Watching political commentary shows.
This is English as a Second Language podcast number 459.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Go there to download a learning guide, an 8-10 page guide.
We provide for this and all of our current episodes that will help you improve your English even faster.
This episode is called Watching Political Commentary Shows.
These are news programs where there are people who are giving their opinions about politics, about things going on in the country, in the government.
They're very popular in the United States, especially in the last 20 years they have become popular.
We're going to listen to a dialogue between Laura and June that uses some common vocabulary you might hear or see used on one of these television shows.
Let's get started.
I really don't like these political commentary shows.
They purportedly present both sides of an issue, But the commentator is always biased.
Oh, I don't think so.
Each show invites pundits on each side of the political spectrum.
In this show, for instance, the pundits each take turns presenting their arguments.
You mean they each present the party line, right?
I find it so predictable what each side will say, since they always invite people who have opinions that are poles apart.
That's not always true.
This other show has a roundtable format.
Each person listens to the others and they debate the issues.
On that show, it's not what they say, but how they say it.
They treat the others' opinions with such contempt.
You can hear the loathing in their voices, and they constantly talk over each other.
I'm surprised you can bear to watch it.
I find it stimulating.
Our dialogue begins with Laura saying, I don't really like these political commentary shows.
Political means relating to politics, what the government does, their policies, their actions.
Commentary means giving your opinion or your view about something.
Laura says that these political commentary shows purportedly present both sides of an issue, but the commentator is always biased.
Purportedly means supposedly.
It's what someone says they are doing, but it usually isn't true.
You could say she went into his room purportedly to put away some clothes, but he thinks that she was looking for something.
She said she was going in there to put away some clothes, but she was really doing something else.
These shows purportedly present or give you both sides of an issue, give you different viewpoints about an issue, but the commentator is always biased.
A commentator is a person who gives his or her opinion, usually someone who is paid to give their opinion.
They can be either politically liberal on the left or politically conservative on the right, or somewhere in between.
When we say someone is biased, we mean that they have a strong opinion for or against something, so that you can't really see anything but your opinion.
Someone who is biased is usually someone who is not objective, someone who can't look at the facts and determine something, because they have their own strong opinions that already influence their views.
June says, oh, I don't think so.
I don't think the commentators are always biased.
Each show invites pundits on each side of the political spectrum.
A pundit, P-U-N-D-I-T, is a person who gives his or her opinions about something, usually on a radio program or on a television show.
There are several cable news networks that have political pundits, people giving their opinions on shows, and you can find lots and lots of these shows about American politics on American television.
The political spectrum is the range of opinions from liberal on the left to conservative, that is, on the right.
That's the spectrum.
It's the range of different opinions.
June says, in this show, the pundits each take turns presenting their arguments.
To take turns means that each person has an opportunity.
They go from one to the other, then back to the first, and then back to the second, and so forth.
Arguments here mean reasons why you believe something.
The word argument, however, has a couple of different meanings in English.
Go to the learning guide for some additional explanations.
Laura says, you mean they each present the party line, right?
The party line here means the official opinion or the generally accepted ideas of a certain group.
Usually when we are talking about a political party, people will use this term, the party line.
It also has the implication of being someone who doesn't think for themselves, who just repeats the opinions of the group that they belong to.
But in any case party line has to do with the accepted positions about certain things, opinions that a certain group has about often political issues.
Laura says, You mean you know what is going to happen.
You already know their opinion before they tell you.
You can predict it.
She says, The expression pulls apart here means very different from one another.
Someone very conservative and someone very liberal would be pulls apart.
June says that's not always true.
This other show has a roundtable format.
A round table.
One word is a type of meeting or discussion where people sit around a table and each person talks for a short amount of time.
It's more like a conversation.
June says, in this round table, each person listens to the others and they debate the issues.
To debate means to talk about what you think matters.
Laura says, On that show, it's not what they say, it's how they say it.
They treat the other's opinions with such contempt.
Contempt is a feeling that someone or something isn't important and you do not need to respect it.
It's a feeling of disgust, we would say.
If someone says she was treated with contempt, they mean that the other persons didn't respect her and they treated her badly.
Laura says that you can hear the loathing in their voices and they constantly talk over each other.
To loathe, L-O-A-T-H-E, means to hate, to really dislike something, not to like something.
Loathing means hatred of something, not liking something.
She says you can hear the loathing, the dislike, their hatred in their voices and they constantly talk over each other.
To talk over someone means to speak loudly before the other person is finished talking.
You're trying to basically stop the other person from talking by speaking loudly so that they will listen to you or someone else will listen to you.
This is very common on these political commentary shows.
People are almost shouting or yelling at each other about some political topic.
Laura says, To bear to watch it means that you are able to watch it because it is so difficult.
It is so painful, perhaps.
June says, I find it stimulating.
Something that is stimulating is something that is exciting.
Something that is interesting, something that makes you think about a topic in a new or different way.
June says, I like a good fight when two people are arguing or disagreeing with each other.
Laura says, I guess it's better for them to do it on screen than on the streets.
So she's saying, I guess it's better for them to fight each other on the television.
The expression on screen means either on your television or on a movie screen, a place where you watch movies.
It's better for them to do it on TV than to fight in the streets.
The idea here is that if you fight in the streets, it's often a physical fight where you're punching and hitting the other person.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I really don't like these political commentary shows.
They purportedly present both sides of an issue, but the commentators always biased.
Oh, I don't think so.
Each show invites pundits on each side of the political spectrum.
In this show, for instance, the pundits each take turns presenting their arguments.
You mean they each present the party line, right?
I find it so predictable what each side will say, since they always invite people who have opinions that are poles apart.
That's not always true.
This other show has a roundtable format.
Each person listens to the others and they debate the issues.
On that show, it's not what they say, but how they say it.
They treat the other's opinions with such contempt.
You can hear the loathing in their voices, and they constantly talk over each other.
I'm surprised you can bear to watch it.
I find it stimulating.
I like a good fight.
I guess it's better for them to do it on screen than on the streets.
The script for this episode was written by the always stimulating Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2009 by the Center for Educational Development.
