Laura Flanders takes the America is Purple tour to Montana

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Steve Rosenfeld wrote the above on The Laura Flanders Show blog last Sunday. Rosenfeld is the executive producer of RadioNation with Laura Flanders. Reader Tarita asked a) why we hadn't noted it and b) if we could note it?

Why? We didn't know it was up. Can we note it? No. Oh, okay, but only because you wrote that you had listened each Saturday and Sunday for the last three weeks and thanked us for giving you the heads up to "an amazing woman I didn't even know about."

Truly, if a reader catches some information on RadioNation with Laura Flanders they want noted, send an e-mail. We're spotlighting each Sunday. We can always work in a heads up to something, so let us know (thirdestatesundayreview@yahoo.com). This weekend, Laura Flanders has taken the show to Montana as part of her America is Purple tour. We called friends in Montana to give them a heads up and then called again to see what they thought. Their comment is the focus for this discussion.

Their comment can be phrased thusly: Why does it take a national radio show to focus in depth on our (Democratic) candidates?

They were impressed (as we were we) with RadioNation with Laura Flanders but they wondered why a national show was able to focus in such depth on state politics?

"They got to speak, really talk," was one comment that was said with more energy than it reads.
And the statement's correct. Flanders is a great journalist, she listens, she asks questions that are part of a conversation and not "Okay, now let me move to the next question on my list."

It's obvious, or sounds that way, that Flanders is enjoying every step on the America is Purple tour. But why does it take a national show to provide citizens of a state with a look at their officials and their candidates?

During her conversation with Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, we were cringing when he started talking about Hugo Chavez. Flanders listened and then encouraged him to explore the issue further (we sincerely hope he does). Does anything throw an interview for her? There must be something, even Superman has a weakness to kryptonite. But she's able to talk with anyone. "Talk with." Not "talk to." It's a conversation with Flanders (the whole point of her America is Purple tour). And with Schweitzer, Monica Lindeed, Kevin Furey and others, we felt like we were hearing a conversation and getting to know someone. The Sunday chat & chew hosts could learn a lot from Flanders.

Hopefully the Democratic Party big wigs were listening as well when the discussion turned to the 2004 election and it was noted that John Kerry, as Al Gore before him, didn't take out any TV advertisements in Montana. With three electoral votes, it may seem easy to dismiss Montana to bean counters. We're not bean counters. We think you have to be willing to get the message out everywhere.

Over three hours time (including commercials), Flanders provided you with an indepth look at Democratic politics (and politics period in many cases) in Montana. Is the answer to send Flanders to every state in the nation? We're for it. We learn a great deal with every stop on her tour. But we're wondering why residents of Montana feel they got better, more in depth coverage, from a national show than they get from their local media?

Their complaints about the local TV news were typical of complaints from any state: too much "a robbery today . . ." crime reports, too much chatter between anchors, too much hype, too little news they can use. The radio? Everyone we spoke to (15 people) was listening via XM satellite radio or online. Why? They didn't have a station they could pick up that carried Air America Radio. (Flanders addressed this on the show and said that management was hopeful that a new station would be found shortly.) Public radio? We heard a lot of snide remarks about Montana's NPR station KUHM (Helena) and how they get a whopping 41 minutes of Montana news each weekday. That's not 21 minutes straight. That's two four minutes breaks plus one eight minute break from 4:00 a.m. until 8:10 a.m. -- during four hours of NPR's Morning Edition (16 minutes -- "most of which is repeated in each break") -- and twenty-five minutes in the evening ("which is often repeated information from that morning or information that will be played again during the next day's breaks").

Forty-one minutes of news? Classical music gets one hour and fifty minutes each weekday and "at better hours" as one person noted. In fact on Sunday, you can get four hours and fifty-five minutes of classical music (along with an hour and a half of jazz music). You just can't get any local/state news. Saturdays offers one half-hour public affairs show that must fill some requirement for a "locally produced program" but it's not really news. Day by Day, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, Weekend Fresh Air, Morning Edition, NPR Hourly Newscast . . . You hear the schedule and you start to understand why it took Laura Flanders coming to the state to inform listeners about their Democratic officials, candidates and activists. A lot of canned, national programming. We're not sure how that qualifies for "public radio," but we'll leave that for another feature.

What we are sure of is that Flanders shined a light on Montana and, if you listened, you learned a great deal. The America is Purple tour continues, hopefully it will visit many more states. Not being "media enablers," we won't suggest that Flanders' actions lets state and local broadcasters off the hook. But let's all be glad she showed up.

Later today, she continues broadcasting from Montana:

Sunday
Going deeper into who and what made the difference in returning Democrats to power, we go to the Montana Human Rights Network (MHRN) and talk to: MHRN co-director and state Senator KEN TOOLE; MHRN co-director CHRISTINE KAUFFMAN; Montana Women Vote's TERRY KENDRICK; actress and activist, MARGOT KIDDER of MontanaWomenFor.org, state Rep. MARY CAFARRO and WEEL state welfare specialist; THERESA KEAVENY of Montana's League of Conservation Voters, and HELEN WALLER of the Northern Plains Resource Council. If you want to be part of our audience on Sunday, call the Montana Human Rights Network on 406 442 5506 for address details.

RadioNation with Laura Flanders. If you miss the broadcasts: "As always, a one-hour version of last weekend's program is available at http://www.thenation.com/."