On the Unpopularity of Leftish TV shows....

Nathan Newman nathan at newman.org
Tue Sep 10 09:28:27 PDT 2002


----- Original Message ----- From: "Wojtek Sokolowski" <sokol at jhu.edu>
>This merely confirms what I already know - that the American public tends
>to be very conservative. Consequently, any form of left-leaning opinion,
>be it a tv or radio show, or a political program is unlikely to attract any
>significant following.

Why is it that lefties ignore daytime TV-- some form of sexism? From Oprah to Jerry Springer, daytime is dominated by liberals, sometimes of the outrageous cultural bent like Springer (but always with the message of racial and sexual tolerance) but the rightwing hates the liberal cultural message of daytime television.

The problem is not that there is no constituency for progressive TV-- it's just that recent shows in particular have been weak. TV comedy has often skewed left over the years-- Stewart is just the most recent example -- there just seems to be a particular problem in developing the talk radio/TV format for liberalism.

-- Nathan Newman



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