Liberal Dan Radio 07/17/2019: Our Racist/Bigot/Xenophobe in Chief

On the July 17, 2019 episode of Liberal Dan Radio

I was planning to discuss the gender wage gap in US Soccer in detail, but so much has happened this week with “Dear Leader” that I have decided to cover my thoughts on that in the opening segment and then go on to discuss the deplorable nature of this Presidency. 

From telling people with brown skin that they should go back to their countries (despite 3 of them being born here) to the GOP circling wagons around him to protect him, we should be able to prove once and for all how the GOP has overstayed their welcome. 

Those topics, headlines, words of redneck wisdom, hypocrite of the week, and more on Liberal Dan Radio: Talk From The Left, That’s Right. 

Remember, if you are listening after the live broadcast you can always leave your comments on the show thread on LiberalDan.com or on the Liberal Dan Facebook Page

Thanks to Ross Bugden – Music on YouTube is where I got my show intro here.
“Hypocrite of the Week” – Music: If I Had a Chicken – Kevin MacLeod

Liberal Dan Radio 8/12/2015: The War on Women

On the August 12, 2015 episode of Liberal Dan Radio:

The Republican debate took place last week and nobody was really surprised at what came out of it. I will go over some of the comments from the debate, expecially the anti-woman stances taken by the all male “adults table” prime time version.

Then I will be talking with Candice Detillier Huber, owner of Tubby and Coo”s Mid-City Book Shop in New Orleans. She attended Gen Con and was interested in a panel that would be taking place about women and comic books. The panel itself turned out to be a disaster and Candice will be coming on the show to discuss what happened and the aftermath when she determined that she would no longer be carrying works done by the moderator in her store.

Those topics, tweet of the week, headlines, and more Wednesday at 8pm Central on Liberal Dan Radio: Talk From The Left, That’s Right.

Remember, you can always contribute to the podcast at the Liberal Dan Radio GoFundMe page.

Liberal Dan Radio 8/5/2015: Three Years

On the August 5, 2015 episode of Liberal Dan Radio:

I will discuss the last three years of Liberal Dan Radio and several of the issues being discussed today, including the Planned Parenthood fauxtroversy and the GOP debate craziness.

Tune in at 8pm central for Liberal Dan Radio: Talk From The Left, That’s Right.

And remember, please contribute to the Liberal Dan Radio Go Fund Me page.

Liberal Dan Radio 1/29/2015: I’m just here so I don’t get fined.

On the January 29, 2015 episode, Liberal Dan Radio goes BEAST MODE (except I promise I will have more to say on the issues than Lynch). I will discuss Lynch and his desire to not speak. Should he be expected to give a meaningful interview? Or should they require him to speak and are his responses irresponsible?

The measels outbreak at Disneyland is spreading and is causing a renewed conversation about vaccinations and the harm that anti-vaxxers beleive they cause (despite scientists and the medical community stating otherwise). I will discuss my problems with anti-vaxxers and what we should be doing about them.

The scandal surrounding rape culture in colleges, especially at the UVA, has caused some surprising responses by national sorrorities. They have banned their members from going to fraternity parties at UVA. I will discuss why this action is plainly hurtful to victims and promotes rape culture.

Marissa Alexander, the woman who was denied “Stand Your Ground” when she fired a gun in the air near her abuser has been let out of jail and instead placed on house arrest. I will revisit these laws and explain why there are two justice systems.

Those issues, headlines, tweet of the week, and more at 8pm Central on Liberal Dan Radio: Talk From The Left, That’s Right.

I still have a GoFundMe campaign that I am running, please consider a contribution if you like the podcast or want to advertise on it.

Why I disagree with the Jezebel article on The Newsroom

The HBO program The Newsroom deals with many issues, one of them being the way that “old media” is reacting to “new media”. In her article pertaining to the most recent episode of The Newsroom, Julianne Escobedo Shepherd ends it with a description of a character death.

At the end of Sunday’s episode, Charlie Skinner, The Newsroom‘s moral dad played by Sam Waterston, has a heart attack and croaks, hitting his head on a desk near a computer on the way down—a symbolic sledgehammer that was meant to parallel the way the “internet” is “killing” “real journalism,” or something.

Skinner is a character who is a member of the old media. He fights tooth and nail with younger reporters and especially with the new owner over the direction the media is going. Some of the other old media types have also been seen to fight the new media at varying levels and with varying levels of frustration with the use of the internet and sites like twitter. Often some very good points are brought up in their hesitance to fully embrace the tools that the internet provides. Often times these characters are hesitant to embrace any of those tools. Shepherd seems to take this as the show itself sending the message “old media good, new media bad”. But if Sorkin is Dr. Frankenstein and the show his monster, I believe that a lot is overlooked with that simplistic view of television.

There are people in this world who are old media. Those people do drag their feet when it comes to embracing the new tools that the internet gives us. In order for The Newsroom to be a credible show, if it has old media types working for ACN (the news company featured in the show) then it has to portray them as old media types. When I watch the show (as I discussed on Liberal Dan Radio tonight) I don’t view the show as lauding old media as being king and scoffing at new media. I see a message that says “these old media guys really need to get with the program or they will fall behind”. Real life has flawed people and as such any show is going to have to have flawed characters in order to be realistic.

Which brings me to the initial subject of the article written in Jezebel, an article not on old vs new media but on rape, rape culture, and how The Newsroom handled a case of rape in this of all weeks where Rolling Stone fumbled the ball and showed horrible journalistic practices in its covering of rapes on UVA. A criticism that Shephard has is that the show was “poorly timed” as if Sorkin and HBO chose to release this episode in the middle of the Rolling Stone controversy. I think it may be a matter of dumb luck, be that luck good or bad.

This particular episode had a sub plot of the producer, Don, and his assignment by his new boss to go investigate a campus website that was created to expose rapists on campus. He was to find the creator of the website and one of her rapists and put them on camera together in studio. Don obviously is uncomfortable with this idea well before “the scene” that has caused much ire on the internet. But eventually Don is able to do some “old school” “detective work” and find the creator of the website. (Another criticism by Shephard is that Mary calling Don’s detective work “old school” was Sorkin trying to make Mary look bad. I took it as Mary being sarcastic to Don. But to each their own I suppose.)

Shephard is critical of every single bit of this scene. Another issue she brings up is with how Don refers to the rape that is alleged by the female character as a “kind of rape”. This of course is not what a rape victim would want to hear. And of course a reporter asking a victim of rape about her rape should not belittle the rape. However, Don is nervous and flawed and does not behave in a manner in which the perfect reporter would behave in that circumstance.

Another part of the show discussion has Mary (the victim) stating to Don “The law is plainly failing rape victims. That must be obvious to you”. His response is:

“It is, but in fairness, the law wasn’t built to serve victims … I’ve heard two competing stories, one from a very credible woman who has no reason to lie, the other from a guy I judge to be a little sketchy who has every reason to lie, and I’m obligated to believe the sketchy guy… I believe I’m morally obligated. I’m the guy who goes around saying OJ’s not guilty because a jury said so.”

Is that the best way to respond? It is correct to say that the law wasn’t built to serve victims. Ben Franklin once stated that it would be better for 100 guilty people to go free than have one innocent person locked up. We have an adversarial system of justice that should make it difficult to put people away in prison. Now, do you explain this to a rape victim who is visibly upset? That doesn’t seem to be the ideal thing to say under the circumstances. Perhaps he could have worded the later part better? Maybe instead of saying “and I’m obligated to believe the sketchy guy” he could have said “while I do not believe you are lying I also feel morally obligated to treat people as innocent until proven guilty in a court of law”. This might be a better way to put it, and it might not be. But, again, Don is nervous and flawed and does not behave in a manner in which the perfect reporter would behave in that circumstance.

And I think you see my point here. People are not perfect. If placed in that situation I guarantee you that I would be fumbling around and that I would not say the right things. I would stumble. I would make mistakes. I would misword things in ways that I would realize later were horribly stupid. But that is how life works. People like Don exist today. And a show cannot be taken seriously if it ignores that such people existed today when presenting such a situation. Had Don not been the fumbling idiot who is condescending to this victim, it would seem less real. Don has been a fumbling idiot when it comes to other interactions with women as well. If he all of a sudden starts acting perfect around women, that would be going out of character. And the biggest mistake that The Newsroom could make would be to have all of its characters be perfect people in a perfect way.

Sometimes the best example to give in a tv show is to show what not to do in a given situation. I cringed when he said “kind of rape”. I cringed when he said he was “obliged to believe the sketchy guy”. And that is the point. We are supposed to cringe at such things. We are supposed to see them go down and say “wow, that didn’t go well”. We can then use our hindsight in this fictitious universe where nobody was actually hurt and show the flaws that exist in society. We can look at the flawed characters and say “look guys, that is what you look like when you act this way towards victims of rape… STOP IT!”. That The Newsroom has such flawed characters in it does not make the show disdainful of women. It makes the show more realistic. It makes the show more credible. It also opens the door for good conversations on how we all should be treating persons who come forward as victims of rape.

 

Liberal Dan Radio 10/1/2014: Attacking Victims and #yesmeansyes vs #MRA

On the October 1, 2014 episode of Liberal Dan Radio:

It has been revealed that in Louisiana a person who has been raped will be forced to pay for services received as part of a rape kit because many of the public hospitals have been privatized. I will discuss why this is wrong and why people shouldn’t be surprised Louisiana is doing this.

A pair of teachers have been charged with Carnal Knowledge of a Juvenile after a football game. The teachers work for Destrehan High School and had sex with the male 4 days before his 17th birthday. Certain conservatives, especially so called “Men’s RIghts Advocates” are up in arms about the double standard. I will go over why their fears are often unfounded and why they fight the people they need to be working with to end double standards.

Finally, California passed a “Yes Means Yes” law that places certain requirements on universities. Men’s rights groups are also up in arms about this law as well. I will explain why they are so very wrong in their criticisms of the law and where the criticisms should take place.

Those issues, headlines, words of redneck wisdom, tweet of the week and more on Liberal Dan Radio: Talk From The Left, That’s Right.

Liberal Dan Radio 9/10/2014: Ray Rice, Edwin Edwards, and Special Guest Joanna Schroeder

On the September 10, 2014 episode of Liberal Dan Radio:

I will discuss the endorsement of unrepentant convicted felon Edwin Edwards for the 6th congressional district of Louisiana by the Louisiana Democratic Party. Previously I had stated my reasons for opposing his candidacy and what might happen if the state party went ahead and supported him anyway.

I will also have on the show previous guest Joanna Schroeder from the Good Men Project. We will discuss a variety of issues from the controversial nail polish and Cee Lo greens comments to the Ray Rice firing by the NFL.

Those issue, headlines, tweet of the week and more tonight at a special time, 9pm Central, on BlogTalkRadio.

Liberal Dan Radio 9/3/2014: Victim blaming and backwards thinking

On the September 3, 2014 episode of Liberal Dan Radio:

Several celebrities have had nudes of them released that were obtained by people hacking their accounts. Some people are suggesting that keeping your pictures in “the cloud” is not a safe way to store such pictures and that such people are just “asking for it”. Others suggest that taking such pictures altogether are them asking for it. Others see hypocrisy in the treatment of female celebrities and male celebrities. I will cut through the hype and give my feelings on why some scenarios are different than the others and also explain why some of this blame being placed on the persons who took those pictures is just another example of victim blaming. Victim blaming just victimizes the victim.

More victim blaming comes at the hands of Cee Lo Green. After being accused of raping a person who was drugged, he had the gaul to suggest that sex with an unconcious person is not rape. Seriously. Forget you…

Another example where a victim is again victimized is the case of Nick Olivas, a male in Arizona who at 15 had non consensual (read rape) sexual relations with a 20 year old woman. As a 15 year old he could not consent to sex with the 20 year old but yet he is financially responsible for it? That makes zero sense.

Finally, I will discuss the ruling in Louisiana today that upheld the Louisiana ban on same sex marriage. Again, Louisiana bucks national trends to the detrement of its citizenry. Louisiana will eventually be forced to recognize marriage equality, but it will be dragged there kicking and screaming.

Those topics, headlines, tweet of the week and more at 8pm central on Liberal Dan Radio: Talk From The Left, That’s Right.

Liberal Dan Radio 7/16/2014: A bunch of random stuff…

On the July 16, 2014 episode of Liberal Dan Radio:

Virginia police are charging a boy with posession and creation of child pornography. I will go into why the charges are ridiculous and the ridiculous lengths that these police were willing to go to in order to obtain certain evidence.

Tennessee has implemented a controversial drug law that liberals are opposed to since it would punish any woman who gave birth to a child that was addicted to or harmed by any narcotics taken during her pregnancy. I will go into why I am not seeing the big problem here and the flaws in some of the arguments being made against the law.

Finally, Democrats need better wordsmiths. I will go over a recent fundraising request I received by the DSCC about a so called voter supression law. Their sloppy writing makes them an easy target. I will also review other examples, one from Louisiana, where Democrats have shown an inability to make the argument correctly.

All those, headlines, tweet of the week and more on Liberal Dan Radio, Talk From the Left That’s Right. Wednesdays at 8pm central on BlogTalkRadio.