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Taking a page from Air America’s book
BY ALEX IRVINE
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As Maine Goes has had the local political-talk airwaves to itself a little too long, apparently. The Maine Center for Economic Policy announced this week that it is launching State of the State, a weekly gabfest that "will examine a host of Maine issues, from budget issues and fair taxes, to health care, Social Security, and federal budget impacts on Maine." MECEP is likely taking this step to balance off the right-tilting commentary on As Maine Goes, although the organization’s executive director, Christopher St. John, has made a point of saying that programs will be "fact-based rather than ideologically driven." The past year has seen signs of a re-energized liberal slice of the airwaves, after a long period of conservative dominance in commercial media. Air America is surviving, Jon Stewart is not just a popular comic but a best-selling author, and now Maine political junkies will have a chance to see St. John chew over the news of the day with Maine politicos and experts of various stripes. Governor Baldacci is tipped to be the guest on the show’s March 1 debut; perhaps St. John will ask him about his plan to sell state lottery revenues or to cut front-line social services while mysteriously leaving the Augusta bureaucracy intact. Oh, the possibilities. You won’t be able to see State of the State unless you have Adelphia cable, though. It will show on that system’s channel 9 on Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m., with weekend re-airings at 11:30 a.m. Time Warner subscribers and those benighted souls with no cable at all will still have to read the paper if they want news and opinion.
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