Charlie Sykes was never a particularly coherent thinker/propagandist -- it's difficult to reconcile being a moralizer with being married three times -- but the cognitive dissonance has been to 11 ever since Obama was elected. Sykes will say on his show he thinks Sarah Palin is over (yet continue to shill for Sarah Palin because that's the goddess of his herd) and he'll say he opposed TARP (even though he adocated it).
In short, Charlie Sykes is a cobag -- he's full of shit and he floods the airwaves with it. A rude comparison, to be sure, but Sykes deserves nothing more.
The latest example of his general cobaggishness would be an asinine post showing people lining up for swine flu shots, saying "Ladies and Gentlemen, I Bring You Government Health Care." To which really, the Brawler says, Amen, because where is the miracle of the market on this right now? But lines are bad, so Charlie has an intellectually coherent point.
Meanwhile, MU law professor Rick Esenberg believes Charlie Sykes is a man to be taken seriously:
Another theme was to take me to task for suggesting that Charlie Sykes is a reasonable guy. As I have said before, talk radio is not a faculty workshop. It's entertainment and, because it is, there needs to be a certain vibrancy that can get in the away of a perfectly detached and neutral conversation. Within the confines of the medium, I think that Charlie does a fairly good job of maintaining a civilized discourse.
Hate to see Ese's definition of uncivilized discourse.
UPDATE: Slightly edited
Charlie Sykes is an entertainer, nothing more. Were it not for the advertisers he would not be on the air. He brings listeners and so too advertisers to the table by provoking the frightened and conservative, encouraging the syncophants, and and filtering out dissent.
He's just entertainment, like Colbert and Rush. It's all about ratings....
Posted by: Larry Whatley | November 09, 2009 at 07:12 AM