Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Right Wing Radio — The Eternal Enemy [Jonah Goldberg]
I just got this press release from the Center for American Progress:
ADVISORY: New Report Documenting Conservative Domination of Political Talk Radio
Conference call to discuss new CAP, Free Press report
Washington, DC – A major new study of all the news/talk radio stations controlled by the top five commercial station owners documents in detail the massive imbalance between conservative and progressive talk radio broadcast each weekday.
The study, set for release this Thursday, June 21st, 2007, by the Center for American Progress and Free Press, raises serious questions about whether the companies licensed to broadcast over the public airwaves are serving the listening needs of all Americans and providing a range of information on important public issues.
Statistical analysis of all 10,506 licensed-stations reveals how media ownership and consolidation over the past decade has contributed significantly to the one-sided nature of political talk radio. The report outlines specific policy solutions to address the imbalance and ensure that the commercial use of public airwaves serves local and community needs.
Me: Let's stipulate that the report is accurate about the fact that conservatives dominate talk radio. Who among us is shocked by this very old news? What I find simply amazing is that liberals see nothing wrong with using the state to police media content when they don't like the content.
Does anyone really believe liberals would even entertain this renewed passion for the fairness doctrine if talk radio were overwhelmingly liberal? It just strikes me as so transparently opportunistic and unprincipled. If a conservative were to argue that the state should get involved in making Hollywood, or the biggest newspapers, or the broadcast news networks, or leading museums, publishing houses, or universities less liberal, liberals would justifiably scream bloody murder about censorship and propaganda.
Yes, yes, I know that they are public airwaves, blah blah blah. But every industry relies on some public accommodation of some kind. Museums and universities get major subsidies, tax breaks etc, newspapers are given all sorts of special considerations, from access to government workings and legal leeway in the courts. Indeed, many leading journalists argue for the de facto licensing of elite journalists by making them immune from prosecution under whistleblower and other laws against leaking. And the biggest newspapers are also deeply involved in radio and tv broadcasting. And let's not even discuss public broadcasting.
In other words, I'm sure if we conservatives thought about it for a few minutes, we could come up with all sorts of ways the state could use its power to strong-arm other bastions of artistic and political expression to provide more "balance." But (with the exception of public broadcasting) you don't hear much of that from conservatives, do you? Meanwhile, in the one area of the media where liberals are at a disadvantage and can't compete in the marketplace, they want to draft the state to do what Air America couldn't. What sore losers. Suck it up for Pete's sake.
06/19 10:54 AM
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