Kurt Loder
Encyclopedia
Kurt Loder is an American film critic, author
, columnist
, and television personality. He served in the 1980s as editor
at Rolling Stone
, during a tenure that Reason
later called "legendary". He has contributed to articles in Reason, Esquire
, Details
, New York
, and Time
. He has also made cameos
on several films and television series. Prior to Rolling Stone, Loder had worked for Circus
magazine and had been drafted
into the United States Army
. He is currently best known for his role at MTV News
and for appearing in numerous other MTV
-related television specials.
. He graduated in 1963 from Ocean City High School
in Ocean City. He spent two years in college "and just hated it". He was drafted into the United States Army
and joined its journalism school. He later said that he "just fell into" his field, elaborating that his "entire journalism background is four weeks... That's it. Nothing else. You can learn journalism in four weeks. It's not an overcomplicated thing. It's very, very simple." He was in the military for three years.
Loder lived all over Europe for the next several years, doing what he later called "scandal sheet
" "yellow journalism
". He returned home to New Jersey
at the end of 1972 and worked with a local newspaper and then an Ocean City based magazine by the sister of the city's famous writer Gay Talese
. He left in the summer of 1976 to work with a free Long Island
rock weekly called Good Times. He received only about $200 a week. After meeting a fellow "music geek", David Fricke
,
They both joined Circus
in 1978 and moved to Manhattan
. Loder went on to become one of its official editors
. The staff had a fun, relaxed atmosphere and considered the magazine to be second or third tier. Loder later said that "Whatever was said to be 'happening' in commercial pop music was... on the cover of Circus. Disco? Run with it. Shirtless teen popsters? Put 'em on the cover... a, shall we say, ardent enthusiasm for pix of nubile youths. Metal, of course, was really the mag's meat." He also remarked that "it was a foregone conclusion that writing of any technical ambition, about new acts of any real excitement or interest, would make it in the mag only by the sheerest accident." Loder briefly experimented with inhalant based
drugs
at Circus; he stopped after experiencing a "gushing" nosebleed
without any feeling left in his face.
has called his tenure "legendary". While at Rolling Stone, Loder co-authored singer Tina Turner
's 1986 autobiography
I, Tina
. He then contributed to the screenplay adaption for the film What's Love Got to Do with It.
Loder joined MTV
in 1987 as the host of their flagship music news program, The Week in Rock. It was later expanded and renamed to MTV News
in which he was an anchor and correspondent. Loder was one of the first to break the news of Kurt Cobain
's death; he interrupted regular programming to inform viewers that Cobain was found dead
. Loder authored a 1990 collection of his Rolling Stone work called Bat Chain Puller.
Kurt has guest-starred as himself on Kenan & Kel
, an episode of The Simpsons
, Girlfriends
, Duckman
, and Saturday Night Live
. He has also appeared in the films Who's the Man?
, The Paper
, Fear of a Black Hat
, Airheads
, Dead Man on Campus, Belly
, The Suburbans
, Entropy
, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
, Sugar & Spice
, Pauly Shore Is Dead
, Tupac: Resurrection
, The Sarah Silverman Program
,and Ramones Raw. Loder currently resides in New York City
.
In 2011, St. Martin's Press
published Loder's The Good, the Bad and the Godawful: 21st-Century Movie Reviews, which collected his film reviews from MTV.com and Reason.com.
wearing a T-Shirt
reading the anti-homosexual slogan "AIDS Kills Fags Dead." Loder wrote an article saying that "In the land of homophobia, if Axl Rose
owns the restaurant and Public Enemy are the diners, we have a new bus boy." Bach considered Loder's words "complete bullshit", saying that he had only used the shirt to dry himself off and strongly opposes the message on it, and he later issued several public apologies.
. He summarizes his position as “Free Love
and Free Markets
”. He has called New York City
Mayor
Michael Bloomberg
"a scary guy" and called it "amazing that people don’t rise up with pitchforks." Loder opposed President George H. W. Bush
in the 1992 election
and he believes that MTV News played a small role in Bush's loss. Loder believes that his views came from his childhood
experiences, saying:
Loder was highly critical of Michael Moore
's documentary Sicko
, saying it was "heavily doctored." He argued, “When governments attempt to regulate the balance between a limited supply of health care and an unlimited demand for it they’re inevitably forced to ration treatment.”
and argues that it has been used as a rhetorical shield for lazy journalism. He believes that new technology has fragmented
American culture to the extent that no cinematic or musical success can unify it, as with past rock band
s such as The Beatles
. He also strongly supports copyright laws. He generally considers himself to be supportive of new media
despite his role at MTV, once joking that "MTV is part of Viacom
, which controls Paramount
, and so on and so forth. It’s the evil empire
".
Loder's philosophy on the people he reports on is that:
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, columnist
Columnist
A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....
, and television personality. He served in the 1980s as editor
Editor in chief
An editor-in-chief is a publication's primary editor, having final responsibility for the operations and policies. Additionally, the editor-in-chief is held accountable for delegating tasks to staff members as well as keeping up with the time it takes them to complete their task...
at Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, during a tenure that Reason
Reason (magazine)
Reason is a libertarian monthly magazine published by the Reason Foundation. The magazine has a circulation of around 60,000 and was named one of the 50 best magazines in 2003 and 2004 by the Chicago Tribune.- History :...
later called "legendary". He has contributed to articles in Reason, Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
, Details
Details (magazine)
Details is an American monthly men's magazine published by Condé Nast Publications, founded in 1982. Though primarily a magazine devoted to fashion and lifestyle, Details also features reports on relevant social and political issues.-History:...
, New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
, and Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
. He has also made cameos
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
on several films and television series. Prior to Rolling Stone, Loder had worked for Circus
Circus (magazine)
Circus was a monthly American magazine devoted to rock music. It was published from 1966 to 2006. In its heyday the magazine had a full-time editorial staff that included some of the biggest names in rock journalism, including Paul Nelson, David Fricke, and Kurt Loder, and rivaled Rolling Stone in...
magazine and had been drafted
Conscription in the United States
Conscription in the United States has been employed several times, usually during war but also during the nominal peace of the Cold War...
into the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
. He is currently best known for his role at MTV News
MTV News
MTV News is the news division of MTV, one of the first and most popular music television network in the U.S., as well as some of MTV's related channels around the world. MTV News began in the late 1980s with the program The Week In Rock, hosted by Kurt Loder, the first official MTV News correspondent...
and for appearing in numerous other MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
-related television specials.
Early years
Loder was born in Ocean City, New JerseyOcean City, New Jersey
Ocean City is a city in Cape May County, New Jersey, United States. It is the principal city of the Ocean City Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Cape May County. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 11,701...
. He graduated in 1963 from Ocean City High School
Ocean City High School
Ocean City High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school located in Ocean City, in Cape May County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Ocean City School District...
in Ocean City. He spent two years in college "and just hated it". He was drafted into the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
and joined its journalism school. He later said that he "just fell into" his field, elaborating that his "entire journalism background is four weeks... That's it. Nothing else. You can learn journalism in four weeks. It's not an overcomplicated thing. It's very, very simple." He was in the military for three years.
Loder lived all over Europe for the next several years, doing what he later called "scandal sheet
Scandal Sheet
Scandal Sheet is a black-and-white film noir directed by Phil Karlson. The film is based on the novel The Dark Page by Samuel Fuller, who himself was a newspaper reporter before his career in film...
" "yellow journalism
Yellow journalism
Yellow journalism or the yellow press is a type of journalism that presents little or no legitimate well-researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines to sell more newspapers. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism...
". He returned home to New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
at the end of 1972 and worked with a local newspaper and then an Ocean City based magazine by the sister of the city's famous writer Gay Talese
Gay Talese
Gay Talese is an American author. He wrote for The New York Times in the early 1960s and helped to define literary journalism...
. He left in the summer of 1976 to work with a free Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
rock weekly called Good Times. He received only about $200 a week. After meeting a fellow "music geek", David Fricke
David Fricke
David Fricke is a senior editor at Rolling Stone magazine, where he writes predominantly on rock music. In the 1990s, he was managing editor before stepping down.-Background:David Fricke is a graduate of Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania...
,
"the two of us began driving into Manhattan virtually every night to wallow in the flourishing punk rock scene at CBGB's, Max's, etc. This was, fortunately, cool with the wives. I mean, we'd still be sitting upright at four in the morning through fist fights, mass nod-outs, and sets by bands with names like Blinding Headache, played to audiences of three people, of which we'd be two-thirds. I don't think I can quite convey how great days those were.
They both joined Circus
Circus (magazine)
Circus was a monthly American magazine devoted to rock music. It was published from 1966 to 2006. In its heyday the magazine had a full-time editorial staff that included some of the biggest names in rock journalism, including Paul Nelson, David Fricke, and Kurt Loder, and rivaled Rolling Stone in...
in 1978 and moved to Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. Loder went on to become one of its official editors
Editors
Editors are a British indie rock band based in Birmingham, who formed in 2002. Previously known as Pilot, The Pride and Snowfield, the band consists of Tom Smith , Chris Urbanowicz , Russell Leetch and Ed Lay .Editors have so far released two platinum studio...
. The staff had a fun, relaxed atmosphere and considered the magazine to be second or third tier. Loder later said that "Whatever was said to be 'happening' in commercial pop music was... on the cover of Circus. Disco? Run with it. Shirtless teen popsters? Put 'em on the cover... a, shall we say, ardent enthusiasm for pix of nubile youths. Metal, of course, was really the mag's meat." He also remarked that "it was a foregone conclusion that writing of any technical ambition, about new acts of any real excitement or interest, would make it in the mag only by the sheerest accident." Loder briefly experimented with inhalant based
Inhalant
Inhalants are a broad range of drugs whose volatile vapors are taken in via the nose and trachea. They are taken by volatilization, and do not include drugs that are inhaled after burning or heating...
drugs
Recreational drug use
Recreational drug use is the use of a drug, usually psychoactive, with the intention of creating or enhancing recreational experience. Such use is controversial, however, often being considered to be also drug abuse, and it is often illegal...
at Circus; he stopped after experiencing a "gushing" nosebleed
Nosebleed
Epistaxis or a nosebleed is the relatively common occurrence of hemorrhage from the nose, usually noticed when the blood drains out through the nostrils...
without any feeling left in his face.
Later years
Loder started his nine-year run at Rolling Stone in May 1979. RockCritics.com has called him "one of Rolling Stone's most talented and prolific feature writers". ReasonReason (magazine)
Reason is a libertarian monthly magazine published by the Reason Foundation. The magazine has a circulation of around 60,000 and was named one of the 50 best magazines in 2003 and 2004 by the Chicago Tribune.- History :...
has called his tenure "legendary". While at Rolling Stone, Loder co-authored singer Tina Turner
Tina Turner
Tina Turner is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards and her achievements in the rock music genre have led many to call her the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll".Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the...
's 1986 autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
I, Tina
I, Tina
I, Tina is a 1986 autobiography by rock singer Tina Turner, co-written by MTV news correspondent and music critic Kurt Loder. It described Turner's story from a girl born and raised in Nutbush, Tennessee , to her initial rise to fame under the leadership of famed blues musician Ike Turner and her...
. He then contributed to the screenplay adaption for the film What's Love Got to Do with It.
Loder joined MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
in 1987 as the host of their flagship music news program, The Week in Rock. It was later expanded and renamed to MTV News
MTV News
MTV News is the news division of MTV, one of the first and most popular music television network in the U.S., as well as some of MTV's related channels around the world. MTV News began in the late 1980s with the program The Week In Rock, hosted by Kurt Loder, the first official MTV News correspondent...
in which he was an anchor and correspondent. Loder was one of the first to break the news of Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...
's death; he interrupted regular programming to inform viewers that Cobain was found dead
Death of Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain was found dead at his home located at 171 Lake Washington Boulevard in Seattle, Washington, United States on April 8, 1994. Cobain, the lead singer of the American grunge band Nirvana, had checked out of a drug rehabilitation facility and been reported suicidal by his wife Courtney Love...
. Loder authored a 1990 collection of his Rolling Stone work called Bat Chain Puller.
Kurt has guest-starred as himself on Kenan & Kel
Kenan & Kel
Kenan & Kel is an American teen sitcom produced by Tollin/Robbins Productions that originally aired on Nickelodeon from July 1996 to July 2000. The show starred friends and then-All That cast members Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell. Sixty-two episodes and a made-for-TV movie were produced over four...
, an episode of The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, Girlfriends
Girlfriends
Girlfriends is an American comedy-drama sitcom that premiered on September 11, 2000, on UPN and aired on UPN's successor network, The CW, before being cancelled in 2008...
, Duckman
Duckman
Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man is an American animated sitcom that aired from 1994–1997, created by Everett Peck and developed by Peck. The sitcom is based on characters created by Peck in his Dark Horse comic...
, and Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
. He has also appeared in the films Who's the Man?
Who's the Man?
Who's the Man? is a 1993 comedy film, directed by Ted Demme. The film stars Yo! MTV Raps hosts Doctor Dré and Ed Lover as its two main protagonists., it features dozens of cameo appearances from some of the top rap/hip-hop acts of the time, including Busta Rhymes, Eric B., House of Pain, Ice-T,...
, The Paper
The Paper
The Paper is a 1994 American comedy-drama film directed by Ron Howard and starring Michael Keaton, Robert Duvall, and Glenn Close. The film depicts 24 hours in a newspaper editor's professional and personal life.-Plot:...
, Fear of a Black Hat
Fear of a Black Hat
Fear of a Black Hat is a 1994 American mockumentary film on the evolution and state of American hip hop music. The film's title is derived from the 1990 Public Enemy album Fear of a Black Planet...
, Airheads
Airheads
Airheads is a 1994 American comedy film written by Rich Wilkes and directed by Michael Lehmann. It stars Brendan Fraser, Steve Buscemi and Adam Sandler as a band of loser musicians called "The Lone Rangers" who take a radio station hostage, just so that their song would get played on the radio...
, Dead Man on Campus, Belly
Belly (film)
Belly is a 1998 film, the film directorial debut of music video director Hype Williams. Filmed in New York City as an urban drama, the film stars rappers DMX and Nas, alongside with Taral Hicks, Method Man dancehall artist Louie Rankin, R&B singer T-Boz...
, The Suburbans
The Suburbans
The Suburbans is a 1999 comedy-drama that satirizes the 1980s revival hype around the turn of the 21st century. It stars Jennifer Love Hewitt and Donal Lardner Ward, who also co-wrote and directed the movie....
, Entropy
Entropy (film)
Entropy is a movie directed by Phil Joanou, starring Stephen Dorff and featuring the Irish rock band U2. The film is largely autobiographical, covering his early film career, his relationships and his pet cat....
, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 is the 2000 American horror film and the sequel to the film The Blair Witch Project, directed by Joe Berlinger...
, Sugar & Spice
Sugar & Spice
Sugar & Spice is a 2001 American teen crime comedy film directed by Francine McDougall. It was filmed entirely in the state of Minnesota.-Plot:...
, Pauly Shore Is Dead
Pauly Shore Is Dead
-Additional notes:The film did see a release to theaters in Sacramento, California, and has found/developed a following on DVD.Music from the band Staind's album "Break the Cycle" is used in the movie. Aaron Lewis, vocalist of Staind, also has an appearance in the DVD. Eminem and now deceased...
, Tupac: Resurrection
Tupac: Resurrection
Tupac: Resurrection is a 2003 documentary about the life and death of rapper Tupac Shakur. The film, directed by Lauren Lazin and released by Paramount Pictures, is narrated by Tupac Shakur himself. The film was in theaters from November 16, 2003 to December 21, 2003...
, The Sarah Silverman Program
The Sarah Silverman Program
The Sarah Silverman Program is an American television series that starred comedian and actress Sarah Silverman, who created the series with Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab...
,and Ramones Raw. Loder currently resides in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
In 2011, St. Martin's Press
St. Martin's Press
St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in the Flatiron Building in New York City. Currently, St. Martin's Press is one of the United States' largest publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under eight imprints, which include St. Martin's Press , St...
published Loder's The Good, the Bad and the Godawful: 21st-Century Movie Reviews, which collected his film reviews from MTV.com and Reason.com.
Dispute with Sebastian Bach
In a 1989 show, Loder saw Skid Row frontman Sebastian BachSebastian Bach
Sebastian Bach is a Canadian heavy metal singer who achieved mainstream success as frontman of Skid Row from 1987 to 1996. Since his departure from Skid Row, he has had many television roles, acted within Broadway plays, and leads a successful solo career.-Early life:Bach was born Sebastian...
wearing a T-Shirt
T-shirt
A T-shirt is a style of shirt. A T-shirt is buttonless and collarless, with short sleeves and frequently a round neck line....
reading the anti-homosexual slogan "AIDS Kills Fags Dead." Loder wrote an article saying that "In the land of homophobia, if Axl Rose
Axl Rose
W. Axl Rose is an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is the lead vocalist and only remaining original member of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he enjoyed great success and recognition in the late 1980s and early 1990s, before disappearing from the public eye for several years...
owns the restaurant and Public Enemy are the diners, we have a new bus boy." Bach considered Loder's words "complete bullshit", saying that he had only used the shirt to dry himself off and strongly opposes the message on it, and he later issued several public apologies.
Politics
Loder is a libertarianLibertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
. He summarizes his position as “Free Love
Free Love
Free Love may refer to:*Free love, a social movement that rejects marriage, which is seen as a form of social bondage, especially for women*"Free Love", a song by Morphine from their 1995 album Yes...
and Free Markets
Free market
A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...
”. He has called New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
Mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
Michael Bloomberg
Michael Bloomberg
Michael Rubens Bloomberg is the current Mayor of New York City. With a net worth of $19.5 billion in 2011, he is also the 12th-richest person in the United States...
"a scary guy" and called it "amazing that people don’t rise up with pitchforks." Loder opposed President George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
in the 1992 election
United States presidential election, 1992
The United States presidential election of 1992 had three major candidates: Incumbent Republican President George Bush; Democratic Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, and independent Texas businessman Ross Perot....
and he believes that MTV News played a small role in Bush's loss. Loder believes that his views came from his childhood
Childhood
Childhood is the age span ranging from birth to adolescence. In developmental psychology, childhood is divided up into the developmental stages of toddlerhood , early childhood , middle childhood , and adolescence .- Age ranges of childhood :The term childhood is non-specific and can imply a...
experiences, saying:
I grew up on the Jersey Shore, on a little barrier island. The Atlantic Ocean was on one side, the bay was on the other. Everyone there hunted and fished and clammed and got crabs out of the bay. And one day my brother told me someone had come down from the Bureau of Petty Harassment or something and they measured the temperature of the water and had decided it was a little too warm and a certain type of bacteria might incubate in it and there was a chance that might harm the clams. And so, from now on, no one was supposed to take clams out of the bay anymore. Which everyone ignored. And no one died. That was before the government got tenacious about this stuff. So I thought that was pretty stupid right there.
Loder was highly critical of Michael Moore
Michael Moore
Michael Francis Moore is an American filmmaker, author, social critic and activist. He is the director and producer of Fahrenheit 9/11, which is the highest-grossing documentary of all time. His films Bowling for Columbine and Sicko also place in the top ten highest-grossing documentaries...
's documentary Sicko
Sicko
Sicko is a 2007 documentary film by American filmmaker Michael Moore. The film investigates health care in the United States, focusing on its health insurance and the pharmaceutical industry. The movie compares the for-profit, non-universal U.S...
, saying it was "heavily doctored." He argued, “When governments attempt to regulate the balance between a limited supply of health care and an unlimited demand for it they’re inevitably forced to ration treatment.”
Media
Loder defines news as "anything that's interesting". He's critical of the idea of new journalismNew Journalism
New Journalism was a style of 1960s and 1970s news writing and journalism which used literary techniques deemed unconventional at the time. The term was codified with its current meaning by Tom Wolfe in a 1973 collection of journalism articles he published as The New Journalism, which included...
and argues that it has been used as a rhetorical shield for lazy journalism. He believes that new technology has fragmented
Fragmentation
-In biology:* Fragmentation , a form of asexual reproduction* Fragmentation * Habitat fragmentation* Population fragmentation-Music:* Fragmented , the debut album from the Filipino independent band Up Dharma Down-Other:...
American culture to the extent that no cinematic or musical success can unify it, as with past rock band
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...
s such as The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
. He also strongly supports copyright laws. He generally considers himself to be supportive of new media
New media
New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, new media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community...
despite his role at MTV, once joking that "MTV is part of Viacom
Viacom
Viacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...
, which controls Paramount
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
, and so on and so forth. It’s the evil empire
Evil empire
The phrase evil empire was applied to the Soviet Union especially by U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who took an aggressive, hard-line stance that favored matching and exceeding the Soviet Union's strategic and global military capabilities, in calling for a rollback strategy that would, in his words,...
".
Loder's philosophy on the people he reports on is that:
"You shouldn't make friends. It's not a good thing to be friends with people you're covering. There's just no point in doing it. It's tempting, but they're not going to consider you their friend anyway. They just know that you're somebody that can do something for them. So you shouldn't really flatter yourself that they want to be your buddy. They don't... They want you for some reason or other, and you just have to fend that off all the time. And you can't really cover people critically that you're friends with. How would that work? That would be bad. So you always have to keep that in mind".