Dylan Ratigan's Show "Steel on Wheels" Challenges Students to use Entertainment to Bring Political Parties Together

I walked into the University of Denver's Newman Center with my parents on the evening of January 28^th for the live broadcast of Dylan Ratigan’s show ‘Steel on Wheels,’ but was quickly swept away from my folks when a lady asked if I was a college student. I said yes, she smiled, said great!, and shuffled me into Gates auditorium without my parents. I took slight offense to the separation from my parents and wound my way back to them. I entered Gates auditorium once more—this time with my parents--and the usher informed me that I should need to sit front and center because I look like a “brightly shining college student.” I agreed but insisted that my parents sit with me. Before Dylan Ratigan’s MSNBC show ‘Steel on Wheels’ even began, I had been stereotyped to fit the ‘item’ MSNBC wanted to broadcast. Shortly there after, the panel of commentators walked on stage, including Nicole Glaros, Managing Director of TechStars of Boulder, Matt Miller of The Washington Post and head of Left, Right & Center, and Andrew Jenks from MTV’s Word of Jenks (Aurora Advisors). The panelist I recognized immediately was Andrew Jenks, because his show targets my generation directly. The panel was carefully selected so that one or more of the members appealed to each and every member of the audience. From Dylan Ratigan’s comments and topics of debate, to the carefully chosen panel of debaters, ‘Steel on Wheels’ strategically used kairos and community commonplaces to appeal to a wide audience.

So first of all, a little background on Dylan Ratigan to better understand the purpose of his shows and the topics of debate. Dylan Ratigan is a television host that covers topics mainly on politics, global economy and relations, and financial markets. He critiques political parties and blames our recent economic failure on them. The particular subject of the January 28^th debate was the question of who creates jobs and how are we to get political parties to agree on this? Dylan Ratigan assumed the position of a politician standing directly in the middle of the two political parties, in reference to Obama’s recent State of the Union address (a very relevant issue). He believes that small business owners are the ones that truly are creating reliable jobs for people today, and that the government should therefore benefit small businesses over large corporations (Dylan).

The most fascinating part of the broadcast was the panel of debaters. Nicole Glaros holds very liberal ideas on business ownership, and made the point that when it comes to immigrants that want to open a business, we should lighten the process because after all, she said, who cares who owns the business as long as it creates jobs. Most questions related to immigrant rights were directed at Glaros given her sympathetic attitude toward the issue. She appealed to those seeking citizenship, and those who are simply seeking to open a new business.

Matt Miller hotly reiterated his opinion that the US economy needs serious reform, and the idea that keeping brains in our country regardless of where the brains come from would benefit our country greatly. Miller appealed to those sick of hearing garble from feuding political parties: an issue that is incredibly hot today.

I honestly only recognized the last of the panel: Andrew Jenks. Jenks appeals to my generation with his simple MTV show that aims to break through social barriers and reveal the hardships of different groups in society. His show’s topics range from nursing homes to professional cage fighters. But even more than that, Dylan Ratigan highlighted the fact that arts and entertainment is the only topic that both Democrats and Republicans can come together and agree upon civilly. So in this way Andrew Jenks serves as the mediator between the dueling parties, and is therefore our “only hope to spread the word of economic reform in the United States”, according to Ratigan. In the beginning, Jenks explained how he began college at the age of nineteen, but had a burning desire to videotape people and left college to pursue that dream. Everyone in the audience could relate to that as a commonplace, because after all, everyone has a dream. But aside from the political debate and his own aspirations, Jenks was the persona and linkage to his audience at the University of Denver: students the same age as he. Ratigan pointed to how Jenks really is the key to moving forward, not just because of his age but also because of his link to entertainment, a field that brings people together. Jenks responded along the lines of, “Unrelated to my show, it is sad to watch political parties fight mostly because we are never going to move forward as a country that way. You know, I work with groups of people who do not have time to care about politics because they are busy trying to feed their families or follow a dream. If you have a dream, you have to be willing to lose it all to gain it all. When you follow your dreams, you move forward, not sideways.” Jenks appeals to his-age audience members and hopes to spread his opinion that the young people of today need to move forward to make progress in this country. He suggests using the entertainment business to reach out to different groups as people of all different backgrounds come together for entertainment.

Having a diverse panel allowed for many different commonplaces so that each audience member could identify with at least one person on stage. Even seating was set up to appeal to a commonplace when I was seated in the front, so viewers would see students first. Through a strong panel of debaters that alluded to many different groups of people, and a linkage in Andrew Jenks who stands aside from all the political debate, Dylan Ratigan was able to create an environment of people with opinions on all ends of the spectrum.

Works Cited

Aurora Advisors Inc. "8 PM EST Watch Dylan Ratigan Town Hall Session on Jobs, Innovation « Naked Capitalism." Naked Capitalism. 28th Jan. 2011. Web. 06 Feb. 2011. [Online].

"Dylan Ratigan." Wapedia. Web. 06 Feb. 2011. .