Define Conservatives vs. Liberals

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

John Hinderaker on Drudge on Air America and Liberal Media 

If there's one thing you can count on at Power Line Blog, it's regurgitation of right-wing crap with no analysis. Take this for example:

Power Line: Liberals Tune Out
The Drudge Report notes that left-wing media aren't faring too well at the moment. Crashing the Gate, by Markos Moulitsos of the Daily Kos, has sold an astonishingly low 3,630 copies, according to Nielsen's Bookscan. And Air America's already dismal New York ratings have plummeted another 30%.

Can anything be learned from Drudge's data? Well, compare it to Amazon's top sellers list, where the top-25 include the following books that may be considered left or right leaning:

Left - How Would a Patriot Act? - #1
Left - American Theocracy - #13
Right - The Fair Tax Book - #18
Left - Cobra II - #23
Left - Crashing the Gate - #25

So, you'd think a post talking about how poorly left-wing media and books are doing would reflect how well right-wing media and books are doing, right? Yet the only book that I'd consider a right-wing book in the top-25 happens to be related to the tax code in the month of April. By the way, my definition of left-wing books in the above example is books critical of the current administration. As I understand the right-wing definition of liberals, anyone who isn't a Bush administration apologist like the guys at Powerline Blog is a liberal.

And it ignores the TV ratings of Sunday talk shows where FOX News Sunday once again came in last among networks:

Tim Russert hits ratings milestone

"Meet the Press" was seen by just over 4 million people this week, according to Nielsen Media Research. CBS' "Face the Nation" was second with 2.9 million, and ABC's "This Week" had 2.8 million. "Fox News Sunday" had 1.3 million, Nielsen said.

Here's an interesting tidbit from the same AP article:

Russert said he's been stymied lately in seeking appearances by some key officials, among them Vice President Cheney, who has been interviewed recently by Brit Hume on Fox News Channel and on ABC News' "Nightline." Also on Russert's current wish list is Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who has appeared recently on conservative talk radio, and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Cheney and Rumsfeld, unlike Hillary Clinton, are the people responsible for the disasterous war that's led to the deaths of thousands of US troops, tens of thousands or Iraqi civilians, and hundreds of billions of dollars in borrowed money. They're tough enough to send our soldiers to war, but not tough enough to answer questions on Meet the Press with Tim Russert.

I'd provide some analysis of the radio ratings except the Power Stooges, John Hinderaker, cited the Drudge Report for his story and neither Hinderaker or Drudge bothered linking to the study they reported on.

It really is amazing how little respect John Hinderaker and Drudge have for their readers.

UPDATE: John Hinderaker has added two updates to his post. Neither of them showing any more respect for his readers. For a look at how blindly the right-wing regurgitates illogical crap like this, check out this post by Glenn Greenwald.