Re: [Marxism] Oliphant Vs. Phil Nobile about Imus, on Roseanne Barr radio show at 8:06PM...

[Les Schaffer <schaffer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Louis Proyect wrote:
> Right after I posted this, I learned that Imus has been fired. This
> will leave a bunch of big-time politicians and journalists without a
> venue. Imus's show was the consummate "inside the beltway" outlet
> despite his shock jock image.

Democratic politicians lose a mouthpiece with Imus

His show gave many of them a way to reach a national audience of white
males â a critical voting bloc.

By Peter Wallsten, Times Staff Writer  7:08 PM PDT, April 12, 2007

WASHINGTON -- They came by the hundreds that hot August day in tiny
Johnson City, Tenn., gathering on an asphalt parking lot to meet Rep.
Harold E. Ford Jr. It was not just that he might become the state's
first black senator. More than that, even in Republican eastern
Tennessee, the Democratic congressman was a celebrity â a regular guest
on Don Imus' radio show.

And today, with Imus' career in tatters, the fate of the controversial
shock jock is stirring quiet but heartfelt concern in an unlikely
quarter: among Democratic politicians.

That's because, over the years, Democrats such as Ford came to count on
Imus for the kind of sympathetic treatment that Republicans got from
Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity.

Equally important, Imus gave Democrats a pipeline to a critical voting
bloc that was perennially hard for them to reach: independent white males.

With Imus' show canceled indefinitely because of his remarks about the
Rutgers University women's basketball team, some Democratic strategists
are worried about how to fill the void. For a national radio audience of
white males, Democrats see few if any alternatives.

"This is a real bind for Democrats," said Dan Gerstein, an advisor to
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), one of Imus' favorite regulars.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-imuspol13apr13,0,2734444.story?coll=la-home-headlines


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