In response to some recent political-type postings here, Christopher Cook sent me a message that included the following sentence: "Now if we can only get Bush fanny smoochers like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh to take off their rose-colored glasses as well."
That would be nice but I think it's a waste of perfectly good hope. If an act makes you rich and famous — and all prominent pundits are to some extent doing an act — you don't change it. I hear people ask, "Why does Ann Coulter say such things?" Answer: Because saying such things has made her a ton of money. She says what she says and she sells books, she gets on TV shows to plug those books, she gets talked about (which sells more books) and her speaking fees go way up. Moreover, when she gives those speeches, a certain kind of person packs the place and cheers her on and tells her she's the salvation of capital-D Democracy.
So why should she change? What exactly is her incentive to not demonize Liberals?
She may even believe some or most of what she says. Years ago, I produced a TV special with a bunch of professional wrestlers — Roddy Piper, Hulk Hogan, Cap'n Lou Albano — and I learned a number of interesting things about their line of work. One was that while the blood feuds and personal hatreds may have been scripted, there was a tendency for them to become real. Roddy Piper (a very smart man, by the way) told me how the "scenario" would designate that his ring character had a particular hate on for a certain wrestler. It was phony at the start but after weeks of living the scenario and playing it and having arenas full of fans cheer him for beating the crap out of that certain wrestler, it was hard not to really hate the guy. Or maybe he said it was just easier to find reasons to really hate him.
I don't think the problem in our national discourse is really Rush or Sean or Ann or even anyone of the opposite stripe who gets as shrill and devoid of facts as they do. I think the problem is the tabloid nature of cable news and talk radio, glorifying anger and extremism, faulting no one for occasionally distorting the truth. There's fame and money in it and maybe even a certain feeling of power. You may feel that in the same situation, you'd retain your sense of balance and fairness and be able to admit when your side is wrong, as all sides occasionally are. But I think it helps to acknowledge that not everyone can or would. Hannity and Limbaugh will stop smooching Bush fanny if and when they decide it no longer bolsters their careers…and not a minute before.