Yes, yes, let your hate flow...

Media Matters for America, the liberal media “watchdog” group, this week debuted a daily two-minute synopsis of what it considers the most “hateful rhetoric, offensive commentary and  conservative paranoia” heard on talk radio. The first three installments include snippets from Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham, Glenn Beck, Dennis Miller and Quinn and Rose.  There are also cameos by local talkers, including KSFO/San Francisco’s Lee Rodgers and WLW/Cincinnati’s Bill Cunningham. Frankly, none of the material is particularly hateful, offensive or paranoid.  (I can see this daily round-up becoming talk radio’s equivalent of Sports Center, with hosts and producers high-fiving when they make the reel.)

Watch the July 16th installment here:Two Minute Hate.  Read the Media Matters press release here.

Friedersdorf concludes:  “Effective opposition requires a clear-eyed, unsentimental assessment of reality, not paranoid, uncharitable rants. The right understood this very well when they talked about The Angry Left, and how its visceral hatred for George W. Bush distorted its judgment. Too many seem to have forgotten this lesson, and aren’t the least bit skeptical at analysis offered by a man assuming of his opponent the most awful motivations imaginable. This is merely one small example from a radio show that traffics in rhetoric of this very kind five days each week.”

To quote Sean Hannity quoting Ronald Reagan: There you go again.  Friedersdorf, like most journalists, doesn’t really understand talk radio.  Talk show hosts aren’t employed to run on-air education and organizing efforts; they are paid to attract and hold the largest possible audience.  Showmanship plays a big part in achieving that objective.  Talk  pioneer Willis Duff once said that talk radio is like bullfighting.  People appreciate the cape work — but they come to see the bull get killed. 

And no one kills the bull like Mark Levin.

Allen Hunt

Allen Hunt will soon be the hardest working man in talk radio.  The minister-turned-faith-and-values-talker will debut a weeknight show later this year while continuing his Saturday and Sunday evening programs.

A source at the Allen Hunt Show confirms the weeknight show will air 9pm – midnight with a start-date sometime before the beginning of the Fall ratings period.  Hunt and his staff have been on the road talking-up the new project, which they position as an alternative to the sometimes harsh Mark Levin and Michael Savage, or delayed broadcasts of other hard-politics daytime shows.

To get a good sense of  Hunt’s substance and style, listen to his segment on Christians and torture.  To get sense of the passion he stirs, check this, ummm, fan site.

This is a bold move for the  Atlanta-based, self-syndicated Hunt.  Nights are a rough slot marked by small audiences, limited revenue and lots of sports preemptions.  (And how long before stations with decent signals  start brokering nights?) But in all likelihood, the determined and radio-savvy Hunt team views the nighttime offering as a foot in the door – one that will eventually lead to your mid-morning slot.