Like it or not, it’s a proven fact that with the exception of the Fox News Channel and a relative handful of fair-minded newspapers and magazines, the majority of America’s print and broadcast news outlets report the news with a strong liberal bias, but talk radio is by and large a bastion of conservatism. Have you ever wondered why that is?
The answer to that question is pretty simple really: Print and broadcast news is for the most part a one-way flow of information. The New York Times, MSNBC, and other media outlets of their ilk can print or say anything they want without having to back up their “reports” with the facts. Once a story goes out, there is no practical way to refute it or present an opposing viewpoint to the same audience through that same medium.
Now, contrast that with talk radio and you’ll easily see where the differences lie. Virtually every successful talk radio show consists of two components: Commentary on the news of the day and a back-and-forth exchange of ideas and opinions about those stories between the host and a number of guests.
Some of those guests are “experts” who weigh in with their unique insights, but a large percentage of them are just ordinary folks from the heartland like you and me. You call up, wait on hold, and if you’re patient enough you’ll often get to offer your own views on the topic at hand to a national audience, even if they are in diametric opposition to those of the host – but be prepared to defend them.
There are a handful of liberal talk radio hosts out there, but my guess is you can’t name one of them. There was even a liberal talk radio network called “Air America” that attempted to compete head-on with the time-tested conservative shows, but it went belly-up after just a year or two – and that was with them actually paying radio stations around the country to carry their programming!
The downfall of liberal talk radio is the very thing that makes its conservative counterpart so successful: the free exchange of ideas and debates between the hosts and their guests. For the most part, liberal ideals simply fall flat on their faces when subjected to the twin pressures of critical thought and facts that prove them to be either impractical or simply plain wrong.
The fact of the matter is that the traditional “one-way” print and broadcast news outlets are the only venues where liberal ideas can be expounded upon with success, because wherever they are faced with active opposition they always collapse under the combined weight of common sense and the facts. But you have to give the liberals credit. They knew this years ago so they wisely bought-up the bulk of the nation’s traditional media outlets in order to gain control over them.
The Fox News Channel on cable is the one major television news outlet where conservative views are given a fair shake. Why? Because it follows the talk radio model in welcoming guests with opposing viewpoints, and plenty of them. And as with the talk radio shows, Fox’s liberal hosts and guests usually end up looking foolish after trying to defend their typically nonsensical views.
Enlightning!!!
Amen!