We Need More Voices from the Left on Television

When I first saw Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation, appearing one Sunday as a panelist on the "Roundtable" discussion featured on This Week with George Stephanopoulos , I was shocked. In a positive way!

Since when does anyone on the Left get a chance to speak on TV?, I thought.

Then, I saw Vanden Heuvel, a sharp, knowledgeable, articulate woman, on This Week another time as a guest panelist- and another time - and it was almost too good to be true. You see, all of my adult life, I've wanted people with from the Left to be invited - to participate on the Sunday news/talk shows like This Week -- and, until the past year or so, it seemed it would never happen.

For years, I commiserated with friends about the lack of any liberal perspective in television commentary. As years passed, the only constant was seeing conservative George Will - in the same central role on This Week's Roundtable - without ever being challenged by a counterpart from the Left. The hosts of the This Week - from David Brinkley, to Sam Donaldson & Cokie Roberts to Stephanopoulos - were all too deferential to Will, in my view. They allowed Will's intellect and spewing of factoids to intimidate them -- even when they could have found rebutted him with all kinds of facts and alternative perspectives he ignored.

So, yes, it's been a joy to witness Katrina vanden Heuvel arguing with George Will a few times in the past year. Don't you think?

I've also been happy to see that David Corn of Mother Jones has appeared many times on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews. Joan Walsh, editor of Salon Magazine, has been appeared numerous times on Hardball, in adidition to MSNBC's other nightly political shows. Maybe this mini-trend is the result of Baby Boomers gaining more influence in the corporate headquarters overseeing TV news and promoting more open-ness to alternative voices? I'm not sure. I'm still amazed to see The Nation's editor just sitting at the table. (I think Vanden Heuvel probably censors herself from expressing some of her more extreme positions)

I view MSNBC's shows - Hardball, Keith Olbermann's Countdown, and The Rachel Maddow Show - also as an incredible change. We've never before seen shows - back-to-back - offering a talk format from a liberal viewpoint. I understand why conservatives complain about MSNBC's liberal bias, but, it's about time the shoe was on the other foot! It's the only time, literally, I can recall anyone even having the slightest basis for even observing a liberal slant. In addition, conservatives still have Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck and Fox news shows.

Indeed, the Right is still everywhere. Talk radio is still dominated by extreme right-wingers from Rush Limbaugh to Michael Savage. You still see conservatives from right-wing think tanks like the Heritage Foundation interviewed on television far more often than representatives of the Left. There is still a LONG way to go before we can say the Left is even close to being represented proportionally.

If you think about it, what news/talk shows on television have featured a Left perspective, OR, an "alternative" perspective that challenges the status quo? One that presents content that questions conventional wisdom and/or the power structure, OR, regularly interviews people with "alternative" or left-wing views? There are virtually none. Yes, Jon Stewart, on The Daily Show, challenges the status quo on occasion, but his main goal is entertaining humor. Same with Saturday Night Live, on occasion.

The only shows I can think of that raise serious, large questions about governmental policies or challenge the status quo are Bill Moyers Journal and Frontline. I watched a recent Moyers show that raised original, new questions about the facts on the ground in Pakistan, for example. What would we do without Frontline, one of the best shows ever, always willing to take on the Establishment - particularly US foreign policy decisions like invading Iraq?

Through the years, you can count on one hand the voices of liberal dissent that ever surfaced on TV. Let's see: Forty years ago, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour questioned - among other things - the US role in Vietnam in the late 1960s and got censored, and, eventually, cancelled. There have been excellent PBS documentaries and occasional shows that raised good questions.

In general, however, television simply has not allowed true dissent or radical alternatives. You still don't see Marxist economists asked to participate on Sunday talk shows, right? I've always wished I could see Howard Zinn, someone I've long admired, voice his views spontaneously in prime time -- Maybe with Noam Chomsky as another guest. (I've heard Zinn only on PBS programs, unsurprisingly) Further, I think it'd be terrific if we could all hear socialists comment on the US economic crisis and related topics.

We'll never see that day, however, because those corporate executives who own and oversee television networks view those voices from the Left as threatening to their very interests - and too outside the mainstream to appeal to the mass audience. That's unfortunate because I think people could "survive" being exposed to alternative viewpoints on the Left.

We still have a conventional news media that usually is predisposed to protect the powers that be and our most powerful institutions. (Usually, the Right, naturally, aligns with "the system" because it includes a capitalist framework they support). The recent economic crisis was proof of a lazy, protective press, which was slow and sluggish in searching for the causes of the crisis. You didn't see anyone questioning the entire structure and underlying philosophy of the US economy. Imagine if we had seen a Marxist or two interviewed on the nightly network news?

I would challenge anyone to show me where all the liberal commentators on television have been in the past 25 years. For that matter, despite conservatives whining for years about "liberal bias" in news coverage, I'd challenge them to prove that bias existed. Yeah, I know that more journalists vote for Democrats in elections. Big deal. I used to be a reporter and I can tell you that reporters care a hell of a lot more about pursuing "the story" - whatever that may be - than hesitating due to the political leanings or affiliations of their subjects.

Where was the "liberal coverage" of Richard Nixon's administration when Nixon escalated the Vietnam war, ordered the secret bombing of Cambodia, and, later, got overwhelmed by the Watergate cover-up for two years? How can anyone look back and complain that "liberal journalists" were just too aggressive in covering Watergate when it took so long for people, politicians, and, the media to hold Nixon responsible for his lies and misconduct?

Where were all the "liberal" reporters during the Iran/Contra scandal? What I recall is that most of the media went very easy on former President Reagan most of the time. I could go on listing scandals, but, my point is that too often, the news media has often defended the powers that be. There has been a need for more journalists challenging the status quo.

Years ago, I used to want Ralph Nader to appear on some of these shows to present his sweeping critique of corporate abuse - whether it was contributing to environmental pollution or circumventing food and drug regulations or whatever. When Nader ran for President in 2000, occasionally, I'd feel delighted simply to witness someone representing such a left-leaning, alternative outlook get a chance to speak.

I recall, in the last days of his 2000 campaign, I happened to catch Nader on C-Span. He was giving an outstanding speech on poverty. He was in the District of Columbia and he cited statistics of poverty in D.C. and elsewhere to make his point. He mixed his facts with passion, and, I thought to myself: Why is this kind of speech never on mainstream television? I knew he was a longshot candidate, but, then, I realized, Nader was touching on just a little too much of the depressing truth about our economic system to draw coverage regular news programs.

I'm tremendously disappointed with Nader in recent years, but, I give him credit for attempting to bring a different viewpoint to American politics. The more different voices we hear, the better our democracy is. (Plus, it's nice to hear one's own viewpoint represented once in a while!) So, I am pleased to see even the marginal progress of the past year or so - when we've heard from writers and editors of left-leaning publications on television talk shows.

I hope to keep seeing Katrina vanden Heuvel on This Week and that she makes all the points she can -- while she can. We need more progressives to counter the pervasive Right-ward tilt in American politics.

I think I'll start a new subscription to The Nation to honor this idea.