I go out of my way not to watch cable “news” (I’ve already mentioned my disgust with Bill O’Reilly), but it does seem unfortunate that MSNBC has decided to cancel its highest-rated program so that it can pander to the worst impulses of the far-far-right by hiring a hate-monger like Michael Savage.
It is not, however, surprising. A fascinating read in today’s Salon:
Such vitriolic ranting is over the top, even by the ever-declining standards of talk-radio decorum. Yet, in this time of war fever and hyperpatriotism, inflammatory rhetoric draws conservative ditto-heads and liberal rubberneckers alike, and that translates into big ratings.
Whenever I think this sort of uber-conservatism can’t get any worse…