Media Bias:They can't help themselves

Media bias is a tired, old story. It's only news when it's about Fox News. How dare they have a conservative bent, I know, right, it's unconscionable. They are kind to Mitt Romney, how crazy is that? Let's put aside Fox News for a moment and try to be honest about the rest of the regular mainstream media. It's pretty clear they have so much at stake with President Obama that they can't even see how unbelievably biased every ounce of their reporting is. Remember, I asked you to be honest.

Every single economic report good or bad is wrapped in the cocoon of Obama's re-election chances. These reports are conveyed without any regard to the real stake holders - the unemployed and those actually hurt by these horrendous economic circumstances. But those people are mere statistics, unimportant really, all that really matters is how it will affect the polls. To a certain extent that is what is "news" since we all know that the economy stinks and that millions are out of work and millions more have given up even trying to find a job.

I guess it really got to me listening to NPR the other day when the March employment numbers came out. By every measure is was a terrible report. After seeing 200,000+ jobs created in Jan. and Feb. the experts had been expecting something similar or even better for March. When the numbers came in at 120,000, or half what was expected, the news that the (official) unemployment rate was reduced to 8.2% from 8.3% fell flat. The truth that a million plus people were removed from the labor force was the reason the overall rate went down. On top of that the day before the number of new unemployment claims climbed 6,000 to 380,000. In addition several major employers announced future layoffs and store closings. There was no good news all week.

NPR had adequately reported all these key points and statistics citing the expected new jobs and comparing it to the actual number, even reporting the bittersweet news of the why the unemployment number "inched" down to 8.2%. For a moment I thought 'jeez even NPR is sobered by this bad news'. Alas, I spoke too soon. In her very next breath the reporter said despite the "upbeat" economic news the President told an audience at - blah blah blah - that there was "still a long way to go, we can't stop now"...

What aspect of March's job picture was UPBEAT??? She was not going to lead into a story about Obama without painting a positive picture. It was truly unbelievable. I turned the radio back to some nauseating right-wing rant. At least there I found honesty.




CW

(disclaimer:  yes, I occasionally listen to NPR. Yes, occasionally they present informative content. What I really appreciate is not being assaulted by commercials every five minutes - seriously must commercial radio assault my senses and my intelligence with endless terribly produced commercials?)

Let's Talk about Talk Radio

I have been listening to Talk Radio for more than 25 years. Being a right of center guy it's not much of a stretch considering that talk radio has been the one avenue for us right wingers that is not completely dominated and controlled by "progressive" thought.

It wasn't until conservative talk radio came along that I realized that I didn't really believe all the happy talk and propaganda coming out of the media and liberal legislatures. My eyes and my experiences conveyed a disconnect from what I was told was the truth of things.

At first it was like a foreign language, so odd, so controversial, so blasphemous. Soon I was talking back to the radio. "You can't say that!" I yelled. Yet, as I watched mainstream news and read the paper (before the Internet) I started to hear the lies we all used to accept as truth. I felt like I was in on something. It was interesting and even fun. I was hooked.

At the time mainstream media didn't understand talk radio. It was a niche format on AM radio that represented nothing but a fly buzzing about their head. Since the MSM never felt threatened by the so-called wing-nuts, talk radio grew into a sort of underground juggernaut. It wasn't until 1994 when the Republicans took both houses of Congress did talk radio get the attention of the major media and by then it was already a force to be reckoned with.

It was Rush Limbaugh who put conservative talk radio on the map and to whom is owed a debt of gratitude for everyone who has prospered in the forum ever since. In 1994 he was called the "majority maker" and the Republicans in Congress were not shy in crediting Mr. Limbaugh for his incalculable help during the historic 1994 campaign. Most everyone by now has heard of him and either loves him or hates him, he leaves very little middle ground.

When the media recognized that Rush and talk radio were here to stay - and had some very real influence on middle America - for those in the newsroom and in the ivory towers it became necessary to label it and treat it derisively. Hate radio became the buzz word for Limbaugh and talk radio. For the people who only got their news from the truth scrubbed mainstream media hate radio was a reality and it could be easily dismissed with a bumper sticker that said "Mean People Suck". Meanwhile the forum grew and grew and there soon was a talk host for everyone, in all walks of life. Even the liberals tried their hand at it... Remember Air America?

The funny thing is, while I find liberal talk radio unlistenable, (there's only so many hours of "I hate this country" that Americans can listen to) I've fear that conservative radio has become a broken record. No matter how much you like the chorus a skipping record that keeps repeating the same line over and over can drive you nuts!

I've taken to listening to NPR and its Minnesota counterpart MPR. Don't get me wrong, I'm not turning over to the dark-side, it's just that I can't take the skipping record anymore. I admit NPR could also known as National Palestinian Radio for all the sobs stories they do on the plight of terrorist supporting Palestinians. (that's when we push a button for a different station). However, what I like is the calm and soothing delivery and the segments that last for more than 3 minutes before more ear splitting, mind-numbing commercials. So few conservative radio hosts take the high ground and use easy, reasonable conversational tones that when I hear NPR coming over the car speakers it's like a treat for the senses and sensibilities. While they pretend to be balanced and fair to all points of view NPR (and MPR) let their true colors shine through more often than not. It is the one thing I absolutely appreciate about right wing radio is the willingness to be honest about their non-objectivity.

There is not any single personality on NPR or MPR that I could even direct you to, and maybe that too is part of the charm. It's just strange that I find myself punching up NPR more and more just to hear calmness and reasonable tones of voice. Only Bill Bennett's Morning in America and The Dennis Prager Show deliver a sense of reasonableness on the conservative dial.

Being at one time a "professional" musician a lot of people find it hard to grasp how I would even listen to talk radio. Yes, I love music, but music stimulates the emotional part of my brain, talk radio stimulates the rest.

Here's a host by host one line critique of the radio shows I listen to off and on...

1. Rush Limbaugh - feels like a comfortable shoe by now, but I rarely if ever listen to him anymore
2. Glenn Beck - he's effing crazy, but oddly appealing, small doses only
3. Mike Gallagher - a blow hard with a heart of gold, he can make you turn off the radio altogether
4. Bill Bennett - A soothing, reasonable change of pace, almost always interesting, almost...
5. Sean Hannity - can't stand him, won't listen
6. Mark Levin - super smart, super energy, super strident
7. Hugh Hewitt - a Republican cheerleader that has very interesting guests, quite easy to listen to
8. Michael Medved - super smart, perhaps the most intelligent person on the radio who says some of the dumbest things
9. Michael Savage - he's effing crazy, on the other end of the spectrum from Beck, oddly unappealing
10. Dennis Prager - my favorite, can't say enough about how much I admire his wisdom
11. Bill O'Rielly - unlistenable, is it possible to be too opinionated?
    
12. Dennis Miller - Fun, funny, irreverent and oddly insightful
13. Bill Cunningham - over the top conservative, the only good liberal is a discredited liberal
14. Jason Lewis - a reasonable, intelligent conservative who epitomizes the broken record

I'm sure there are hosts I'm forgetting about that I have listened to - the point is they are all singing the same tune, a tune I like, but for God's sake, change it up a bit once in a while!



CW

A Harmless Little Fuzzball: Talk Radio

John Derbyshire explains how conservative talk radio, which once energized the right-wing by giving a much needed voice to the center-right, is now preventing a rational, contemplative, conservative conversation from taking place. Frankly, I have to agree with him for the most part.

Honestly, when President Obama began fingering Rush Limbaugh as the head of a leaderless Republican Party, and Rush, for his part, spouted off with a provocative diatribe against Obama, I didn't really know who was being more foolish.

Rush is an entertainer after all, he is not a politician nor a statesman. This doesn't mean he doesn't have real influence. That said, Jon Stewart is also an entertainer and one could argue he had more influence with the electorate than Rush did in this last election cycle - his guy won it all. Does President Obama look petty going after a loud mouth heckler in the crowd? In my opinion - yes. Is it good for ratings for Rush to hope out loud that the new President fails? Well, yes... Is it good for the conservative cause? No way.

Back to the larger point in Derbyshire's article that talk radio has become a hindrance to intellectually based conservative ideological branding. Instead - as he puts it - in place of the permanent things, we get Happy Meal conservatism: cheap, childish, familiar.

This sentiment is true of many of today's talk radio juggernauts like Michael Savage, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Mike Gallagher, Bill Cunningham and to some extent Rush himself. Salem Radio's Hugh Hewitt is a well informed cheerleader for the center right movement who nauseates rather than insults. Michael Medved is a strange duck in that he offers his show to liberals and kooks supposedly to draw a contrast to the sanity which is conservatism, but he just as often stoops to their level of discourse (which isn't saying much) and bringing himself down in the process.

Spend ten minutes with Michael Savage and you'll see cheap, childish and familiar with bells on. Savage is the ying to NPR's yang. Frankly he's a disgrace. He makes some excellent and valid observations, but the uncontrolled thoughtless stream of conscious ranting ranges from off-putting to disgusting.

Speaking of NPR (or National Palestinian Radio as I like to call it) and its extreme popularity, falling just behind Limbaugh in the ratings, only proves there is a market for a calm and reasonable approach to talk radio. I know a lot of people who just can't stand blowhard talk radio and leave the dial tuned to NPR 24/7. I suspect some of it is an aversion to constant commercial interruptions which makes us all subject to ADD-like episodes. It's more than that, it's a one sided conversation that allows the listener to think a little without all the insults. Many of these people don't recognize they are being fed a hard left liberal, anti-Israel, often anti-capitalist slant on NPR. Unlike all flavors of conservative talk radio NPR will never admit to a bias. That's fine. The larger point is that center-right talk radio could learn a thing or two from NPR.

Bill Bennett's Morning in America is the closest of the conservative radio shows to NPR's style, preferring wit and wisdom to browbeating and bloviating. Here again Bennett suffers from the short attention span of commercial radio - and the fact he on so early in the morning. It is often very good radio. Also on Salem Radio is Dennis Prager, a radio veteran and a fair minded thinker who has examined the world and its choices and wound up choosing conservatism. He once said the first time he voted Republican he felt like he had just sinned. So ingrained in his Jewish upbringing was liberal left politics that he found himself always at odds with common sense and common good when he supported the Democrats. Both Bennett and Prager prove that there is something other than Rush Limbaugh's mighty wind on the conservative dial. I would challenge anyone to listen to them for more than a week and try to pin them with the lowbrow label.





CW