{"id":21437,"date":"2011-07-27T12:00:37","date_gmt":"2011-07-27T17:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=21437"},"modified":"2020-12-21T05:32:39","modified_gmt":"2020-12-21T11:32:39","slug":"frequently-asked-questions-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=21437","title":{"rendered":"Frequently Asked Questions – III"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why don’t you ever put liberals on your show?<\/strong>\u00a0 We do. \u00a0Ed and I have interviewed Erik Black, Dane Smith, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, and my old friend, Erik “The Transit Geek” Hare. \u00a0All of them but Rybak at least once (and we may extend another invite to Hizzoner).<\/p>\n

Beyond that? \u00a0I have standing invtations out to…:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Senator Amy Klobuchar (although finding an actual media contact at her office is always a challenge))<\/li>\n
  2. Senate candidate Al Franken<\/li>\n
  3. Rep. Keith Ellison<\/li>\n
  4. Rep. Betty McCollum (who, let’s be honest, doesn’t make even a token effort to be press-friendly)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    While Ed and I are overt, partisan conservatives, we’ll put the level of civility and respect in our interviews up against anything you hear on MPR (and better than NPR; we’re honest about our biases – hello, Nina! – and neither Ed nor I has ever wished a death by AIDS on anyone).<\/p>\n

    And of course, our producer Tommy has standing orders to jump liberal callers to the front of the caller queue when we’re taking calls, which is pretty much always. \u00a0All you have to be is on-topic, or off-topic in a way we’re interested in discussing.<\/p>\n

    What about Michele Bachmann? \u00a0Do you think she’ll be the nominee?<\/strong>\u00a0 Her surge in the early – let me say again, early – <\/em>running is pretty impressive, \u00a0It shows that the Tea Party has gone from demonstrating to voting. \u00a0That’s a good thing. \u00a0So does Michele and her organization pack the gear to go all the way to the nomination? \u00a0I have no idea. \u00a0That’s why the nomination season is so fun to watch. \u00a0Who’s gonna end up on top? \u00a0More later…<\/p>\n

    No, I don’t mean why don’t you put liberal pols and wonks on the air. \u00a0I mean why don’t you put liberal bloggers on the air to debate with you?<\/strong>\u00a0 Well, if there’s one that has something to say, that is something that’d interest and entertain our audience – which, remember, is national as well as regional – go ahead and pitch Ed and I. \u00a0 We’re open to just about anything, provided we think it’d be good radio.<\/p>\n

    And by “good radio”, I mean entertaining and informative. \u00a0The sad fact is that general, “throw out a topic and let’s go at it” debates are really dodgy as radio entertainment. \u00a0Still, even abstruse ideological whizzing matches are kinda spotty when it comes to being entertaining radio – wonks love ’em, audiences usually don’t, although to be fair the Patriot’s audience, especially the Northern Alliance’s, is much more receptive than most – but anything’s possible, which is why I say “throw us a pitch”. \u00a0There’s not much in radio I haven’t done (other than “get rich); I’m game – but it can’t suck.<\/p>\n

    How can you say the shutdown was a victory for the GOP? \u00a0The Republican borrowed money<\/em>! \u00a0<\/strong>Yeah, that particular DFL chanting point is a funny one. \u00a0First – no conservative is happy about the “borrowing”. \u00a0But we’re borrowing from ourselves. \u00a0Not China. \u00a0Not our children’s future.<\/p>\n

    Second – you do <\/em>know Dayton’s “education shift” was going to be a lot <\/em>bigger than the GOP’s. \u00a0You do know that. \u00a0Right?<\/p>\n

    No, Merg, I mean why don’t you let me<\/em>, a “progressive” blogger with a history of bellowing, browbeating and namecalling, into your studio, so you can’t turn me off? \u00a0<\/strong>Hm. \u00a0Intrigueing offer.<\/p>\n

    I mean, I kinda spelled it out above. \u00a0If you have a subject that’s topical, interesting and potentially entertaining, we can talk.<\/p>\n

    If, on the other hand, you’re one of those leftybloggers who’s good for about one round of factual discussion – say, until your chanting points from Media Matters and “Crooks and Liars” and Mike Malloy get debunked – and you turn straight to the browbeating and the name-calling? \u00a0Well, the only real entertainment value would be in the whole “mocking your intellectual impotence” thing, and we don’t need you in the studio to do that.<\/p>\n

    And since you, not I, said that I “couldn’t shut you off”, that kinda implies the fun would end there. \u00a0Because yes, I certainly could! \u00a0It’s called a microphone switch, and I control it! \u00a0One of the key rules of hosting a talk show is “stay in control”. \u00a0Callers and guests don’t control the show – the host does! \u00a0So if a guest (hypothetically) veers from “entertaining” to “not entertaining” for whatever reason? \u00a0It’s done! \u00a0We move on! \u00a0And while it’s a fuzzy gray line between “mockery” and “not entertaining any more”, rest assured we’ll know it when we see it.<\/p>\n

    So stick with “pitching us a story”. \u00a0You might learn something.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Why don’t you ever put liberals on your show?\u00a0 We do. \u00a0Ed and I have interviewed Erik Black, Dane Smith, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, and my old friend, Erik “The Transit Geek” Hare. \u00a0All of them but Rybak at least once (and we may extend another invite to Hizzoner). Beyond that? \u00a0I have standing invtations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[208,222],"class_list":["post-21437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mitch","tag-a-klo","tag-faq"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21437"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76187,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21437\/revisions\/76187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}