Comments on: In defense of conservative talk radio

By: Bob1234

Bob1234 — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 18:35:38 +0000

Methinks P.J. is 65% libertarian and 35% conservative. That’s not always a happy marriage. He’s still pretty much on our side, though. Kind of.

By: DirkBelig

DirkBelig — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:04:57 +0000

I haven’t seen much of P.J.’s work lately so he’s fallen off my radar, but in his heyday, he was excellent. His intro to “Parliament of Whores” explaining why God was a Republican and Santa Claus was a Democrat was brilliant and he was the first writer I saw who explained how the savings & loan scandal happened in clear layman’s language. If he’s gone native, it’s probably because he still believes he’s an outlier in enemy liberal territory and doesn’t realize that he’s drifted relatively to the left.

By: Ralph C.

Ralph C. — Sat, 26 Jun 2004 15:39:48 +0000

Michele:
I was going to leave an explitive-laced comment but that would seem so Cheney-esq. Seriously, you are quite a looker and I assume that is how you got most of your jobs. I cannot understand, however, how an Oberlin College grad turned so right-wing. O’Rourke is correct about conservative radio talk shows. I understand why he listens to NPR – for the same reasons I listen to Rush and Hannity – not only to laugh at the other-side’s asinine attempts at critique but also to listen for the occasional small nugget of accurate dissent. Let’s face it – conservative radio is all about ratings, not accuracy or real advocacy. I’ll tell you, it really was amusing to hear the defense of “Big Time”’s foul language on the airwaves the other day. Go on, give the men-in-uniform their Rush — he does more to benefit liberalism than to hurt it.

By: Eric Pobirs

Eric Pobirs — Sat, 26 Jun 2004 03:12:49 +0000

P.J. is a print guy and has never done well on TV or radio. He does a good job reading for audiobook editions and his high points in TV/radio appearances are typically just that: reeling off a chunk of text he knows well and invested a fair chunk of time in shaping to his satisfaction. Plenty of good writers are bad at spontaneous conversation.

O’Rourke has never been in lockstep with the official GOP wisodom and that is one of theprimary reasons he reaches many of us who were once arbitrarily opposed to anything touted by conservatives.

He has some valid points from my perspective. Ann Coulter can be fun and immeasurably more pleasant to behold than the like of Al Franken or Michael Moore (she could go a three day booze and chocolate binge and still win that contest) but she can also be incendiary if brought into play in the worng company. O’Reilly is just tedious. His vocal mannerism grate and he all too often falls back on ‘it just is’ as a rationale for his stance on a subject.

I once detested Limbaugh but found him more listenable in recent years. I had change but just as importantly, he changed, too. A lot of stuff he used to alienate those he was supposed to be winning over to his side has become calmer and more reasoned. A bit.

One thing about O’Rourke. He has long made a career of venturing among people who oppose everything he believes in and bringing back interesting observations. Between trips he had reasonable people to hang out with and preserve his sanity. Many of us lack that option. We find ourselves seemingly surrounded by self-destructive insanity that calls itself fairness. Sometime that guy on the radio is the only reminder that we aren’t alone.

http://imdb.com/name/nm0001223/

Shame on you for your catty remark about LAra Flynn Boyle. She may skip too many meals but she does have a admirable and proportionate rack that doesn’t appear to be storebought. This can be seen in movies going back to her teens.

OTOH, I am guilty of at first expecting the above headline, ‘The Malkin Toy Chest,’ to be some sort of self-deprecating remark about your own petite figure. It’s so hard for us bachelors to see the picture at the top of the page and remember you’re an old married lady with a kid.

Sigh.

By: David Vance

David Vance — Sat, 26 Jun 2004 00:32:34 +0000

I`m not a big fan of P.J.`s, but, I`m afraid Rush is a bit of a gas-bag.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 20:54:39 +0000

Wait, so you disagree with O’Rourke’s thesis that most talk radio is aimed at listeners with political leanings in agreement with the host? His point wasn’t controversial, he was simply observing that the Limbaugh show has a target demographic just like the New York Times and Roll Call do. Do you write your pieces with illegal immigrant Bolivian Marxists in mind, or are you aware that most of your readers (myself included) are quite conservative? Seriously, relax. O’Rourke has never misrepresented himself as a serious heavy, and everyone seems to be picking a fight with him because he pointed out something fairly obvious.

By the way, if everyone was a little more familiar with O’Rourke, they wouldn’t be so quick to condemn him as somehow out of line (or “9/10″):

http://www.nationallampoon.com/flashbacks/ww2/ww2.html

He was 9/11 long before 9/11.

By: SarahW

SarahW — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 18:54:05 +0000

It’s aging. It gets us all in the end, some sooner than others. No bite, all snark, or no bite and less snark.

Please pass the idebenone and the baby aspirin.

By: Mamamontezz

Mamamontezz — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 08:13:17 +0000

Well according to Blackjack at The Hole Card,
even with the hours of Quaalude-ish NPR partisan talk, all they have of Rush is a Single Hour of air time.

Hardly seems like a threat to Liberal Minds and Sensibilities for there to be one hour of Rush.

Yet another tempest in their bongs, er, teapots.

By: HH

HH — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 06:58:53 +0000

Armed Forces radio has more NPR than anyone could possibly want… the “balance” issue is a red herring to disguise the clear attempt to silence. If this is allowed to pass, conservative talk radio is doomed. The moment Kerry is elected, it really is a matter of time.

By: Steve@JusTalkin

Steve@JusTalkin — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 04:20:31 +0000

I fear that the campaign finance bill will somehow limit talk radio near the election. How difficult would it to be consider talk radio “free advertising” for conservative candidates? This could turn out to be a real problem if the Left decided to pursue it.

By: Parker

Parker — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 02:02:51 +0000

The most recent book of his that I really liked was ‘Eat the Rich’ – then ‘CEO of the Sofa’ was OK, but a bit flat (although it was written pre-9/11 and published after, I think, which definitely changes the frame of reference.

‘Peace Kills’, his latest, really does seem to have been phoned in. Marriage and fatherhood don’t seem to helped his writing.

Still, go for his old stuff and you can have a good time – and he may come back to us yet.

By: francisthegreat

francisthegreat — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 01:59:46 +0000

to answer p.j.’s question/subtitle, i know someone that was tooling around the radio stations and landed on the new talk radio station here, during michael savage’s show. now savage isn’t what you would call the voice of temperance, but his tirade appealed to this guy, in a howard stern sort of way. he’d have tuned out rush as “boring” two minutes into it, but he’s become a regular listener for savage. i don’t know if he’s voting republican just yet, but i know he’s getting pretty close.

By: Ralf Goergens

Ralf Goergens — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 01:39:59 +0000

“Perhaps P.J. should visit a few war zones are learn the truth”.

He was to a number of warzones: Kuwait and Iraq during Gulf War I, Afghanistan and Pakistan when the Russians still were in Afghanistan etc.

And he’s right about Ann Coulter giving you a headache. He’s way too nice to Bill O’Reilly, though.

By: Curly Melnick

Curly Melnick — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 01:05:17 +0000

PJ O’Rourke is quite smug and thinks he is glib. In his book about his travels in the MidEast, O’Rourke likened the State of Israel to the Meshantucket Pequot Indian Tribe in Connecticut that created Foxwoods. O’Rourke snottily said that like the Meshantuckets, the Israelis simply showed up one day and said “We’re back. Get out. We are going to rule”. How absurd? Has O’Rourke never heard about the Jewish pioneers who drained mosquito laden swamps where no one could live and reclaimed the desert? I suggest O’Rourke go to places like Kiryat Shmona and Dimona where there were no cities or towns until the Israelis built something out of nothing.
And O’Rourke has nothing to say about the mass Arab immigration in the 20th century. He just wants to be glib and be popular on the cocktail circuit he loves so much.

By: Steve Barton

Steve Barton — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 01:03:54 +0000

Michelle is so right that P.J. was flat on Laura Ingraham’s show. Maybe he worried about firing off a pox-on-both-their-houses quip with Laura’s audience listening in. Would not have sold books. On the same show, could Laura please pipe down for a minute and let Zell Miller talk?