The Vast Right-Wing Radio Imbalance

by Rich Lowry

"The report of the Center for American Progress on "The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio" marks the latest phase in liberaldom's grappling with conservative talk radio. First came the attempts to create a liberal Limbaugh - Mario Cuomo, Jim Hightower, et al. - that fell flat. Then an entire left-wing network, Air America, was founded, and foundered. So there's only one option left - if you can't beat them, and you won't join them, you can agitate for government to regulate them.

The report looks at a slice of 257 talk stations and concludes that more than 90 percent of total weekday talk programming is conservative. The supposed reason for this is, essentially, that media companies are conspiring to shove conservative radio down the throats of listeners in a way they couldn't if, among other things, government required broadcasters "to regularly show that they are operating on behalf of the public interest."

This is a pinched view of radio. There are upward of 2,000 U.S. talk stations that deal with news and issues, according to Michael Harrison of Talkers magazine, and they encompass all sorts of formats from National Public Radio to urban radio to shock jocks, none of which are dominated by right wingers. Conservative talk radio is a vibrant niche within that market, but there are many other places to go for news and opinion.

What is hard to find are liberal replicas of Rush Limbaugh, and that is due to the deepest structural imbalance of all - talent. Limbaugh and other top conservative talkers are silver-tongued, informative and - importantly - entertaining. These are qualities that can't be conjured out of nowhere, and designated liberal-radio saviors have tended not to have the requisite talent "on loan from God" (as Limbaugh puts it).

There have been conservative failures at talk radio for the same reason. Without the right mix of substance and entertainment, a host will fail to get ratings, and with that, be yanked from the air. "Ratings" is a word that appears only once in passing in the Center for American Progress report, because then it would have to acknowledge that conservative radio is successful exactly because it gets listeners..."

The single product they have difficulty controlling. They've got the movies in their hip pocket. Same with broadcast television. PBS? Please now. Newspapers? Cable news networks?

Vastly liberal leaning constructs of pinko joy.

But you don't have to look like Paris Hilton or George Loony, beg pardon, Clooney, to succeed in radio. Marvel of marvels. All it takes is talent. Limbaugh doesn't have to walk the walk because talking the talk is the name of the game and he in particular has got the goods. I chortle whenever someone refers to Barrack Hussein Obama as being "well-spoken". My local radio dude who does the Preparation H commercials is well-spoken, but enunciation isn't nearly as important as what's being enunciated even if the local guy and Hussein are equally adept when it comes to making it quite clear as to what it takes to be a well balanced asshole.

Liberalism has reared its ugly head to the point whereby sports writers, such as Lil Mikey Lupica, are tossing in political editorials alongside their thoughts on the Designated Hitter. Nauseating yes, but it's America. I fully expect a man working for a liberal rag to spout the wisdom of Mao whenever the feeling is upon him and there's no one calling for a level playing field in movies or TV or newsrags.