If Oprah can start her own network

[PlanetBev]

Why the hell can't we have a liberal news network to counteract Fox? Surely there's got to be money on the Left, especially in the entertainment field, for this type of network. Maybe they just don't give a rip. As long as we don't have our own network, we'll continue to see outfits like MSNBC spay and neuter progressive voices.

[bbinacan]

1. I think it was tried.

Not sure if it worked. Back after a quick search.

[BklynThirtyThree]

2. it could work

but the difficult part is convincing cable/satellite carriers to find a slot. Al Jazeera English is a good example, they've been trying since '06, I believe. No takers in the horizon

[DCKit]

4. Not entirely true...

In the DC area, we have ten Mhz (various international channels) on ComCast cable. Five of those are available with an antenna (Japan, Russia and AJ).

I think they'll get more play after this. They've proven they have more credibility and better staffing then all the MSM stations put together.

[Ron Green]

3. TV is mostly about ignorance.

Its fundamental premise is "I'm a celebrity" (or "There's a celebrity"), and if you don't look like this you're not OK; but if you keep watching you belong to something important.

Oprah, for as much as she does in a rather benign way, depends on masses of needy people for her audience. A liberal slate of programming wouldn't contain enough adolescent drama to keep the lights on.

[bbinacan]

5. There is Current TV.

And there was Air America Radio, now defunct.

[onehandle]

6. Her tax cut could pay for a Huge PAC. But after Obama got elected, she stopped being 'political.'

She got what she wanted and washed her hands of us.

WTF?

[glinda]

8. She works in part with Disney or someone. It is not all her own.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

11. One of Discovery's channels is where 'OWN' is

and Oprah is all about her SELF. Her "best self" if you believe that propaganda. Pretty sad if that's it but I guess she thinks it is. If you go strictly by money - I guess she really is "all that" - at least in someone's mind.

Of course she tossed Obama and whoever else under the bus when she was done using them for ratings on her show. That's what she does.

[glinda]

13. Thanks. Couldn't think of the name. Her "own self" to be sure.

[Hannah Bell]

16. she's very political. she owes her career to being political. chicago, you know.

[Cid_B]

7. No market....

[Codeine]

9. I don't need a "liberal" network.

I've never understood the need to have everything tailor-made to my political prejudices. Lefty talk radio left me cold. Lefty TV would do the same. I enjoy my BBC World Service just fine -- relatively spin-free analysis and cogent facts.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

10. Same thing I asked - or similar...

...I asked why Olbermann, Maddow, AC and others couldn't form their own network - since Oprah has her own. The short rather glib answer was: "they don't have billions of dollars".

Oprah is a rich tabloid trash peddler.

Olbermann, Maddow, AC et al - are not. What can you say. Americans like trash TV better than the truth. They want to live in fantasyland.

[azul]

12. The money game is monopoly, and media monopoly makes it all happen.

But has the US news to tabloid crap transformation been exposed finally as rubbish and nonsense by Al Jazeera's actual news reportage on Egypt's crisis?

Can there be a news network/service that puts civil society interests ahead of corporate interests, like in its charter?

Nicolas Berggruen may be the man to get the ball rolling, as he is considering building a media empire to rival News Corp.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/4eca9d52-1f55-11e0-8c1c-00144feab49a.html#axzz1CmIMYCui

[cbdo2007]

14. The only reason to start a network like that would be to make money and it wouldn't make any.

Fox News makes a shit load of money because they have a bunch of zombies that will watch whatever they put on.

[Hannah Bell]

15. Because rich people don't start networks to advocate for the non-rich. in a nutshell.

[kctim]

17. Why?

No market.
Government won't pay for it.

[browntyphoon]

18. Gov't shouldn't. Get enough people together who care and you wont be neutered by regulation