With the document “Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio” The Center for American Progress and Free Press, a liberal “think” tank, put out a 40-page report stating that “conservative talk radio undeniably dominates the [news/talk] format.” This report condemns what it calls a “massive imbalance” between conservative and “progressive” talk radio.
They’re even trumpeting their report with the header “The Right Wing Domination Of Talk Radio And How To End It”. Oh, the humanity of it all!
Liberals are such crybabies.
The man running this outfit is none other than John Podesta, the former Chief of Staff for Bill Clinton.
Talk radio is conservative because that’s what the listeners want. Period. There is no “hidden agenda” here. There is no “unfairness” here. Radio stations are in the business to make money, and more ad revenue comes from conservative talk radio because more people enjoy listening to conservative talk radio.
Instead of blaming the lousy, incompetent performance of liberal talk radio and acknowledging the market triumph of conservative talk radio, this report blames “nefarious” owners who aren’t “diverse” enough. The real force in the rise of conservative talk radio was the dive to the left in other media like print news and television.
The researchers found that 91% of weekday talk radio programming is conservative and only 9% is liberal. Every weekday, people who want to listen to conservative radio can enjoy 2,570 hours of it. 76% of the programming in the top 10 radio markets is conservative. But liberals who listen to liberal radio have to settle for only 254 hours. This disparity comes from the simple fact that few people want to listen to liberal dogma on the radio. There’s a bigger market (and more advertising money to be made) for conservative talk radio.
This is exactly why Fox News has the best ratings of the cable news networks.
Liberals feel threatened by talk radio. They tried to succeed with their Air America, and all the George Soros and embezzled funds in the world didn’t help them. So, in the liberal world, if at first you can’t succeed, use the government to destroy your opponents.
In order to balance out liberal and conservative talk radio, liberals are suggesting we impede progress with more government regulations, in the name of public interest, instead of allowing the market and technology to go forward on their own. Remember that to liberals the government is the salve that cures any and all problems.
There’s no conspiracy at work here. Station programmers would put on a talking fish if they thought it would get ratings. Talk radio listeners want to hear conservative talkers – period. They get ratings while the liberals don’t. And because of this the liberals are demanding governmental intervention. Liberals can’t compete in the market so they want the government to force their views on the listeners. Geez.
liberal, conservative, talk radio
3 responses so far ↓
1 Crazy Politico // Jun 24, 2007 at 7:23 am
The standard left mantra,if you can’t beat them, regulate them to death.
2 Ricki // Jun 29, 2007 at 11:49 am
Hmmmm. Next you time you wingnuts complain about the unfairness of the “liberal bias” on the Teevee and how you poor conservatives are discriminated against, I’ll remember that the “free market” only applies to radio. Hypocrisy anyone?
3 Shamalama // Jun 30, 2007 at 6:05 pm
Ricki, you’re not very bright, are you?
Your IP shows you as coming from the United States Army Medical Information Technology Center at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, so I would expect you to be an intelligent person. But since you’re serving this great country in such a capacity I’ll type slowly for you.
1. I’m not a wingnut. I’m just one guy with one opinion. The fact that it is different from yours which then makes you generalize and revert to childish name-calling is your problem to work on, not mine. I’m sure Wellbutrin XR will help you with this.
2. There IS a distinct liberal bias in the major media outlets both here in the US as well as across the globe.
3. This bias has been shown over and over through examples here and other alternative media sites, as well as quite a few university studies, so it is a real phenomenon.
4. The free market is clearly working just fine today, both in radio as well as ‘TeeVee’. The Fox News Channel is setting new viewer records nearly every ratings period since its inception, while all the other major news outlets in the US (ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC) are suffering with less and less viewers per identical ratings periods.
5. Any discrimination comes from a handful of media elites in New York City commanding nearly all media outlets in this country. Now that the score is 4 against 1, and that 1 is still beating the socks off the other 4, is a welcome breath of fresh air. Yes, the free market, once given a chance, is working just fine. And if the market continues in this fashion we just might see one of the other media outlets begin providing more Conservative balance in their news reporting – once the current “old guard” are retired and/or exposed (think Couric and Rather).
6. I have never, even once, asked the federal government to step in and force any media outlet to do anything, in direct opposition to the proposed (and mis-named) Fairness Doctrine. That is usually a hallmark fundamental philosophical difference between Conservatives and Liberals: we want less government intrusion into our personal lives while Liberals want more. Liberals now seem less interested in challenging Conservative talk radio in the marketplace than in strangling it with government regulation. And that presents a much greater threat than another misguided attempt to find the Liberal Limbaugh. Governmental regulation of what the populace can (or must) hear is a major tenet of Socialism.