The Left's Preferred Weaponry - Sometimes

The Left is so often keen on science and technology - until they're not.  The moment modernity proves them wrong, they demand a return to the Dark Ages.

They bawdily bandy about the "scientific consensus" on global warming.  Until mounting contrary evidence and with it an ever-growing number of scientists disagreeing with their apocalyptic assessment force them to shove their heads in the sand and declare the debate closed.  

And the solution of these pro-technology liberals to their contrived eco-cataclysm?  Full-fledged anti-industrial economic devolution back to the Dutch days of tilting at windmills and warming on a rock in the sun.

They scream bloody murder about butterfly ballots in 2000, so we go electronic and they then divine Diebold conspiracy theories and wish a return to the days of quill and parchment.

So too is it in the radio ratings game.  Pencil and paper was the Arbitron way since broadcasts began, and it was fraught with inaccuracies and ways to game the system.  So science and technology delivered us the electronic Portable People Meter (PPM), a pager-like device that prevents the rampant cheating that so frequently occurred in the Bad Old Days.

This far more accurate ratings regime reveals that conservative talk radio's numbers have all along been woefully under-reported.  Conversely, so-called "urban" outlets have been rated artificially high.

So true-to-Leftist form and at the behest of the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters, Democratic Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein has cried foul and is demanding a government inquiry into how the PPM collects data.  

Adelstein said he was concerned about reports from minority-owned and targeted radio stations that their audience numbers had dramatically shrunk since implementation of the new measurement technology almost two years ago.

Brian Maloney, the Radio Equalizer, aptly explains Adelstein's and the Left's objective:

(To) restore hip-hop's "ratings" and undo the newly-precise measurement of Rush Limbaugh's statistics. Combined with a White House-led effort to destroy the talk titan, ratings have recently gone through the roof.

The method: cloak the real agenda behind terms like "diversity" and "minority ownership," wrongly bringing the race card into the picture.

So when the Left is displeased with the results, they blame the lack of modern equipment.  But when we upgrade and they STILL don't like the results, it's damn the technology.

A part of the ongoing, disingenuous liberal narrative is that the American system is out to get Minorities in every conceivable way. 

If a paper ballot is used and the Left loses, it's a conspiracy against poor people (read: minorities) who can't afford electronic ballot machines.  If we upgrade and they lose, it's a mechanical conspiracy of the EEE-VIL corporations to disenfranchise them.

The old-school Arbitron on-your-honor diary system was working for (and being worked by) the Left, so they said nothing.  But get a little overly accurate on them with new-fangled gadgetry, and they go ballistic and claim the electronics are part of a racist plot.  

Remember this when next you hear liberals calling for "media diversity" and FCC-mandated expansion of "minority media ownership." 

—Seton Motley is Director of Communications for the Media Research Center and Contributing Editor for NewsBusters.org.