I heard this on the radio and couldn't stop laughing.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/20/radio-report/

REPORT: The Right Wing Domination Of Talk Radio And How To End It

The Center for American Progress and Free Press today released the first-of-its-kind statistical analysis of the political make-up of talk radio in the United States. It confirms that talk radio, one of the most widely used media formats in America, is dominated almost exclusively by conservatives.

The new report — entitled “The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio” — raises serious questions about whether the companies licensed to broadcast over the public radio airwaves are serving the listening needs of all Americans.

While progressive talk is making inroads on commercial stations, right-wing talk reigns supreme on America’s airwaves. Some key findings:

– In the spring of 2007, of the 257 news/talk stations owned by the top five commercial station owners, 91 percent of the total weekday talk radio programming was conservative, and only 9 percent was progressive.

– Each weekday, 2,570 hours and 15 minutes of conservative talk are broadcast on these stations compared to 254 hours of progressive talk — 10 times as much conservative talk as progressive talk.

– 76 percent of the news/talk programming in the top 10 radio markets is conservative, while 24 percent is progressive.

A quick note:  I love the use of the word progressive instead of liberal.  This is the same tactic liberals use in the Abortion debate, phrasing as pro choice, not pro abortion.  The semantical context of progressive is intentional, making liberal media seem to deal with progress in a positive sense while conservatives are just stick in the muds who are afraid of change.

What this study fails to note is that radio is not a public service, is a market driven, profit based medium, and since conservatives are popular and make the stations money, they continue to flourish.

What should be more concerning is Nation Public Radio is fairly tilted to the progressive side.  So the private sector radio where revenue and popularity decides the format is conservative because the market favors it, but the government sponsored radio is tilted left while it should be neutral.

Is it liberal for compensation?  Should the government take that stance?  I don't think so.  Television and radio exist to please their viewers and listeners, and the market takes it where the ratings are because the ratings determine the revenue.  Sorry, that is market based economy at its best, and whether the cry baby liberals like it or not, it is a good thing.

Jonah Goldberg has this to say in response:

Right Wing Radio — The Eternal Enemy   

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.

And that is so patently true.

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.

Hear hear!

ST summarized it:

Isn’t it interesting how liberals supposedly want to protect ‘innocent Americans’ from the state when it comes to accusations of terror ties, yet will turn right around and advocate that same untrustworthy state regulate the airwaves to make them more ‘fair’ to the left? These people are more than just ’sore losers.’ They’re fascistic idiots.

Yup.  I don't like being called a conservative, I run to the center on too many issues.  But I will never be a liberal because I hate being a hypocrite.

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