Phil Donahue's liberal oasis
The talk show pioneer's new MSNBC show brings a little decency and tolerance into the rabidly right-wing jungle of cable TV.
By Eric Boehlert
July 18, 2002 | Don't tell "liberal media" bashers Bernard Goldberg or Ann Coulter, but bleeding heart Phil Donahue just debuted his prime-time cable talk show on MSNBC and the move was considered big news inside the business. Why? Because the TV and radio landscape has become so dominated by conservative talkers -- a fact that flies in the face of the authors' recent claims that the mainstream media reads off of the same lefty script.
Even Republicans acknowledge the obvious. Welcoming GOP stalwart Patrick Buchanan as a guest on the Monday night program, Donahue joked: "I got a show, Patrick. I mean, holy cow, somehow a liberal got in."
"It's affirmative action," quipped Buchanan.
More likely it was good business that led MSNBC to hire the 66-year-old Donahue, the Dick Clark of TV talk. With the cable spectrum maxed out on conservatives -- thanks, in part, to Fox News' entire programming lineup -- the also-ran MSNBC couldn't do any worse with a liberal at the top of its prime-time lineup.
Just look at CNN. Its signature political debate show "Crossfire" recently saw a 57 percent increase in its household ratings after hard-hitting Clintonite liberals Paul Begala and James Carville were added to the fight card.
On his first night, Donahue drew just over a million viewers. That's nearly triple the number who watched MSNBC's "The News With Brian Williams," which used to occupy the 8 p.m. time slot. Donahue also blew away ratings for the recently canceled "Making Sense," featuring conservative Alan Keyes, which aired at 10 p.m.
And Monday night, Donahue actually beat his CNN rival Connie Chung and her new 8 p.m. news show. No doubt some tuned in just for sentimental reasons, or for the novelty. But if he can maintain an audience that hovers above 700,000, the program, like the new "Crossfire," will be a success and perhaps wash away the notion that only conservatives can do TV talk.
But let's not get carried away with the idea that Donahue is breaking through historic barriers. The white-haired host spent more than 30 years prowling the broadcast landscape and asking provocative questions before walking away in 1996. (Though many of those questions were directed at American housewives, not Beltway players.) When he and Buchanan squared off on camera to debate the recent Pledge of Allegiance court ruling, they were just another pair of wealthy, middle-aged, white Irish Catholic men pontificating.
Yet they did it with the kind of oratory skill, savvy and touch of bluster that's almost extinct from televised debates today. Like a couple of PGA senior pros on familiar links, the two still had the swing and the smarts to play the game gracefully and entertainingly. Sure it was nostalgic, and at any moment viewers expected them to break into heated 1980s debate about the role of the contras, but it was also passionate TV that revolved around core beliefs, not hollow accusations or a game of political gotcha. For a few minutes, it was the old point-counterpoint style of televised debate. No cutaways to talking heads weighing in via satellite, no endless interruptions of guests.
And Donahue boldly defended the controversial court ruling that deemed the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional. What other TV talker has done that in prime time?
Here was Donahue, eloquently reviewing a 1947 Supreme Court decision that ruled a Jehovah's Witness child did not have to pledge his allegiance to the flag: "Justice Robert Jackson, he said if there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, Patrick, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in religion, nationalism, politics or any other matters of opinion, and you can't force them by word or deed. You cannot force an American to believe anything. You cannot force an American to pledge the flag. You cannot even force an American to believe in the United States of America."
Judge Robert Jackson? Does anybody think Fox News' Bill O'Reilly even knows who Judge Jackson was? Or cares? Instead, O'Reilly seems to wear his ignorance as a badge of honor. Now saddled with a daily syndicated radio talk show, it appears, judging from his on-air performance, O'Reilly's nightly prep work before taping his TV show has shrunk from 20 minutes to 10.