Why Are C-Span Callers So Effing Ignorant?

[stopbush]

I was watching the rerun of Ralph Nader's appearance yesterday. I don't hit the C-Span call-in shows often, and these callers really sucked.

First off, the R/D split was about 75/25. I kid you not. Even the "other" callers were RWers.

And then, the "facts" these callers threw out:

• we were attacked by terrorists that Saddam was involved with
• Saddam had WMD
• you can't talk to radical Muslims
• we need to bring them democracy to get rid of the radical Muslims who cut off people's heads

Then, there were the typical, "well, what would YOU do differently, Ralph?" questions, which RN handled pretty well.

I swear, I couldn't believe the level of stupidity on display. I'd say they were uninformed, but it was obvious that they were informed by the likes of Faux and the WH spin machine.

So, is it always like that on C-Span?

[salinen]

1. It's like that

in life. C-Span probably echoes the ignorance in the population.

[lady lib]

5. That's probably true. But what's so weird about it is that

these people are sufficiently interested in politics to watch CSPAN, yet little is passing through the kool-aid barrier.

[yankeedem]

2. Yes, usually

A good drinking game (if you're a real alcoholic and drink from 7-10am) is to count all the times Dems are called "communists" or "Socialists" by callers.

Although they are few and far between, the best guests challenge the talking points. This is funny stuff, usually the only comeback is "Clinton"

[ooglymoogly]

3. i hear some of them over and over

especially the one with a new jersey, or ny accent. ignorant as hell.

[Stinky The Clown]

4. I recall C-Span being far more balanced. I think there's an actual cadre

of callers who's job it is to call in each day and spew bile. They could be pushed by their churches (seems to be lots of god shit involved) or by some RW shadow group. What's clear to me is that its coordinated. It started about a year before the 04 campaign season and has just escalated from there.

[lady lib]

9. That would explain it, Husb2Sparkly. n/t

[Lone_Wolf]

11. I agree...it used to tilt a little to the right, but the last 8 months..

have been a right wing love fest.

[LibDemAlways]

6. I think the reason that it runs so heavily

in favor of the repukes is that the host will often take two or three repuke callers in a row. When they do take a call on the Dem line, it's frequently someone who has already hung up or someone who gets off on a tangent. Then they get right back to the next rw idiot who has his talking points all lined up: "9/11...Saddam....WMD...We were attacked...Clinton's fault....God bless the chimp...."

The screeners do an excellent job of filtering out intelligent progressives.

[LittleClarkie]

7. Maybe they screen them

intelligence test in reverse?

[acmejack]

8. Ralph didn't challenge the claims about Iraq and 9/11

I was stunned by that, he was too busy playing the reasonable conciliator, I guess.

[stopbush]

10. Yes, he missed that one. But he did make the point that there were

no WMD, pointing out the many teams of inspectors who couldn't find them (including, according too RN, 1,500 that bushco sent in).

Nader's answers/solutions mean nothing to these RW nuts. Showing the linkage between US biz interests, wars and terrorism mean nothing to people who think America's tough-guy solution means to put a boot in yer enemy's ass...