Can we ditch Glen Beck, Jeanane Garofalo for George Will style discourse?

There is the possibility that we are going to see change we can believe in among what I call the scream’ocracy, the cable television political programs. Conservative Glen Beck returned from vacation to find that he had lost several show sponsors. Further, and much more interesting to me, was a report Monday night on marketplace.org that advertisers are reconsidering their sponsorships of both right and left wing political shows. Businesses generally do not like to be caught up in controversies.

This may mean (it’s still a bit of a long shot) that talkers from the right wing Beck, who accused President Obama of being a racist, to the left wing Jeanane Garofalo who called tax protestors “functionally retarded adults” and “racists,” might not make as much money, and possibly….., dare I say it? They might have their shows cancelled.

I am not in favor of taking political analysis and commentary away from the public. We need a lot more political analysis and commentary along with citizen participation. But what we need this discourse to be rational, intelligent, and civil. Without that, the talk show hosts are doing nothing more than riling up their supporters and angering opponents. No information is exchanged, no minds are changed, and absolutely no compromises are reached.

Political discourse does not have to be this way. I have been a fan of conservative columnist and television commentator George Will since my early days as a very liberal and very loyal Democrat. I continue to read his articles and watch him to this day, though I am long past being a liberal Democrat or loyal to either party. Both liberals and conservatives could learn a lot from Will.

I remember a political program where Will was referred to by liberals as a conservative that liberals could like and respect. Liberals view Will this way because he has always maintained a level of rational, intellectual thinking, and kept his discourse civil. He is, in their view, someone that can persuade opponents to his point of view. An interesting aspect of this conservative that builds his credibility is his willingness to advance criticism of his conservative Republicans when he believed they were wrong. As such, Will was a frequent critic of both Presidents Bush, and candidates McCain and Palin. Will is a political philosopher that puts the country ahead of his party, a characteristic that is painfully absent from cable and mainstream news and commentary.

TV viewers must have done a great job threatening sponsors in order to cause them to dump Beck and to consider backing away from other political programs. I wonder if these viewers were just opposition partisans or if there is any interest among them in promoting a better quality of national debate.

I wonder if that form of political action can be turned into and effort to bring rational, intelligent, civil analysis and commentary to prime time television.

My question is not about TV ratings. It’s about the future of a system of government that requires intelligent voters. Sponsors buy time on the TV based on ratings and ratings are driven by viewers who have made American Idle (pun intended), Dancing with the “stars” and WWF mainstays. The forces that have scared off some of Beck’s sponsors are probably just opposition partisans with no goal beyond silencing views they oppose. I will not be at all encouraged about the future of television political commentary or the future of this nation until someone like George Will adds song or dance to their commentary.

Tagged as: george will, glen beck, Jeanane Garofalo, obama, politics, racist, tea baggers, tea parties