Who is the Rush Limbaugh of the left?

Question

Though I am a conservative, I like to listen to both sides but haven't been able to find an outlet on the left that compares. I listened to Air America when it first started but it just didn't keep my attention primarily because the depth of analysis was lacking. Someone who digs into the core of issues and has ideas that take history into account. . .

(And please, don't assume that my point is to prove that there IS no one . . . my question is just that . . . a question) Thanks!

Answer 1

There is no comparable fantasizer, but there are a growing number of folks who are providing the facts and otherwise censored information that none of the media will touch (at least not in real time, though occasionally long after it is relevant like the WMD fiasco).

The best are the hardest to find, Kieth Olbermann goes places that no other mainstream media will go, and Jon Stewart will do fake news that is more real than Fox or even CNN.

But for honest reporting about news that is Censored by all the normal American media and is still American, there is only Democracy Now with Amy Goodman.

She rarely will push her own agenda but allows the actual person involved to express their views, though I have seen her help or coax some who are not yet comfortable on TV.

There is also a growing group of radio and Internet talk shows that spread over a range of opinions and personality types, that are still mostly farm league though Thom Hartmann, The Young Turks, Randy Rhodes, and Rachael Maddow are moving up.

Unlike the Far Right and despite the propaganda to the contrary there are no big lefty sugar daddies that are out to destroy democracy and make millions for themselves, conquering the world in the process. Even the likes of boogyman George Soros, is a financial midget compared to Murdoch, Scaife, Ahamson, North, Moon, and a host of others.

A few great Democracy Now archives
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/09/1526251
Democracy Now! | Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions

http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2007/aug/video/dnB20070830a.rm&proto=rtsp
Democracynow 2nd Katrina anniversery

http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2007/sept/video/dnB20070917a.rm&proto=rtsp
Naomi Klein - The Shock Doctrine - Democracy now

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/13/1445214
Democracy Now! | From Freedom Watch to Petraeus, A Look at the Bush Administration's Iraq War PR Campaign

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/12/1726248
Democracy Now! | "If Soldiers Came From Another Country And Did This To My Family, I Would Be An Insurgent Too” – War Vet Describes Iraq House Raid

http://www.democracynow.org/index.pl
Democracy Now!: radio and TV news

A few of Kieth Olbermann's Home runs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfOiOkfvVdE
Keith Olbermann: Death of Habeas Corpus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVeXUhwMeLw
KO Special Comment In Favor of Free Speech

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jA0OVtvqjk
John Dean and K O

Other countries have actual Free Speech in their media and so you can get good information there, often from Americans Censored in their own country

Greg Palast is perhaps the most famous, A few of his stories that got made into Internet only video are:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3954858769441262005&q=Palast+Kennedy&total=81&start=0&num=100&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
Cagy Criminals& Election Fraud

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bkpv6rpJEI8&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fdandelionsalad%2Ewordpress%2Ecom%2F2007%2F07%2F10%2Fbig%2Deasy%2Dto%2Dbig%2Dempty%2Dvideos%2Dgreg%2Dpalast%2Dkatrina%2F
Palast - Big Easy to Big Empty

http://www.gregpalast.com/vulture-fund-threat-to-third-world/
Vulture Fund Threat to Third World Greg Palast

And of course there is the BBC, and Canadian CBC, that have actual info

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/rams/document_20070723.ram
BBC 1933 coup

http://www.reallynews.com/video/pon/powerofnightmares.htm
The Power of Nightmares

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/dickcheney/
CBC News: the fifth estate: The Unauthorized Biography of Dick Cheney

Sometimes it is the farthest reaches to find info like New Zealand
http://www.scoop.co.nz/features/usacoup.html
Scoop Features: World News Headlines

Answer 2

There really is no such person; left wing radio in any form outside of places like San Francisco has never worked out. If you want to listen to KGO810 AM they have a morning show host the same time as Rush named Ron Owens who is a moderate liberal. I like Ron and disagree with him often; but from the left he catches flak for being Jewish and often defends harsh policies on the middle east.

Answer 3

i think yet Moore isn't crammed with Hate like limbaugh is . perchance disgust on the flexibility and administration of Mega firms . yet Moore cares approximately on a daily basis people . Limbaugh in basic terms cares approximately conservative precise wing white people .

Answer 4

The closest would be Keith Olberman. Have you ever noticed that his worst person in the world ends up being a conservative 95+% of the time? All the criminals in the world and he calls cons the worst people in the world.

EDIT;
Bert T.
You must be a regular listener to Rush.

Answer 5

Air America went under due to a lack of listeners. There are plenty of liberal TV programs to choose from, but if you're looking for someone on the left who is as knowledgeable and effective as Limbaugh you may be looking for a long time. If they had someone like that he would be in competition and would be successful. The only reason that the left has had to rely on MoveOn.Org and Media Matters is that they have nobody who can compete with Limbaugh.

Answer 6

There is not one because liberal radio never succeeds in a competitive environment. Air America failed badly. That is the problem.

Answer 7

Gotta agree with Firefly and Bert on this one.

Limbaugh is a lying blowhard who uses a mix of 5% fact and 95% BS to convince the uncritical that he actually knows what he's ranting about.

Limbaugh is beneath contempt.

Answer 8

You mean, who goes on the air everyday, and, for hours, lies, continuously misstates quotes and statisitcs, calls anyone with whom he disagrees, "Commies" "socialists" or "phony soldiers", just to advance the extreme LEFT-wing agenda?

Do you believe Limbaugh "digs into the core of issues and has ideas that [sic] take history into account"? Could you please cite examples, because I've been listening to his superficial, reactionary nonsense for years now and I have NEVER seen an "in-depth" analysis of ANYTHING Rush talks about. He says it's (whatever "it" is) Communist or Socialist, never actually tries to understand another person's viewpoint and only allows those who agree with him (usually out of fear they too will be considered "Commies" by this rabid, cowardly (in WHICH combat unit did Rush serve, that he feels qualified to denigrate actual soldiers fighting in Iraq?) hypocrite who told people for years drug addiction was weakness and all addicts should shot, or at least deported, but the whole time he's showing how much "Conservative Compassion" he has, he's forcing his Hispanic housemaid to get fake Oxycontin scrips filled for him all over town.

There IS no one such as that on the Left and frankly, I'm glad of that. Nope, all the psychotic demagogues seem to reside in the Right Wing camp.

Answer 9

Lefties can't make enough logical sense to have an equivelant to Rush on the air. About the only one who comes close is Alan Colmes, but he won't stay true enough to his own beliefs to step up to the plate.

Answer 10

I think that many of us who are on the left are going to take exception to the implication in the question that Rush Limbaugh does in-depth analysis. His recent comment that soldiers who oppose the Iraq war are "fake soldiers", and the Fox's pasting news clips together and cutting content from his broadcast to try to make him look innocent are really offensive, to many conservatives.

But to answer the question I think you want to ask, which is "who is a good, in-depth liberal commentator", I like to read almost anything by David Barsamian or Howard Zinn. I also love to listen to the Daily Show with John Stewart, and to Countdown with Keith Olberman.