I don’t listen to conservative talk radio. I also don’t listen to liberal talk radio.

The reason I don’t listen to either form of newstainment is because I don’t want to purposely listen to somebody who angers me, and I don’t want to listen to somebody who I agree with. I can find both examples on either type of talk radio, depending on the issue, and I just have no interest in filling my small brain with stuff I don’t need. That’s what reality TV is for.

It may seem strange, but as I’ve been checking out the new Colorado Media Matters Web site, I’ve been fascinated to read about what I’ve been (not) missing. Like this tidbit, for example:

On the July 26 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA’s The Gunny Bob Show, host “Gunny” Bob Newman predicted that “[i]f the liberals seize control of the House, the Senate, the Congress, the White House — and if the Supreme Court tips further to the left — this nation will see gay marriage, soon to be followed by legalized polygamy and possibly human/fur-bearing-mammal marriages.”

Okay, this is silly, and it brings me to the third reason why I don’t listen to these shows: I don’t want to feel like a sap. “Gunny” Bob’s comment is way too contrived for me to be mad about it, and my reaction is probably why I wouldn’t be a good listener anyway. Gunny can’t possibly believe this to be the case, but he knows that if he says it, he will get his listeners all riled up. I don’t want to get worked up over something that is so stupid that even the person who said it probably doesn’t believe it, but there are plenty of listeners who will gladly take that bait and allow themselves to be reeled in. Ol’ Gunny said it because he knows you’ll call into his show and yell at him, and then he can get you and a bunch of other listeners talking about his show, saying, “Can you believe what Gunny Bob said last night?” Yes, I can believe it. He probably wasn’t getting any callers, so he had to say something to shock them awake.

This is different than the spring of 2005, when Reps. Keith King and Jim Welker said that allowing gay marriage would lead to marriage between animals and humans. This is different because King and Welker said it as members of the state legislature…and they seemed to have meant it. They weren’t looking for a shocked response — they were confirming their own idiocy, and it bothered me that we could have elected officials who would say something so assinine.

But with Gunny Bob — I get it. I understand the shock jock thing, and I understand the two political spectrums playing to their base of listeners to rile them up and make the show interesting. I’ll admit that I like to look at Colorado Media Matters to see what crazy thing was said recently, and that’s because it’s nothing more than entertainment to me. It’s just not entertaining enough for me to actually listen myself.