Very true that it's not limited to the right, examples of Schultz and Olbermann well taken. But lest we try to wag the dog, let's be clear where it started; it started (about) 25 years ago with Limblob. It was he who set the tone. Olbermann, Schultz, and the idea of Air America were all in reaction to that dynamic. None of them existed as political voices in 1990. So to pretend the right is lily-white innocent victims just starting to play defense is blatant revisionist history. Both the Air America / MSNBC model, as well as even Fox News Channel and the other "right-wing" talkers (Boortz, Beck, et al), are rhetorical hucksters trying to copycat what Limblob got rich on. Limblob IS the originator; the rest followed him down the hole.
As long as you accept the concept of linear time you can't put that particular cart before that particular horse and expect anybody to buy it. I mean -- poster, please. We're not sixteen years old here. To pretend that these vipers "learned" by anticipating what their counterparts on the other side would be doing in the future requires entering into a time machine lease agreement with H. G. Wells.
And it's not "the right" and "the left" anyway -- it's snake-oil-selling hucksters out to get rich on the snake oil of rhetorical sensationalism, truth be damned. Because none of them are out to put out the truth; they're out for ratings. Because ratings mean money. And veracity has nothing to do with ratings, while hyperpartisan hair-on-fire hype has everything to do with it. As a wise media man once said, "nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public".
It is painfully apparent that your distaste for Rush Limbaugh is indeed great. And you have a right to that viewpoint. However, to believe that it "started with him" is a willful disregard of a time worn, but utterly TRUE conservative complaint. BEFORE Rush Limbaugh and Fox News, there was no conservative voice, PERIOD. In the 80's, ABC, CBS, NBC and a fledgling CNN were the nightly feed for those wishing to get the 'news.' It was at this time that the legacy of Walter Cronkite (a huge progressive by the way - who knew?), Chet Huntley and David Brinkley died. Those who would report the news without filtering it through their own ideological viewpoint was gone. It was then that we were assailed by the arrival of the likes of Dan Rather, a man who would propogate an outright lie and report it as 'news'. Since the mid 80's the number of negative reports for Republican candidates and politicians GREATLY outweigh the same type of reports for Democratic candidates and politicians. Every verifiable independent study shows this to be a fact.
Therefore, IF the news is to be reported with an ideological bent, I, along with millions of other conservatives will seek out those to report it who most closely matches our values. When Rush Limbaugh took to the airwaves, there were no other obviously conservative commentators. He was the first on radio. As he has said many times, his arrival on the airwaves was in DIRECT RESPONSE to those who had already bastardized the industry. And conservatives, under direct attack from our nightly news, responded. Limbaugh became and much to the extreme displeasure of the left, remains the most listened to man on talk radio. Air America and other liberal talkers have tried, but fail to maintain even a semblance of a national audience. In a free market society, you make it ONLY if you can maintain an audience. That is the way it should be.
That is why I say that Limbaugh, Hannity, and others are simply in response to what was already occuring. Ann Coulter and the things that she says is no more outrageous than what some of the things that Jeanine Garaffalo (SP?) says. And despite the extreme displeasure of the left, Limbaugh and other conservatives on talk radio and Fox News will continue to receive a great portion of the audience. Bill O'Reilly continues to have the most watched 'news' show on cable television for 11 years running. He has been voted the 'most trusted man in news' for a number of years. And it just absolutely KILLS the left.
Good points and I understand them. I do not agree as I think you fail to take into account the entire timeline of events. I would leave you with this thought. Rightwinger once asked, if Obamacare is so bad, why don't you conservatives just leave it alone to implode under its own weight? I would ask you the same about Limbaugh and the others, including Fox. I would think you would do everything you could to ignore them. Your outrage only helps to fuel the fire...