1. America,
by every objective standard, is the greatest nation in the history of the world
in terms of freedom, protection of freedom, equality of all human beings,
compassion for humanity, the affirmation of fundamental human rights,
opportunity and prosperity for all, the unleashing and encouragement of human
creativity, the creation of wealth for her citizens and the citizens of the
world, and the improvement of the well-being and health of her citizens and the
citizens of the world.
2. Reason
and evidence are the only reliable guiding principals for human beings
individually and collectively, and all arguments about personal and public
policy should focus on the reason and evidence concerning the arguments. Feelings are okay and have an important role
in life, but are not appropriate as guides in decision making concerning
anything important. Also, intentions are
good, but policy should be decided based not on intent of the policy, but should
be based upon the evidence that a particular policy in fact can be expected to
accomplish its intentions.
3. An
argument that begins with fallacious reasoning or facts is thereby
predetermined to end up with a false conclusion. Therefore, once an illogical or false presupposition is stated,
it is senseless to continue with the argument until the foundation is repaired.
4. Most
people do not enjoy listening to rage and rancor. Many people enjoy listening to and learn from good-natured debate
and reparte' in which ideas are strenuously debated by people of good
will. Intelligent people can argue
vociferously while maintaining civility and good humor toward one another.
5. People
listen to talk radio as a modern day town square in which a sense of community
is created and ideas are sifted and weighed by the winnowing fork of
history. People do not listen to hear
evaluations of the talk show host(s) or critiques on the operation of the show.
6. Talk
shows succeed, and are of benefit, because they inform AND entertain. The FLIP SIDE matters to its crew because it
is an opportunity to inform and entertain.
7. Talk
shows actually have very limited air time for conversation. There is not enough time for rambling
discourses, unfocussed vague arguments, readings, and speeches. Focused and enthusiastic personal expression
and discourse of ideas and succinct humor is what makes talk shows
scintillating.
8. Ad
hominem attacks, personal insults, racial slurs, foul language, and crudity
undermine the human spirit, destroy human decency, and manifest and foster lack
of intelligence.
CALLER GUIDELINES:
1. Turn
off your radio and listen on the phone when waiting to go on the air. Your radio causes a feedback loop, and we
will disconnect you.
2. DO
NOT use a speaker phone except while waiting to be on the air. As soon as we go to you, go to a standard
phone line. Speaker phone quality is
just too poor for broadcast. We will
disconnect you.
3. NO
calls JUST to win give-a-ways in our trivia contests. Have something interesting to contribute to the discussion. You can start out with something like,
"First, let me take a stab at your question . . .", and then
participate in the topic(s) of the hour.
4. Know
what you want to say. If you get
nervous on air, write a few notes while waiting to get on air. If you have a couple of points you want to
make, put them in order of priority because you may not be given time for more
than one point--we really try to get to as many callers as we can, so each
caller is given a limited amount of time.
And when you begin, make your point quickly. You don't have time for a lot of preliminary setup before you
make your point.
5. Be sure of what you start with once on air. If you start with a faulty assumption or an untrue fact, we will stop you or challenge you. This is not meant to be meanness or to stop disagreement. It is just to teach people how to think. When Don stops you at that point, you have to answer the challenge before going on, or there is not point in hearing the rest of your argument.
For
instance, if you believe 2 + 2 = 5 in a base ten system, we don't want to hear
the rest of your proof that the Pythagorean theorem is invalid until we first
correct your little addition problem.
6. Make
the hosts look good or the show sound informative and entertaining and you get
bonus time on air. This doesn't mean
you have to agree. If you disagree, but
in a way that opens up interesting discussion or opens the door for further
interesting dialogue, you are valued at least as much as if you were making
interesting points in agreement with us.
7. On
the other hand, if you are just rancorous and mean without any interesting or
entertaining points to offer, you won't last long as a caller.
8. If
you want to complain about how we run the show or callers, email Don at
don@flipsideshow.com. Don values your input, and he will read it. But it is deadly talk radio, and we will cut
you off if you attempt to say more than a simple clause like "I love your
show," or "I can't stand your show, but I listen anyway." It is not criticism that we object to--it is
just taking up air time to critique how the show is done.
9. crudity,
name-calling, venomous attacks, etc. don't get you a lot of air time. As a matter of fact, we call this
"Caller suicide," and we initiate a prompt and appropriate call
burial.