Free Market Radio And the (Un)Fairness Doctrine-2/09 Update
Editor’s note: Due to the possible Congressional vote today or tomorrow on something resembling The Fairness Doctrine, along with LK’s fondness for the medium, we’re re-posting this piece, which he just updated.
The Democrats are making a huge mistake entertaining ideas about going forward with their attempt to reinstate The Fairness Doctrine. The purpose of said doctrine is to try to even out the bias of the content currently heard on the political talk airwaves. Think of it as the Dems futile attempt, through legislation, to overwhelm the might of Rush, Sean, Laura, Levin, and The Salem Radio Network crew, among others. All right wing, all masters of the medium. The left’s got no one with that kind of national penetration, with maybe Randi Rhodes having the knowledge and radio chops to compete, and Maddow and Olbermann making a stand on the cable TV side.
The criteria for getting air time and national syndication is pretty simple: attract listeners, lots of listeners. Radio’s a business. There’s nothing inherent in their material that accounts for the overwhelming advantage of the right. They’re just better at presenting their slant in entertaining and captivating ways.
I know Rush Limbaugh’s twisting the truth like a baker making pretzels, and Sean Hannity sounds way too smart to believe the lowest common denominator “you’re a great American” pablum he’s dispersing, but they, along with their compatriots, have found a groove that’s working, so there’s no reason to stop their mouth music. Their stations and syndicators care about ratings, not well reasoned and rational thinking.
The Dem’s mistake is trying to legislate talent under the guise of legislating equal time to polarized points of view. What they should be doing is taking Air America (which no one can turn around given the pool of insipid policy wonks the left offers as radio hosts) and treat it as Microsoft should treat Vista: junk it and come up with something compelling that justifies its own existence.
It’s as if the left is admitting defeat in the talk radio space and blaming it on the content, rather than the presentation of the content. The election demonstrated that the Dems were clearly on the winning side of the policy debate. And since these days more Americans get their news from talk radio than from traditional print media (witness what seems like a death a day of big city newspapers), the moderate-left politicos need to see the airwaves as a meritocracy they’ve got to compete in more effectively. In this case, like it or not, the messenger is as important as the message conveyed.
I don’t usually have much in the way of fondness for Rush’s positions, but he’s a hoot to listen to. The left needs equally attractive on-air characters, not legislation that’s the air-wave equivalent of book burning.
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So basically, the Fairness Doctrine is the left complaining about a conservative media bias. What, is it opposite day? I thought the right was supposed to complain about a liberal media bias.
OR maybe…there is no such thing a media bias, and as MR. LK suggests, we should just let the media market chips fall where they may.
we need to restore the fairness doctrine asap. unlike republicans. the dems do not need to distort the truth to attract voters to their causes. the right relies on misinformation and half truths to attract voters. however, i do not believe the dems are looking to bring it back. and while were at it, stop breaking the rules to allow ruppert murdock ownership of so many tv and radio stations as well as newspapers in the same city. its against the rules. the dems have always believed that they only need to get their intentions across to voters for them to be successful while the right lies cheats and steals. democrats are playing in the big leagues without a helmut and are playing against ringers. thats why they have been run over by a truck repeatedly. hopefully, they learned their lessons by now but rules are made to be followed. make both parties speak honestly to the voters and then see who comes out on top.
Instead of combating bullshit with equally crappy bullshit they should just inform people that talk radio is not fact. It is propaganda. I guess that doesn’t benefit the government at all so they’ll never do it.
hey bocefus. refreshingly clear and concise. i think if folks don’t realize by now that it’s propaganda no government proclamation that it is is going to change things.
stay in touch. LK