I'm slowly working my way through Eric Alterman's What Liberal Media?, so I can decide for myself whether
Alterman delivers well-documented, well-argued research in compulsively readable formChapter 5 opens with the claim that
Conservative domination of the talk-radio airwaves is so extensive as to be undisputedTo support this claim we learn that
Edward Monks, a Eugene, Oregon, attorney, calculates that in his city, conservatives enjoy a 4,000-to-zero hour advantage over liberals on the radio. He wrote in The Register-General: "Political opinons express on talk radio are approaching the level of uniformity that would normallly be achieved only in a totalitarian society ... There is nothing fair, balanced or democratic about it>"For some reason, neither Monks nor Alterman mention that Eugene has at least two National Public Radio stations, KLCC and KRVM, which between them carry at least six different listener call-in shows, including: Diane Rehm, Critical Mass, The Jefferson Exchange, Talk of the Nation, Tavis Smiley and The Connection. Maybe these shows are all hosted by conservatives. I guess it depends how you define "liberal" and "conservative", which, by the way, Alterman never does.
Only 196 more pages of "well-documented, well-argued research" to go.
A previous entry on Alterman's book is here
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at June 20, 2003 09:22 PMMonks is also discounting KUGN, which, despite carrying the likes of O'Reilly and Medved, also carries conspiracy theorist Jeff Rense's show, according to the station's web site.
Rense is certainly no liberal -- some would consider him a LaRouchite right-winger, though I prefer to think of him as a cusp nut, residing in that juncture in the political spectrum where left-wing lunacy becomes indistinguishable from right-wing lunacy, thus proving a Copernican view of the ideological landscape.
No matter where you try to place Rense, his inclusion in what Eugenians get to hear makes Monks' assertion about "uniformity that would normally be achieved only in a totalitarian society" quite laughable.
Posted by: Bill Herbert on June 21, 2003 12:34 PMOops, forgot that URL. Here it is.
Posted by: Bill Herbert on June 21, 2003 12:36 PMDon't forget KWVA, Eugene, Oregon, which is listed as an affiliate station of Pacifica Radio. Pacifica makes NPR sound like the Voice of America.
Posted by: Ernie G on June 21, 2003 06:35 PMI'm beginning to endorse the concept of Eugenics
Posted by: tom scott on June 23, 2003 04:01 PMSorry to get in so incredibly late on this but I have only recently discovered this blog.
I don't know exactly which programs are on in Eugene, but I would guess Monks is referring to the likes of Limbaugh, Hannity, et al. Comparing the listenership of these types of programs to the marginalized NPR is ridiculous.
Come on Sharkansky lets get some real examples of liberal media bias. Bad choice to pick on.
Posted by: jaune on June 12, 2005 09:35 AM