when was the last time you saw an evenly matched political discussion show?

[unblock]

the mclaughable group was notorious for having two democrats and two republicans and a wacko right-wing "moderator".

that is, until they changed it to one liberal, one moderate democrat, two right-wing republicans, and a wacko right-wing "moderator".

that is, until they changed THAT to one liberal they never let complete a sentence, one right-leaning republican, two wacko right-wing republicans, and a wacko right-wing "moderator".



when was the last time you saw MORE liberals than conservatives? hell, liberals were even outnumbered in the democratic presidential debates!

[DJ13]

1. Early in Clinton's first term

[leftyclimber]

2. I must have been pretty little

because I was raised in a political family who had politics on TV most of the time and have little recollection of such a creature. I'm almost 40, for temporal reference.

[rurallib]

3. early '60s when Kennedy was pres.

[EFerrari]

4. This morning Laura Flanders had a reporter and a scholar on

arguing about Tiananmen Square. :)

[baldguy]

5. "Evenly matched" pre-supposes that Republicans might have a valid viewpoint.

And were able to articulate it.

[unblock]

6. in an intellectual sense, of course, republicans are ALWAYS outnumbered :)

but i was referring to things like body count and airtime....

[Umbral]

7. Every Friday night - Bill Moyers Journal nt

[Cha]

8. We're talking corporateWhoremedia

here. That's why having a show like Rachel's and KO's..and now Big Ed's is so amazing!

I stopped watching cabal news in 2002 right after the midterm elections because I know they helped make us lose and didn't they lead us right into Bombing Baghdad?

[Jennicut]

9. Never. Clinton was the first President I voted for so political shows have sucked since then.

Since 1993 its all been bad.
Crossfire was okay in the early 1990's but there has always been a conservative bias.

[Cha]

10. And, I read on DU that NPR

said this morning that Merkel had a warmer relationship with bush than with Obama.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8452724#8452797

[4lbs]

11. That now-defunct CNN show "Crossfire" used to be even handed, until Bush came into office.

There was a liberal on the left side of the screen, and a conservative on the right side (at that time it was Pat Buchanan).

They had two guests on, one representing the left, one the right.

So, 2 versus 2.

In the rare instance when both regular hosts agreed with an issue, they brought on two people on the other side, to keep it 2 versus 2.

[Sebastian Doyle]

12. The original Crossfire was pretty good

Back when Ted Turner still owned CNN, and Pat Buchanan was still capable of debating rationally (as opposed to the racist whining he does on any MSNBC or McLaughlin Group appearances in recent years)

[MiniMe]

13. That is because the republican argument is usually so ridiculous, it only takes one dem...

to beat them.

[boppers]

14. CSPAN call in.

I loves me some CSPAN. They have all the moderates, thinkers, and whackos on for their call-in shows.

The problem with the "expert roundtable" show format it that it can't represent a sampling of the polity, it's a sampling of pundits. Very different groups.