannabe California governor is launching a Slate-like Web site where a cast of bigwigs, including Sen. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.), David Geffen, Barry Diller, Larry David, Tom Freston, Ari Emanuel, Jim Wiatt, Tina Brown and Harold Evans will each have their own blog from which to spout Big Thoughts about politics.

Huffington wouldn't comment, but it was confirmed that a soft-launch of the Huffington Report would be up and running before the end of April.

It will be interesting to see how these honchos fare in the Wild West of the 'Net...

Unlike corporations, the Internet does not provide legions of publicists and spinmeisters to keep the public at bay.

From the New York Observer:

The Observer has learned that Warren Beatty, the 68-year-old actor and director, will likely join a lineup of liberal all-stars who will "group blog" on a Web site to be launched next month by columnist Arianna Huffington...

"I look forward to the Warren Beatty News Network," Mr. Drudge cracked, before asking: "So they really are serious about this, aren’t they?"

The Hollywooders appear to be. The partisan left has slowly been constructing outlets to counterbalance the partisan right’s perceived influence in radio and television (Air America; former Vice President Al Gore’s TV channel). Ms. Huffington, Mr. Beatty and Co., however, are aiming not at the margins but at the center of the media scrum: the news cycle itself, now being deftly nudged, goosed and spun by Mr. Drudge—daily, hourly, instantly...

Mr. [David] Brock said he saw a place for Ms. Huffington’s project.

"I think it’s long overdue," he said. "I’ve always felt that progressives have information and another entity could be fed. I think it could be very successful."
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And let's not forget AGTV, Al Gore's cable channel project to promote "democratic dialogue."

There is a clear and orchestrated effort by the left to catch up to the right's rule of the New Media. The left has all but conceded the impotence of the mainstream media, their personal purveyor of propaganda.

If "The Huffington Report" is as successful as Air America, Drudge shouldn't be worried.

I pity those on the left. They lead lives of noisy desperation.