Tossing ‘socialist’ into newscast is risky, laudable

Surprising bowl of alphabet soup this week on News 3, where its Least-Likely-to-Win-an-Emmy interviewer — owner Jim Rogers — quizzed Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC, cable’s Left-Wing Central.

Local TV’s folksiest correspondent invited O’Donnell — the liberal-to-the-nth-degree host of “The Last Word” who’s fast becoming the post-Keith Olbermann Olbermann — onto his 4 p.m. news segment to explain why he’s a self-described socialist.

Such interviews are rare chances for open-mindedness in a media-verse that otherwise caters to the close-minded.

Explosive confrontation here? Hardly. There was fawning (Rogers called O’Donnell “a fabulous talent”) and careful wording (O’Donnell, dropping his standard smugness, called America a good balance of democracy and socialism, citing our embrace of Medicare and Social Security as the latter, even if we’re reluctant to call it The S Word).

What made the interview interesting was the fact of it in the first place. Beyond the mutual promo stroking between an NBC affiliate and an NBC-owned channel, it reveals an otherwise neutral (i.e., antiseptic) newscast unafraid to alienate its viewers on the right by interviewing an often polarizing left-wing media figure like O’Donnell.

Local viewers might not have expected it, and so much the better. Most of Rogers’ guests, while prominent community leaders, don’t rouse passions the way these cable chatterers do, so just featuring one invites centrist or right-wing (or Tea Party) viewers to quickly tune out.

That’s not a risk a local newscast — reliant on repetition of neutral reporting from sunrise to late night – often takes.

In 2011 America, too many Americans no longer tolerate hearing viewpoints that aren’t their own, abetted by outlets like Fox News and, yes, MSNBC that act as ideological echo chambers for dogmatic viewers. How refreshing for a local station to challenge an audience this way, rocking them out of their comfort zone. It’s a wake-up slap in the kisser nowadays if you’re unexpectedly exposed to someone who doesn’t think like you do — particularly, opinionated media personalities, so many of whom trigger intense love or loathing among viewers.

That alone distinguished the Rogers-O’Donnell discussion. Granted, it’s probably not by design. After all, Rogers owns the bat and ball at News 3. He gets to hit whatever fungoes he wants without caring how they affect the ratings game (which is not to say he doesn’t care about the ratings game).

However they happen, such moments separate News 3 from competitors that don’t risk viewer ire — especially in this conservative state – by giving a “socialist” his say.

Yes, straight news stories should be relayed by neutral reporters. And this isn’t leaning left or right: It could have been a Rogers interview with right-wing demigod Rush Limbaugh.

Either way, these Rogers side trips occasionally add a fresh zest to the often numbing drone of local news.

There are worse things than being asked to listen to – and even reconsider – what you think are the worst things.

Contact reporter Steve Bornfeld at sbornfeld@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0256.