A Little Known White Conservative Male Replaces Imus

After he retired my father, who had been very successful in the production end of the newspaper business, became addicted to Fox News and talk radio. Except for playing golf with his cronies, all he did was listen to cable news and Rush Limbaugh. Each day my mother would flee to her church work or hide in her art studio. All dad could do was rail against liberals and all they stood for. An hour or so of Fox News and his blood pressure would rise. He would become belligerent and he would say the most outrageous things. It became painful for me to visit him. I just couldn't stand the harangues against this group or that policy. His anger would flow over to me and anyone else in the room. Occasionally we were able to turn off the television. After a while he would return to his normal caring self, but when he turned on Fox News, I knew it was time to leave.

I kept trying to tell him that cable news and talk radio were not real. They were just entertainment. I told him he should know better. He had spent a career in the newspaper business. He knew all about the entertainment value of the news. He knew media companies were all about making money.

It didn't matter. He was addicted. He took everything they said as truth. Since they were all just like him they told him and each other exactly what white male conservative Republicans always yearn to hear--white male conservative Republicans rule the world and all the rest are of a lesser species.

That pattern continues to this day. Except for CNN's Solidad O'Brien and a few others, the big players on Cable Television and Talk Radio are all white men. Nearly all of them are conservative Republicans. Nearly every word that is uttered on Fox News and the other Cable Networks and on Talk Radio affirms the ascendancy of white Republican conservative men. What passes for news on those channels is aimed directly at entertaining white Republican conservative men. There aren't that many white Republican conservative men, but the people who make the scheduling decisions on all the cable networks and on talk radio (generally middle aged white conservative Republican men) do so to please members of a powerful demographic--their bosses, who, with a couple of notable exceptions, are all old white conservative Republican men. Men just like my father. Men who like to play golf and rail against liberals, women and minorities.

Recently, Don Imus, an old white conservative Republican male was fired for publicly saying the kind of stuff old white conservative Republican lords of the universe find amusing.

That left MSNBC in a quandary. What to do? What to do? They could market to the 95% of the population who are not old white conservative men, a market currently not being well served by cable news. That might do well in the ratings. It might serve MSNBC well to have a morning counter point to Countdown. The nation is running not walking away from the hard conservatism of Fox News. What to do? What to do? Bold action?

After much deliberation, MSNBC has announced its solution. MSNBC is going to simulcast the radio show of Michael Smerconish, a member of a woefully under represented group on both Cable Television and talk radio-a white conservative Republican male. Bold move.