Springer Trying To Grow Up

Former Cincinnati mayor and TV talk show host Jerry Springer kicked off a
liberal radio talk show this week. He is known more from his TV shows. His
TV show has capitalized on the debased culture, featuring on-the-air marital
squabbles, sordid extra-marital affairs, transvestites, and so on. He
spends week after week in his TV show featuring these sensational images
of adults on adolescent temper tantrums, and then spends the last five
minutes with a palliative like, "Let's be peaceful and understand each
other," patronizingly disclaiming such sordid behavior.

Now, Springer is trying to gain some respectability, and says that his
radio show won't be anything like his TV show. He says, "Even though I
realize my views are left of center and are left of Cincinnati, I also
thought there has been a level of respect where people say 'I might not
agree with Jerry but that's an interesting point and here's why I
disagree...'" Springer said, "But it's a grown up conversation and that's
all talk radio has to be."

Without the power of images to prop him up, let's see if Springer can wrest
enough sense and logic from failed liberal policies to attract a more
"grown up" kind of audience from that of his TV following. The same goes
for the other liberal talk shows on radio trying to replicate the success
of pioneer conservative talk radio. Liberalism relies heavily on images,
placing great emphasis on form over substance. That is why the visual media
has been the liberals' playground for decades, while conservative ideas
have taken deep roots in radio. In my opinion, liberal talk radio will
not be as successful as conservative talk radio.