« Previous (Podcast Review: Goin' Deep with the Paralyzer and Mr. Clean) | Main | Next (The last 2 week's submissions: 2005-01-28) »
January 21, 2005
Podcast Review: Two Rights Podcast
This entry posted in:
3 and a half stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
Two Rights: Conservative Political Discourse
Format: radio show
Content: conservative discourse
Rating: 
What I'm going to do: not subscribe
Typical Length: 30 - 45 minutes
Bill Rice and Keith Burwell (with the support of Thomas Gaume of ipodio) have laid claim to the role of the conservative response to the liberal bias of the podosphere. From their "About Us" page:
Two Rights is now the strongest conservative voice on the Podasphere.
Whether they have a right to that title is an excercise for those you think about such things - I'm just here to review their podcast.
The format of the Two Rights podcast is still in a little bit of flux, which they mention in one episode; based on listener-feedback they're playing around with the overall format. At one point the format consisted of a Going Deep section where they discuss some current events in some depth, a Blog Bullets section where they parroted headlines from their blog posts for items that they don't have time to cover in depth on the podcast, and a Higher Level segment where they discuss in some detail a single issue of their choosing. At this point it's hard to determine what the format will be of course, but they haven't made drastic changes yet and some items from the prior format remains.
One of the goals of the podcast is "to create Political Discourse on the ... podasphere," and to their credit they do a fairly good job at this. They are interested in discussion with liberal listeners and thinkers and have participated in a debate with Mark Levine of RadioInsideScoop.com and played a clip of the debate on their podcast. Not only do they welcome further interaction with liberals, but they also do not share a monolithic conservative view point and we hear a conservative discourse between the two of them on some of the issues they cover. This is refreshing to hear.
Bill and Keith obviously put a lot of thought into their viewpoints and as political commentators of any stripe go they rely more on thinking and analysis than on emotion and FUD. However, like political commentators on any side of any aisle they have an unassailable belief in their grasp of the facts which, depending on your own version of the facts, may seem deeply flawed.
The Two Rights audio is still a little rough - in some of the latest couple of shows that I listened to the vocals were somewhat distorted, perhaps they recording at too high a level. They currently break their show into segments with promos for podcasts and ads, and the transitions between the vocal segments and the interstitials are well-executed. Their delivery has been improving continually since they started and they now seem comfortable "on the air". Track meta-data is great; they even use the ISO 8601 date format that is my personal preference, and unless you find their view-points offensive, the podcasts are both work- and child-safe.
In total, this is a well-executed podcast. My "not subscribe" action is due less to the quality of this podcast than to my disinterest in political commentary.
Subscribe to mp3s. I believe you can get the podcast via bittorrent at ipodio, but I can't get to that link right now.
Tagged: podcast podcasting review
Posted by cori at January 21, 2005 04:46 PM