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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (21523)	6/13/2005 3:29:44 PM
From: SiouxPal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 361102

Look what Bush has done to his ratings in 6 months. Hillary has 3 years to improve her favorables. I'll go with your #1 Thought on Bill

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (21523)	6/13/2005 3:37:07 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 361102

Over Six months ago I predicted that Ed Schultz would become a BIG progressive talk show host...fyi... Radio vets purchase Ed Schultz; Liberal talk gains business credibility RAW STORY By John Byrne rawstory.com Two radio executives who made Clear Channel and Rush Limbaugh household are to announce today they have purchased The Ed Schultz show, America’s fastest-growing talk show in the country, RAW STORY has learned. Veteran radio execs Randy Michaels and Stu Krane purchased the show from Democracy Radio, a non-profit which helps seed progressive talk radio hosts. Michaels’ and Krane’s new company, P1 will now carry the show. The protracted sale has been in the works since March. The deal puts the North Dakota talker in the driver’s seat of a burgeoning liberal radio revolution, a sign that those who made right wing radio the ubiquitous voice it is today see financial promise in liberal talk. Michaels, formerly CEO of Clear Channel Radio, has been credited with the firm’s awesome radio growth; his critics say he has homogenized the medium on a national scale. Krane was a partner in the firm that developed Rush Limbaugh, and previously worked as Vice President for ABC and Premiere Radio. “I am excited to be back on the cutting edge of talk radio,” Krane said in a statement. “Ed Schultz is the ultimate personality to carry that format forward.” Schultz told RAW STORY he’d never imagined such a partnership could happen. “It’s unquestionably the biggest professional break that I’ve ever had in 27 years of the business,” he said. Schultz acknowledges some of his listeners will cry havoc when they hear the man who made Limbaugh a star has bought his show, but says it should be understood as a sign that progressive radio is here to stay. The 51-year-old talker has seen his fair share of praise and criticism. He draws senators up and down the Democratic aisle as guests, but hasn’t been afraid to call out those he finds issue with, such as MoveOn.org and recently Howard Dean. “I understand this is going to raise red flags for progressives, especially those out there on the blogosphere that have been comfortable taking shots at me from the very beginning,” Schultz said. “First they said I was owned and paid for by the Democratic Party, now they’re going to say I’m owned and paid for by people who are obviously Republicans.” “The conspiracy nuts can have their way with this, but what they really need to know is this is still going to be just me, my two Fargo-based producers, my wife and I developing the content for the show every day,” he added. “Hell, I don’t use talking points. You just get my take on what’s happening in the news.” Schultz’s producer James Holm, who hails from the straight-talking vein, says he’s interested to see how the right will respond. “This is going to be a hard pill for established right-wing media to swallow,” Holm told RAW STORY. “They’ve championed the talk-down culture and I guarantee you that Drudge is not going to touch this, because there is no way for the right to spin this story to make progressive radio or Ed Schultz look bad. This is a clear victory, and it’s gotta have them shaking in their boots.” Schultz, too, believes the deal demonstrates progressive talk radio’s profitability and permanence. He says he’s looking forward to being part of the conversation in the midterm 2006 elections and the 2008 presidential race. “I remember back in January I was on Fox News with Bill O’Reilly, and he pretty much took a shot at me, saying that we weren’t a commercial venture and that we were running our show on political money,” Schultz remarked. “And I told him we were a commercial venture. “If O’Reilly is fair and balanced,” he added, “he’ll ask me to come back on the air—not to mention that I’m beating him in Denver.” Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. A recent Newsweek article stated Schultz has the fastest-growing radio show since Limbaugh’s — currently in 95 markets, he’s shooting for 200 by year’s end. The show will continue to be syndicated by Jones Radio Networks, a Denver-based distributor.