Meaning of only U.S. liberal radio network shutting down?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Air America has crashed. The liberal talk radio network is going out of business.
The network that once boasted hosts like Al Franken and Rachel Maddow launched in 2004 during the Bush administration. It was meant as a liberal alternative to right-wing commentators like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.
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But Air America struggled from the beginning - with several management shake-ups, a bankruptcy, followed by a $4 million sale.
The network described itself as "the only full-time progressive voice in the mainstream broadcast media world" when it launched... saying it offered dissenting views on things like the Iraq War - when such positions were called un-American.
But nearly six years later - and 1 year after the inauguration of Democratic President Barack Obama - Air America says it will file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy – ending programming for good on Monday. The network cites the "very difficult economic environment," pointing to a steep decline in radio ad revenues.
Conservatives suggest the "passing" of Air America is a reminder that the country is center right. After all - tough economy or not, Limbaugh still draws in 10 to 20 million listeners each week.
Meanwhile a recent Gallup Poll shows that conservatives finished 2009 as the number one ideological group in the U.S. for the first time in five years. 40 percent of Americans identify as conservatives, compared to 36 percent for moderates and just 21 percent for liberals.
Here’s my question to you: What does it mean that the country's only liberal radio network is going out of business?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Liberals right to be upset with President-elect Obama?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
According to a new CNN/Opinion Research Poll, 79-percent of Americans approve of the way President-elect Barack Obama is handling his transition to the White House. And those are pretty good numbers, 14-percentage points higher than President-elect George W. Bush received and 17-percentage points higher than President-elect Bill Clinton.
Some are voicing concerns about Barack Obama though, many of whom campaigned for "change" alongside him, but feel they've ended up with something quite different. Specifically, some Liberals are not happy with his cabinet appointments from the political center as well as his change of mind on things like rolling back the Bush tax cuts, taking on big oil and hedging plans to pull out of Iraq.
In Sunday's Washington Post, David Corn, Washington Bureau Chief of the liberal non-profit magazine Mother Jones, said: "Sure, Obama's appointments do represent change - that is, change from the widely unpopular Bush-Cheney status quo. But do these appointments amount to the kind of change that Progressives, who were an essential part of Obama's political base during the campaign, can really believe in?"
Here’s my question to you: Are Liberals right to be upset with President-elect Obama's cabinet appointments and tax cut plans?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
@jackcafferty on Twitter
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