Right wing media success limited to radio? - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Honus · #1 10-06-2008, 09:15 AM

I believe that it is beyond dispute that right wing radio kicks butt over left wing radio, but that success does not seem to translate into other media.

Take, for example, this weekend's opening of "An American Carol," the new spoof of Michael Moore. It has some funny people behind it and in the cast, but the previews look just dreadful. And the box office draw seems to be just as bad, especially when compared to the opening of Bill Maher's "Religulous":

Quote:

Maher Mangles Zucker At the Box Office

I'll put on my Hollywood hat just for a moment so I can lead a chorus of righteous laughter at the colossal failure of the persecuted Hollywood conservatives behind An American Carol.

Here's how the movie fared over the weekend, when stacked up against Bill Maher's Religulous:
Film Box Office Gross # Screens Average
American Carol $3,810,000 1,639 $2,325
Religulous $3,500,000 502 $6,972

What does this tell us?

Both films were in their first week of release, which means that it's apples to apples. Both had the benefit of their opening week marketing pushes.

Note that Religulous, however, was on less than one third of the screens that An American Carol was. Which means that An American Carol should by all rights have done three times the box office of Religulous. But it didn't -- gross box office receipts were largely the same.

The per-screen average of Religulous was three times that of An American Carol. Three times as many people showed up in each theater to see it.

As Atrios notes, there's no way that professional right-wing victims can argue that their humor-free comedy didn't get a good push from the studio.

Bottom line: Hollywood is in the business of making money. There's no conspiracy going on against conservatives. When moviegoers have to vote with their dollars, it's just that nobody wants to see their what they have to offer.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-hamsher/maher-mangles-zucker-at-t_b_132064.html

Likewise, when Fox News tried to do its version of "The Daily Show" with its unbelievably lame "The Half-Hour News Hour", it was an embarrassing failure. That one surprised me because the Fox News people seem like a savvy bunch to me.

What is it about radio that makes it such a great fit for right-wing talk? It seems like its popularity is out of proportion to the popularity of right-wing thought.

Botnst · #2 10-06-2008, 09:20 AM

Conservatives are humorless just as conservatives generally make poor scientists. By definition, conservatives think within the box. You don't make discoveries and you don't make humor thinking within the box.

Daytime radio talk shows are mind chewing gum. Pungent flavor lacking nuance and subtlety.

What is really aggravating about conservatism is that conservatism is usually right, for exactly the reasons that make it ploddingly uninteresting and predictable. It hangs onto the the things that work and rejects novelty because novelty usually doesn't work.

B

el presidente · #3 10-06-2008, 09:29 AM

Movies are too expensive. Who needs 'em??

kerry · #4 10-06-2008, 09:34 AM

I saw Religulous this weekend. We bought the tickets early Saturday and were told to show up early to get a seat because it had sold out on Friday.
The demographics of attendees was interesting. Almost all were geriatric. Very few under 50. Lots of cheering during the film and clapping at the end.

In my limited experience, conservatives seem less 'into' film. Perhaps this is skewed because most of the conservatives I am personally acquainted with are religious conservatives. But the ones I do know seem to live lives less informed by the ideas and images of recent movies.

Honus · #5 10-06-2008, 10:11 AM

Speaking of right-wingers, I highly recommend "Hannity's America" on Sunday evenings, but only in a small dose. That is one bizarre TV show. Here is a quick piece about last night's episode:

Quote:

Hannity's Witness: "Exterminate Jew Power"
By Todd Gitlin - October 5, 2008, 10:08PM

Calling the Anti-Defamation League, Bill Kristol, Charles Krauthammer, David Brooks, and other defenders of Jewish people against slime artists of all political persuasions:

Sean Hannity's Fox News Sunday night kitchen-sink sewer job on Barack Obama, complete with a sound-track cribbed from C- porn flicks, features prominently, as witness of Obama's iniquity, one Andy Martin, "author and journalist," and, though not identified as such on Fox News, perennial political candidate in four states.

Among Martin's contributions to fairness and balance, this nifty aphorism: "I think a community organizer is someone who was in training to overthrow the government of the United States of America."

Martin previously crawled out from under a rock, according to Matthew Mosk in the WP, to "take credit for posting the first article to assert that the Illinois senator was a Muslim." More recently, he claimed, contrary to fact, that Obama, whom he called a "media witch doctor," has "locked his granny away and refused to allow her to be seen" in order to "pretend he has no white relatives."

Martin has been crawling beneath the rocks for quite some time.

According to no less a source than the Unification Church's impeccably right-wing Washington Times of December 22, 1999:

In 1986, when Mr. Martin ran as a Democrat for Connecticut's 3rd Congressional District seat under the name "Anthony R. Martin-Trigona," his campaign committee filed papers saying its purpose was to "exterminate Jew power in America and impeach U.S. District Court of Appeals judges in New York City."

The Washington Times' reporter, Ralph Z. Hallow, went on to say: "a Connecticut federal judge finally barred him from filing any more federal lawsuits without permission. The judge said Mr. Martin has pursued legal actions with 'persistence, viciousness, and general disregard for decency and logic.'"

Hallow went on:

In a New York bankruptcy case, he referred to a judge as a "crooked, slimy Jew." During the bankruptcy dispute, he filed a civil-rights lawsuit claiming Jewish bankruptcy judges and lawyers were conspiring to steal his property. He asked a court to bar "any Jew from having anything to do with plaintiff's property."

In another motion in the case, he wrote: "I am able to understand how the Holocaust took place, and with every passing day feel less and less sorry that it did, when Jew survivors are operating as a wolf pack to steal my property."

According to Hallow, he "ran for the Republican nomination for governor of Florida against the incumbent, Bob Martinez, in 1990. The Florida Republican Party disavowed him because he previously ran for office as a Democrat and because of his anti-Semitic statements."

This is Sean Hannity's idea of a source.

Does Bill Kristol care? David Brooks? Abe Foxman?

John McCain? Sarah Palin?

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/05/hannitys_witness_exterminate_j/

That show is such a piece of crap. Does it really persuade anyone?

jplinville · #6 10-06-2008, 10:36 AM

i love to listen to Hannity, Rush, and Bortz, but can't handle watching any of them on TV. It's easier to listen to the truth when you don't have to see how ugly they are! LOL

pj67coll · #7 10-06-2008, 10:46 AM

I hate talk radio and usually never listen to it. If I'm ever listening to radio it's in my car and it's usally the local classical music station which is public. However of the few occasions I have listened to "talk radio" it seems to me that right wing talk is pretty much straight talking by ordinary folks in line with what ordinary folks think. Whereas left wing radio appears to be idealogues telling people what they think they should be thinking. But like I said, I've listened to it all so little that I might not have an accurate picture of the situation.

- Peter.