A reason to watch MSNBC?

[khaosworks]

Phil Donahue's liberal oasis

Don't tell "liberal media" bashers Bernard Goldberg or Ann Coulter, but bleeding heart Phil Donahue just debuted his prime-time cable talk show on MSNBC and the move was considered big news inside the business. Why? Because the TV and radio landscape has become so dominated by conservative talkers -- a fact that flies in the face of the authors' recent claims that the mainstream media reads off of the same lefty script.

Even Republicans acknowledge the obvious. Welcoming GOP stalwart Patrick Buchanan as a guest on the Monday night program, Donahue joked: "I got a show, Patrick. I mean, holy cow, somehow a liberal got in."

"It's affirmative action," quipped Buchanan.

...

And Donahue boldly defended the controversial court ruling that deemed the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional. What other TV talker has done that in prime time?

Here was Donahue, eloquently reviewing a 1947 Supreme Court decision that ruled a Jehovah's Witness child did not have to pledge his allegiance to the flag: "Justice Robert Jackson, he said if there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, Patrick, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in religion, nationalism, politics or any other matters of opinion, and you can't force them by word or deed. You cannot force an American to believe anything. You cannot force an American to pledge the flag. You cannot even force an American to believe in the United States of America."