CSPAN--Why Viewers Are Turning It Off
NewsMax.com
Friday, Oct. 5, 2001 11:00 AM EST
Remember when CSPAN was a program that offered view points heard no where else -- with callers around the country reflecting the views of middle America.
Those days are gone.
Now, 9 out 10 of CSPAN's media guests are establishment, anti-Republican liberals. And CSPAN's morning media discussions are nothing more than a rehash of what's "news" in the left-wing press.
Meanwhile, New York radio host Bob Grant has complained how CSPAN has gone "down hill" as liberal callers get preference to go on air.
You can tune into CSPAN any morning and discover how the callers are nothing more than a shill for the liberal establishment.
Take this morning's program on "Assessing the Media" hosted by CSPAN chief Brian Lamb.
The program was nothing more than a rant against Israel, U.S. policies and Pres. Bush.
One caller who did make it on was able to query Lamb. the caller wondered what was going on with CSPAN, and why so many CSPAN callers that make it on air are anti-Bush callers -- when polls show strong support Bush from 70 to 90 percent of the American public.
The real answer, of course, is that CSPAN puts more of those callers on -- and rejects calls that more adequately reflect the public's view.
But Lamb didn't say that.
When one caller called in to blame U.S. support for Israel, and our policies to go after Saddam Hussein, as the cause of the Sept. 11 disaster, Lamb took a moment to praise the caller for his "original" thinking on his question -- and other questions the caller had asked on previous shows. Apparently, he is a CSPAN regular -- the type that CSPAN likes.
Another caller, a Bahamian woman, wanted to talk about Israel's racism.
Still, another caller said they were a strong supporter of Israel but .... You got it, she went on to blame Israel for our woes.
When so many callers claim the are "pro-Israel" but then blame if for everything including the common cold, and when so-called "Republicans" say they voted for Pres. Bush and then go on to knock him, it has to make a reasonable person wonder.
When another "Independent" caller telephoned Lamb today to criticize Bush -- and then revealed she was a subscriber to the ultra-left Mother Jones magazine -- it didn't seem to faze Lamb.
Lamb agreed with her that the Washington Times was "conservative" but when she asked Lamb how he would label the Washington Post or the New York Times -- Lamb responded they didn't have a label, they were just simply "not conservative."
And that answer means that Brian Lamb is just not honest, or too frightened to call a liberal spade, a liberal spade. Who is he kidding?
Obviously not the many viewers turning off CSPAN.