(By Lars Larson) Great piece earlier this week on talk radio’s alleged role in discouraging vaccination. I think the blame is misplaced. Phil Valentine is a longtime friend of mine. My family has added him to our daily prayers for a full recovery since we got the news last week that he is sick.
I have never been one of the anti Vax crowd. Here in the pacific Northwest there is plenty of that kind of thinking. I’ve had all my vaccinations and when I’ve traveled outside America I got those recommended for the venue.
On the CPVID vaccines I take the view that every person should make his or her own decision based on the circumstances. Since I’m a generalist and not a specialist, I invite experts on from various fields to talk about all the angles on every subject I put on the air
Here’s the role I believe talk radio should be playing.
Talk radio has a job to inform. That means we provide the greatest range of opinions from all points of view. I deliberately get both experts and callers on to discuss any issue (and COVID has been a major topic as you can imagine) from the greatest range of points of view. My favorite interviews and callers are those I disagree with because then the audience hears the argument for or against…and the questions that raise counterpoints. Then they make up their own minds. Hosts should share their own opinion (because few things are more worthless than a host who can’t figure out where he stands on an important issue) but I always welcome someone who can pose the kind of questions that test whether my take on a subject is worthy and well founded, or not.
Here’s what talk radio should not be doing.
I don’t think any host should say things they don’t believe are true. There’s at least one host I know of who’s lawyer had to admit that, at times, the host makes stuff up. That’s not me. I stand by what I say. I spend six hours doing prep for the six hours I do every day. You have to do the research. If I find out I’m wrong on something I’m happy to correct the error. And we should all act as “rumor control.” At times I’ve heard claims that my research shows to be untrue and I’ll bring it up to the audience and warn them “watch out for this…it’s bunk”
Regarding COVID-19, I tell my audience what I think. That’s simply opinion. Then, I get the doctors and experts on my show to provide all points of view.
For example: I’ve had doctors on (Dr Pierre Kory for example) who point out there are drugs like Ivermectin that can prevent and treat Covid. Our government refuses to say why it won’t recommend the use of this effective and Nobel Prize winning drug
That comes home to an audience hungry for information and distrustful of the elected and the bureaucrats who have fibbed in aid of politics.
I trust my audience to make good decisions about COVID and just about every other subject under the sun. Medical decisions belong to the individual and the state.
Introduce me to any American and if invited to do so I could tell him or her many things they SHOULD do to make their lives better (put green on your dinner plate, drink less, exercise more, read to your kids, work harder, save more etc.)
It’s not my job to do that. It’s not my place to tell others how to live their lives.
Nor is it the government’s place to do so.
If I wanted my life run by government bureaucrats I’d move to China.
Lars Larson is a Compass Media syndicated talk show host based out of Portland, OR and can be reached at [email protected]
“If I wanted my life run by government bureaucrats I’d move to China.”
He’s very happy to have government bureaucrats run the lives of pregnant women.
Er Lars — maybe you should check your sources about the “wonder drug” you recommended for COVID. Quote from the medical literature:
Ivermectin is a medication that is used to treat parasite infestations. In humans, this includes head lice, scabies, river blindness, strongyloidiasis, trichuriasis, ascariasis, and lymphatic filariasis. In veterinary medicine, it is used to prevent and treat heartworm and acariasis, among other indications.
It’s a big leap from head lice to COVID. Lars, you are just evil. Plain and simple.
Note to Kenneth:
Since when did your feelings become evidence of anything.
If you think it is – you think it is.
That’s not an end-of-conversation position. It’s the beginning.
Larson wrote “My favorite interviews and callers are those I disagree with because then the audience hears the argument for or against…and the questions that raise counterpoints.”
The reality, though, is if you present a coherent argument that Lars disagrees with, he will interrupt and talk over you, then mute you and even end your call when you try to continue to talk.
Larson is a bully and a right-wing shill. Nothing more. He talks about presenting “all sides,” but he doesn’t actually do that.
Larson loves to promote the idea that he is rigorous in the pursuit of the truth.
The truth is that he is a propagandist, and does not care about the truth.
One particularly egregious example. After Hurricane Katrina, I received an email from Larson with a “Katrina Timeline” that he claimed was from the “times picyaune” [sic]. Many of the details contradicted what the New Orleans Times Picayune was actually stating on their website.
I asked Larson for his source, and he didn’t provide it, even though he has stated that he is happy to provide his sources. I contacted KXL management about Larson’s apparent misstating of a source. They clearly did not want to confront their cash cow.
I was banned from commenting on Larson’s Facebook page after I brought up this incident. He clearly is afraid of those who confront him with his record of dishonesty.
Lars is very cleverly, passive aggressively undermining the validity of the vaccines. First, he says he got the vaccine. But then he says one of the standard anti-vaxer lines…”If I wanted my life run by government bureaucrats…”
There it is. Just like Valentine and many others have done for ratings and self-serving purposes, Lars is politicizing vaccines. That is outrageously evil and irresponsible. People
who listen to these vaccine underminers sometimes then decide to not get the vaccine, and die.
COVID AND THE VACCINES ARE NOT POLITICAL!!! The virus doesn’t care what your political stance is. Nor do the medical scientists!! The hard facts are the hard facts. Millions and millions of vaccines have been administered, and they have been proven to WORK… at the very least, to help prevent you from dying, if you do get Covid.
I can understand right wing extremists Chri$tians on stations like the Salem stations, politicizing the vaccines… because Salem’s agenda is promoting the busine$$ of organized Christian churches and other businesses that feed off that. And the more credible that scientists look, the LESS credible that just “having faith in Jesus” looks, which undermines the agenda of commercialized Christianity. …. Science and organized religion have been at odds for over 2,000 years, because one is based on hard logical facts, and one is based on unproven “beliefs” and stories.
My point is, politicizing the vaccines, like most things in this country, is sadly all about money. Even if you cost people’s lives.
Lars Larson nails it! End of discussion. Your story earlier this week on Valentine and covid (which had a ‘click bait’ and emotion flaring title… which was intentionally done) is put to rest by Lars articulate, logical, and well reasoned response. I love that he is able to express what I think and feel inside me but am not able to state as well as he has. So… time to move on. Nothing more to see here. The next controversial topic is around the corner….