Limbaugh, on the other hand, is an out and out partisan political hack who would bite off his own tongue and swallow it before he would allow anything to come out of his mouth that could possibly be construed as anything less than a vitriolic attack on liberalism. In Limbaugh's universe there is only one truth and that is conservative orthodoxy (as defined by Rush Limbaugh)

"Words mean things." -- Rush Limbaugh

"When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less." -- Humpty Dumpty

Never met the creature, hope I never do, but I will go on record as stating that he is a boil on the rump of humankind.

Once again: I Hate Shuster. Emphatically.

These folks are off the wall and don't even attempt to coat it with politeness as by and large people like Olberman and Maddow do

Teabag, teabag ... TEABAG

Once they became aware that the tea parties were going to occur, and be covered only by Fox they fell back to the old ridicule game. There was a point in time that folks would have been fired for even implying what Olbermann and Maddow and especially Shuster (who, I maintain, can fit nine pool balls in his mouth) seem to regard as harmless frippery.

Okey-doke. I suggest a "call them on the carpet" rally so that we can see Maddow make "carpet-munching" her new tag-line. "Trim the fat" parties would be lovely for Olbermann's pear shaped bloat to remember why he can't get an erection, and "Go to Hell, Shuster" parties because I still haven't seen that indictment of Karl Rove paper that he waved about so self-importantly. Plus, there's something about that guy that just offends my sensibilities.

We could add " How many people did you kill on your way to work" parties for Sanchez and "Wow, that vacation was sudden" parties for Roesgen. Poor Anderson Cooper has his own problems, Wolf has to live with being Wolf and Cafferty needs someone to take the pee out of his Wheaties before he turns into Andy Rooney.

What the problem is, is that some folks have conflated Fox news shows with Fox opinion shows. That is fine for rabbling the rousers, but folks who are actually interested in getting the news are better served by Fox than the other options.

Sam, wrong ideological system, it was the Mussolini (referring to the Brits selling the Italians weapons even though they were clearly going to be at war soon)

Dunno about that. But I did some investigation (which I should do more often given the porous state of my memory these days), and it turns out that the Marx/Lenin "quote" is generally thought be spurious. Still, I think my rhetorical point holds--it was ironic that the chief spokesman for getting the government out of nearly everything was provided one of his main, and most effective, venues by government. (Well, maybe not ironic, at that; certainly American, as I like to think of us). I do miss WFB and Firing Line, BTW. I happened to see him once in an airport waiting room, and he was in a charming state of dishevelment rushing to get someplace; every inch the distracted intellectual, I thought.

I watched him on Fox, and generally he has stayed the same, HOWEVER, being on Fox seems to have made him let his freak flag fly. He now goes into these anti-government rants about fascism that we've all seen, and it's just really uncomfortable when he does.

I don't know for sure if it was the change of venue or the change of government that did it, but he's not the same anymore.

As for NPR, there's just no comparison with anything else. Calling them "left" is simply wrong. They don't have the loonies from either side of the political spectrum on, they do have measured opinions from both sides, and they do original reporting that has very little bias.

To even compare them to AM radio or cable news is useless. Cable news channels (all of them, without exception) are the greatest threat to informed democracy and political discourse that this country has ever faced. NPR is the antidote.

Anyone who considers Matthews as middle of the road exposes how left of center they are. I like Joe but his has no love for the Republican Party. The GOP did something to really tick Joe off when he was in Congress.

Matthews is probably not far from the actual center, but he likes to set the cat amongst the pigeons, and he certainly likes politics as a game. He's not really speaking, consistently, from any place on the political spectrum.

Geraldo and Greta are not conservatives. Red-eye show is full of liberals. Many of there regular reporters are liberals. Most of the democrat\liberal guests are legit democrats\liberals, unlike what goes for conservatives on many other channels. Pat Buchanan and Joe are piss off former Republicans. Huffington was passed off as a Republican spokesman for years until she got so far out there that no one believe it. Watch the CNN reporter covering the Tea parties and you see how left they are.

I'm not sure repealing the Fairness Doctrine was a good thing, but it is kind of funny that the non-fair Fox plan can yield unintended consequences. That is, a TV network now suffers a rating change as national politics shift.

Beck knows exactly what he's doing. He knows his schtick is being lapped up by wingnuts and is giving him fantastic ratings. Don't for a second believes he wants to personally follow through with any of his rants. The guy is making millions and has a wife and four kids and lives in a spacious mcmansion in darien, ct. He is no revolutionary.