Great Shows. Really give it up to News Corp. et all for putting these shows on the air when they vehemently disagree with many of the things being said on their flagship network. Should put Napalitano and Stossel on at 5 o'clock on Fox IMO. If you get Fox Business I recommend tuning in.

Care to inform me what these shows are? I'll probably Google/Bing it as well so please don't lmgtfy me. I'd like some non-promotional descriptions of what these shows are since I've never heard of them.

I'm a little shocked that you like these 2 Boat...they are about as libertarian as they come. In fact, Judge Napolitano, is a Tea Party anchor. Did you know this? What do you mean Napolitano disagrees with Beck? Do you know he regularly subs for Glenn?

I have no problem with Boat becoming more libertarian.

BGFalcons82;594773 wrote:I'm a little shocked that you like these 2 Boat...they are about as libertarian as they come. In fact, Judge Napolitano, is a Tea Party anchor. Did you know this? What do you mean Napolitano disagrees with Beck? Do you know he regularly subs for Glenn?

I'm fully aware they are libertarians. As with liberals and every other comprehensive doctrine, there are people that are reasonable and others that are insane demagogues. With the news being so awful on every channel, I appreciate that I can find pundits who can present their worldview and problems with other worldviews in a reasonable fashion. While the Judge does use some high toned rhetoric when he's reading the teleprompter, etc. he is infinitely better than Glenn Beck.

I wasn't saying he disagrees necessarily with Beck but he comes off as an intelligent well meaning man. Beck on the other hand comes off as if he's high on mescaline and he embraces that role gladly. He really is either batshit insane or he's the worst kind of con artist getting well meaning people to travel miles across the country and hold up signs thanking him. If Tea Party people want to find people to get behind, these are the guys. Not some guy who has compared himself to Howard Beale, a character who was mentally insane and exploited in the name of ratings in a film meant to lampoon how irresponsible it would be to do such a thing. I've tried to look myself in the mirror and watch Mr. Beck's show and see if I can not think it is insanity but I just don't think I can. As a flawed human being perhaps I just simply cannot escape an inherent bias I may have. But, when I watch the Judge and John Stossel, I don't feel like they are insane and I think their shows are generally good for the most part when I see them. . But I don't know, I've been watching Fox News for a decade and it just didn't seem anything like what Glenn Beck is putting out there. I don't know he didn't seem AS bad on CNN. Perhaps it's me.

For I wear pants: they are shows like Hannity or the O'Reilly factor wherein the lead pundit has his opinions and then has guests give their view on a specific issue. the Judge and Stossel are both hardcore libertarians. I think they are generally reasonable and have good guests. They criticize both democrats and republicans and present a libertarian viewpoint.

For instance, I caught Stossel's show tonight and they had a libertarian panel (including a libertarian economist from the pit of liberal scum known as Harvard, gasp) talking about bad things about Obamacare. They did so in a reasonable fashion. They called it "Obamacare" as a general descriptor but other than that, not a single buzz phrase. Refreshing.

I always liked Stossel when he was on 20/20- no surprise he's not with ABC anymore. Writes some good op-ed stuff for Human Events and some others.

ABC wanted no part of him, anymore. He wasn't toeing the liberal company line.

Writerbuckeye;595488 wrote:ABC wanted no part of him, anymore. He wasn't toeing the liberal company line.

He didn't toe this imaginary liberal company line for at least 15 years. Of course he would leave for Fox and be able to express his opinion every night as opposed to a few specials now and again but ABC would have loved to keep a journalist like Stossel who has won 19 emmy awards and is widely respected. Stop making things up.

BoatShoes;595616 wrote:He didn't toe this imaginary liberal company line for at least 15 years. Of course he would leave for Fox and be able to express his opinion every night as opposed to a few specials now and again but ABC would have loved to keep a journalist like Stossel who has won 19 emmy awards and is widely respected. Stop making things up.

Stossel was on with O'Reilly the other night and had an off-hand comment when Bill said something about John's new job vs. his old one and he responded by shaking his head from side to side in regards to ABC and said something like, "I'm having the best time of my life". Although it only lasted a couple seconds, he was off-script and it caught my attention in that he was dissing ABC after so many years there. Like you wrote, I thought he left ABC for the riches of Murdoch & Ailes, but I was left with the impression he was very happy to put ABC in the rear view mirror.

BGFalcons82;595629 wrote:Stossel was on with O'Reilly the other night and had an off-hand comment when Bill said something about John's new job vs. his old one and he responded by shaking his head from side to side in regards to ABC and said something like, "I'm having the best time of my life". Although it only lasted a couple seconds, he was off-script and it caught my attention in that he was dissing ABC after so many years there. Like you wrote, I thought he left ABC for the riches of Murdoch & Ailes, but I was left with the impression he was very happy to put ABC in the rear view mirror.

He has spoke generally well of ABC in the past but I'm sure loves his new job way better than his old one. He has his own show every night of the week on a channel solely devoted to news as opposed to sharing bits and pieces of 20/20 on a channel who's news division is the last of its concerns. Anybody would be much happier under those circumstances and doesn't mean that ABC's ironclad liberal hands restrained him in an unreasonable manner which simply isn't true. The guy said that Unions were a gigantic monopoly a root cause of failure in NYC schools on the air and generated massive protests outside ABC news. Surely he didn't have the freedom he has at Fox where he has his own show but he got his message out there no doubt about it.

O'Reilly worked at ABC too and has said generally positive things about the place and even the liberal scumbag Peter Jennings but I'm certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is infinitely happier at Fox News.

A quote from Mr. Stossel:

"It was frustrating," Stossel wrote on in a parting-shot blog posted on Townhall.com. "My vision and that of my producers were often not in harmony. Too many stories I thought were important . . . were not aired."

Hmmmmm I wonder just what he was talking about?

Oh and as for why he was kept around so long: ratings.

Boat - I'm still intrigued that you like these two. I understand you much prefer their style and delivery over Beck, Hannity, et al. But their message is essentially the same. Are you a libertarian at heart and just hate the messengers? I personally think Stossel is a bit of a showman, but he is easy listening. I really like the Judge and I wish they'd find better times to get him out in front of the camera.

Having read your posts, I never woulda thunk you a libertarian-type, but then I never thought Ty would take a week off neither!!

BoatShoes;594736 wrote:Great Shows. Really give it up to News Corp. et all for putting these shows on the air when they vehemently disagree with many of the things being said on their flagship network. Should put Napalitano and Stossel on at 5 o'clock on Fox IMO. If you get Fox Business I recommend tuning in.

Don't be too naive about News Corp. The only thing they, and all other media outlets, are interested in is $$$$$.

BGFalcons82;596339 wrote:Boat - I'm still intrigued that you like these two. I understand you much prefer their style and delivery over Beck, Hannity, et al. But their message is essentially the same. Are you a libertarian at heart and just hate the messengers? I personally think Stossel is a bit of a showman, but he is easy listening. I really like the Judge and I wish they'd find better times to get him out in front of the camera.

Having read your posts, I never woulda thunk you a libertarian-type, but then I never thought Ty would take a week off neither!!

Many liberals respect the views of libertarians. So it is not at all unusual for one who is to the left having respect for those with views of a libertarian.

Libertarians are against torture, against pre-emptive wars, and are the most vocal of any group regarding civil rights...reighning praise on organizations like the ACLU. They also cannot stand eavesdropping by the government on our own citizens. For the most part, they are pro drug legalization. These are all issues shared by liberals. Also, the terms liberal and libertarian both carry an etymology associated with liberty.

Libertarians are the true "fiscal conservatives"....and they equally blame both parties for the unbridled national debt problems...and rightfully so.

Footwedge - On some of these, I see your point. However, liberty can't be confused with what the progressives want for us all. Libertarians want far less government and modern-day liberals/progressives want governmental control over everything. There's no compromise with that difference.

HUGE fan of The Stoss. Show his videos in my Business & Economics classrooms all the time.

So what I've gotten from this thread is that Stossel is sort of like Beck except minus the chalkboard shenanigans and "you're all going to die because of those Nazi liberals" demeanor. If that's true then I might have to watch some because I think it would at the very least be interesting. In a good way. I like hearing people talk rationally about things I don't necessarily agree with because it makes me really question whether I still hold the same ideas. Helps to either affirm certain positions or realize that you didn't have that good of a reason to hold those positions.

BGFalcons82;596339 wrote:Boat - I'm still intrigued that you like these two. I understand you much prefer their style and delivery over Beck, Hannity, et al. But their message is essentially the same. Are you a libertarian at heart and just hate the messengers? I personally think Stossel is a bit of a showman, but he is easy listening. I really like the Judge and I wish they'd find better times to get him out in front of the camera.

Having read your posts, I never woulda thunk you a libertarian-type, but then I never thought Ty would take a week off neither!!

I like them because I believe in letting reasonable people getting their views into the marketplace of ideas. I generally think them to be reasonable. I generally think Bill O'Reilly to be pretty reasonable. Glenn Beck isn't reasonable. He is like the Nickleback of Cable News; profiting off of the demand of people with bad taste. That's just my opinion of course though. Back in undergrad most of my philosophy professors were libertarians and so I'd say I'm generally sympathetic towards the concepts underpinning that worldview but being that the world is a pluralistic one I'd say my personal political philosophy is a rawlsian political liberalism wherein the basic tenet is to find laws that people with opposing worldviews might agree to in mutual compromise. For instance, a good example would be that traditional protestants and catholics cannot agree on the role that church should play in society so instead of slaughtering each other any longer they agreed to separate church and state. So, if one's theory of the good is generally grounded in libertarian principles one would nevertheless have to accept that there are communists out there and therefore in order to prevent warring factionalism it's important to try to mutually concede things to form compromise.