Look no further than the CBS News-Dan Rather imbroglio of recent weeks to see the intertwined nature of politics, TV and radio. And it's not just the usual suspects.

	Arts & Politics Part Two The WB/Jeffrey Thurnher
	Matt Long, left, plays Jack, and Logan Lerman is his brother Bobby in The WB's "Jack & Bobby," in which the younger brother grows up to be president. The Series Examining the convergence of arts and politics in the 2004 presidential race Part One: Stars of every stripe stump for their candidate

By now viewers are accustomed to cable news pundits from both ends of the political spectrum jousting on-air for the entertainment of viewers who love or loathe them, depending on the viewer's or listener's political persuasion.

In what's quite likely the most heatedly partisan election since 1968, politics is poking out of every corner of TV. Although the standard bearer for political drama in prime time, NBC's "The West Wing," won't return with new episodes until Oct. 20, The WB's new drama, "Jack & Bobby" (9 p.m. Sundays on WCWB), is already on a political roll. The second episode of the series featured liberal college professor Grace McCallister (Christine Lahti) advising a college Democrats club as they passed out buttons promoting the presidential candidacy of Democrat John Kerry.

"Jack & Bobby" follows the lives of two teenage boys, the younger of whom will grow up to be president. Although Bobby's mother, Grace, is a staunchly liberal Democrat, viewers have learned Bobby will become a Republican (a politically conservative university president, played by John Slattery, will become his mentor) but will be elected to the presidency as an independent.

"When 'The West Wing' came on, it was thought nobody would watch it because nobody wanted to hear about politics on the news, let alone on their drama show, and obviously that proved to be untrue," said Vanessa Taylor, executive producer of "Jack & Bobby." "I do think to watch a show about politics demands a certain amount of attention on behalf of your viewers than certain shows that [are solely about] entertainment value."

But "Jack & Bobby" is more the exception than the rule when it comes to prime-time entertainment.

Michael Murphy, who stars in Sundance Channel's "Tanner on Tanner" (9 p.m. Oct. 5), the continuing saga of fictional politician Jack Tanner, said that although some may issue the charge of liberal media, corporate owners tend not to fit that bill.

"It's very difficult to put out anything that's controversial," he said. "People talk about a liberal press, yet they forget these companies are owned by big conglomerates who have lots of interests in Washington. ... They're very careful about what they put on the air."

At least when it comes to specificity. In the 1970s, Norman Lear's "All in the Family" regularly tackled political and social hot potatoes, including racism and abortion. But Jeff Stein, assistant professor of electronic media at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, said TV shows now "are more concerned with the type of language and the graphic nature of what they can present as opposed to dealing with social issues like war and abortion within the entertainment format."

Ted Mandell, of the University of Notre Dame's department of film, television and radio, said that while Hollywood performers and writers tend to be liberal, networks are cautious about the amount of political discourse that gets injected into the average sitcom.

"I can't imagine Raymond [on 'Everybody Loves Raymond'] taking his wife out to see 'Fahrenheit 9/11,'" Mandell said. "Can you imagine what would happen the next day [on talk radio shows]?"

There's also a practical business concern, said former Pittsburgher Elayne Rapping, a professor of American studies at the University of Buffalo. TV shows with current references become dated quickly, which can hurt their ratings once reruns are sold in syndication.

Politicians have always provided ample fodder for late-night talk shows, and the current election cycle is no different. Mandell said NBC's Jay Leno has tried to walk a tightrope, making jokes at the expense of both President Bush and John Kerry. Mandell thinks CBS's David Letterman leans more to the left. Rapping said she thinks the most influential late-night presence may be Comedy Central's left-leaning "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart."

"He calls himself a 'fake news show,' but he's very politically well-informed," Rapping said. "Most of these kids in college get all of their political information from Jon Stewart."

But Murphy questioned whether any media will have much sway on people's decisions when they enter the voting booth in November.

"In this race, I'm just amazed everyone hasn't made up his mind whom he's going to vote for," he said. "Something very direct like Michael Moore's film might sway some people. The stuff we're doing [on 'Tanner'] is a lot subtler."

There's nothing subtle about TV news, particularly cable coverage of the campaigns. Stein said sound bites from the campaign trail have hurt the level of political discourse.

"They catch a candidate in a faux pas or blunder, and that gets repeated over and over on cable news channels," Stein said. "It so drowns out all the other messages of the day."

And it's not just TV. The level of rhetoric is especially high on the radio. Current politics is the engine driving one of the hottest radio formats -- talk radio, specifically political talk radio. The combination of a contentious presidential campaign and the drawn-out conflict in Iraq gives talk hosts and listeners plenty to chat -- or rant -- about.

"Talk radio serves a very important purpose. It's what democracy sounds like," says news/talk KDKA-AM (1020) program director Steve Hansen.

But critics of today's left vs. right brand of talk radio say it is less a democratic dialogue than two discrete sets of polarized monologues. Talk programmers contend that finding a middle ground would make for boring radio.

"Politics has become a very entertaining spectator sport. Radio listeners are fully engaged in the political process this year, more so than in the past," says Clear Channel senior regional vice president of programming Gene Romano. "The Kerry-Bush campaign is getting ugly, which has made it more entertaining and more fun to talk about, either for talk stations like 104.7 [Clear Channel talk station WPGB-FM], coming from a more conservative/libertarian point of view, or from the liberal perspective. That's what is driving it."

Politics as spectator sport "lends itself perfectly to today's radio environment, which tries to be entertaining and dynamic and controversial," says Michael Harrison, publisher of the talk radio trade publication Talkers magazine. "We've always had comedians making fun of politics and politics being part of the culture of entertainment. But we're seeing a heightened version of politics as entertainment on modern talk radio. They play up the competing aspects of it, as opposed to some type of seeking of truth. They play into the superficial end of it."

The successful talk host today is a kind of provocateur, as opposed to political scholar or analyst. "They're not there to build a consensus," KDKA's Hansen says. "They're there to entertain, first and foremost."

Millions tune in to hear syndicated hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, Michael Savage and others hold forth on a daily basis. In recent weeks, each of these conservative hosts has gleefully attacked CBS and Rather for the forged document controversy, spending more air time on printing type fonts and news anchor-bashing than anyone would have imagined 10 or 20 years ago.

Even largely nonpolitical shows feel the impact of this broadcasting trend. When Clear Channel stations dropped Howard Stern earlier this year, Stern maintained that the real reason was his increasing on-air criticism of the current administration.

The pervasiveness of right-leaning, conservative viewpoints on the air has drawn a lot of criticism, and now, the balance appears to be tilting somewhat. In March, Air America, a national liberal/progressive talk network was launched, with a lineup of syndicated shows hosted by Al Franken, Janeane Garofalo and others. Excerpts from Franken's radio show now air on cable TV's Sundance Channel.

Clear Channel recently launched progressive/liberal talk formats in several markets around the country, creating a counterbalance to its conservative talk formats, such as WPGB-FM (104.7) here.

Even the fairly new medium of satellite radio is devoting entire channels to each side of the political spectrum -- XM Satellite Radio with its "America Right" and "America Left" channels, and Sirius Satellite Radio with "Sirius Left," "Sirius Right" and "Sirius Patriot."

The liberal talk show "The Young Turks," hosted by Cenk Uygur and Ben Mankiewicz, is aimed at younger listeners and mixes humor with its politics. The show broadcast live with color commentary from the Republican National Convention. "Young Turks" airs locally on WURP (1550) Saturdays from 2 to 6 p.m. and Sundays from 4 to 6 p.m.

On the music side of the dial, politics also continues to make its mark. The turbulent '60s produced some classic protest music, which remained a staple on classic rock formats long after the decade passed.

The influence of 21st century political and social conditions on the music being heard on the airwaves varies, says Sean Ross, vice president of music and programming for Edison Media Research. "It's format-by-format, with country radio tending toward the patriotic but a lot more muted than 18 months ago; R&B radio more toward dissent; and other formats in the middle."

Hip-hop and R&B are "becoming a lot more political," Ross says. "Not all of what I'm hearing is specifically anti-Iraq, but I'm coming across a lot more songs that deal with the struggle for equality, violence on the streets, violence in hip-hop and the war overseas in some form."

As for airplay -- or lack thereof -- for politically charged music, Clear Channel's Romano says: "I don't think any program director is consciously staying away from a song that may have a message one way or another, and that's how it should be."

Tomorrow: We examine the influence of filmmakers and movie stars on the political process.