Steve Young

Steve's* Talk Radio News of the Day
*An extreme far-centrist foundation!
Want to Know What Can't Fail for the Democrats?
Check out what talk radio says will!
By Steve Young

Nov. 13, 2003 -- LOS ANGELES (apj.us) -- This past week, billionaire philanthropist George Soros donated $10 million dollars to the Democratic Party and talk radio's Lords of Loud began a blustery campaign to demonize Soros. Based on my what's happened before, within days there should be a deluge of other well-to-do Democrats champing at the bit to match or top the Soros gift.

The Democratic Party, liberal and otherwise, has been beside itself for the past few years trying to come up with a way to counter the Republicans' edge provided by the 24/7 bellicose Right-sided bias of Conservative talk radio.

Activist Sheldon Drobny is putting big bucks behind a liberal talk radio network, and that may or may not work. They have James Carville on Crossfire -- but I don't see the Ragin' Cajun' bringing the undecided over to the left side, especially if they can't figure out what he's saying.

Phil Donahue...well, I'm sure Marlo is still happy with him.

But no matter what the Left tries, they're ignoring the most cost-efficient manner of pushing their agenda and it's sitting right under their noses...the Right nostril yet.

The best way to battle the Right is to let the Right do it for you. Without the Left's efforts, it has become the Left's unparalleled formula for success. Need proof?

Bill O'Reilly shrewdly pushes for the FOX News lawsuit against Al Franken's "Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them," and Al's book shoots up to number one on the NY Times Bestseller List, BEFORE it was released!

Think that would have happened without Bill's help? The suit gets laughed out of court -- and now, while O'Reilly refuses to say Franken's name, he can't keep from referring to him, and the book keeps selling. For a Harvard graduate, Bill still doesn't get it.

(Or perhaps he's getting a piece of the action.)

National unknown Howard Dean throws his hat into the Democratic presidential nomination race and AM radio takes its lead from Karl Rove, praying for a Dean nomination. Howard streaks from a "nobody" to "no one may beat him."

Hillary Clinton writes a book and Sean Hannity leads the Talkers in deriding it, as they and their callers scream of its pending failure. Result... record breaking sales.

Comedienne Janeane Garofalo is slashed regularly by Talk Radio as a dopey Hollywood jokester who has no right to "tell us what to do." She's pitted against a slew of the Right's best voices in a week-long guest hosting stint at CNN's Crossfire and, taking not a single retreating step, she leaves the normally confident adversaries bloodied and shaken. Now she's a political prodigy.

Al Gore was unmercifully pummeled during his 2000 presidential run and if you listened to Talk Radio you would have thought that Al Gore would be lucky if he even Al Gore voted for Al Gore. He ended up with more votes than the guy Talk Radio was immortalizing.

And didj'ever wonder how Bill Clinton beat impeachment and remains a national and international force? Just listen to Talk Radio who hosts refuse to let go of the former president. If Clinton isn't sending them a thank you bottle of Dom Perignon every year they make him their crème de la crème whipping boy, the man has no sense of gratitude

Though sometimes it doesn't work right away, patience through the seeming death knoll diatribes will win out. Ask the Dixie Chicks who needed a few weeks before the Conservative led boycotts led to sold out concerts.

A good rule of thumb is to hit 'em where it hurts... namely the ego. It's a target that's so big a side of a barn would look microscopic compared to the arrogance of the Lords of Loud. You'd have to be blind not to hit it, though it seems many times the Dems are wearing blinders. Liberals shouldn't be demeaning talk radio, they should be advocating it. Former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Lanny Davis gets it. He appears regularly on Hannity's radio show and invariably rips the proud conservative a new one by simply and charmingly pointing out the inaccuracies in Sean's arguments. No screaming. No lambasting. Just facts.

The point is, why pay for a whole new network when the one that's being paid for by the enemy is working so well for you? If an investment need to be made, put it into booking more liberals on the Conservative shows. They even send a limo.

So, take note Shelly Drobny and George Soros: there's no need for focus groups, irritating phone surveys or a costly new network. Save all that money and time and instead pay for a few ads on The O'Reilly Factor. With a little luck he'll boycott you.

Steve Young is an award-winning television writer, director/writer of "My Dinner With Ovitz"", and author of "Great Failures of the Extremely Successful" (Tallfellow Press -- check out the web site at http://www.greatfailure.com). He writes a regular column for Jewish World Review" and is a film correspondent for BBC radio.