Conservative Radio Dominance Not as Grave as Liberals Proclaim

Photo of Noel Sheppard.
By Noel Sheppard | June 22, 2007 - 15:37 ET

Update (Ken Shepherd): Maloney tells me he'll be on the John Gibson radio program on Fox News radio shortly after 6:20 p.m. to discuss this.

As NewsBusters reported here and here, liberals around the country are carping and whining about conservatives having too much control of AM radio.

In fact, just yesterday, the Center for American Progress issued an outline as to what needs to be done to counter what it views as an unfair dominance of the airwaves by conservatives.

With that in mind, Brian Maloney has taken a look at the data collected by the Center to identify just how bad things really are for those poor liberals trying to compete with the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, et al.

What Maloney found – not surprisingly – was that the Center fudged the numbers a bit to make it look like things were much worse than they actually are (emphasis added throughout):

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[A] quick glance at the study reveals something else: they've greatly downplayed the amount of lefty talk actually airing.

In fact, the mistakes are so obvious, they shatter the study's credibility. According to the methodology cited on page seven, "hosts were categorized as conservative, progressive/ liberal, or indeterminate/ neither based on self- identification, show descriptions, and listings in Talkers Magazine. Only hosts with evident and near- indisputable leanings were categorized."

That's where the survey's clear bias is exposed: they clearly have a much easier time labelling a "conservative" host than a "progressive" one.

No surprise there, right? After all, anybody slightly right of center to liberals is a conservative. Yet, to be classified as a liberal by a liberal, you practically have to have a hammer and sickle on your lapel.

To prove the point, Maloney offered some examples:

  • San Francisco's KGO is listed as featuring only three hours of daily liberal talk! If this refers to Bernie Ward, what about the four hours of hyper- lefty Ray Taliaferro (shown in top- left photo)? Or two hours of liberal- leaning Pete Wilson? Finally, why don't the 17 hours or more of "progressive" weekend programming count?
  • The report lists KABC / Los Angeles as featuring no liberal talk, but morning host Doug McIntyre's four- hour show fits the study's "progressive" criteria, having sat on the "left" side of the Talk Radio Rumble panel at the recent New York City convention organized by Talkers.
  • In New York City, why weren't WOR- AM afternoon hosts Hennican & White listed in the "progressive" column? Ellis Hennican is not shy when it comes to promoting a leftist viewpoint.
  • In Washington, why isn't urban talker WOL listed on the liberal side as well? Take a look at the schedule: is there anything unclear about Al Sharpton's leanings? The same goes for the stations with this format in Detroit, Philly, Chicago and elsewhere.

As always, I am never shocked when statistics collated and presented by a liberal establishment don’t pass the smell test. After all, as I’ve written about for years, to these folks, one plus one can equal zero, one, two, or three depending on what answer best fits the agenda being advanced.

Great catch, Brian.

—Noel Sheppard is the Associate Editor of NewsBusters.

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Liberals won't admit they're liberal

This is the left, always lying about what they really are to convince people to like them.

Back in the 90's I think Eric Alteman (sp?) used that lie awhile back to argue that the Media is not liberally biased.

He took all the news programs and papers and looked for the words conservative and liberal and found few mentions of the word Liberal but many Conservative. So he says, "That proves it" The Media is Conservatively Biased!!!

I read that a dismissed the guy out of hand. Of course Media Matters is the same kind of joke. All a reporter has to do to raise their Ire is say ANYTHING positive about Bush and they got written up for being Bush's minions.

Anyway. This is truly not surprising. Ellis Hennican is always on Hannity and Colmes and the Colmes side.

Of course, the other thing is that ALL liberals think they are centrists and that everybody agrees with them, except for the nasty Corporations brainwashing everybody.

Amazing grace...

I used to think libs were just ignoring the truth - now I'm back to thinking they are just a little to dumb to see it...

I was blind as well once but now I see...

Must be that new radical math

Must be that new radical math used by liberals.  How else are they going to achieve what they believe to be social justice?

“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” – Marcus Aurelius

To the left, it's not how you

To the left, it's not how you play the game -- only the end results matter. And the end justifies the means, all the time to them.

Great link, d.  Teaching ari

Great link, d.  Teaching arithmatic alone isn't enough for some.  Better to indoctrinate those young minds with socialist ideals of 'global justice' AND America sucks!

Noel,You're always a pro wi

Noel,

You're always a pro with these things. Keep up the great work.

Morals....? Who needs those?

Now wait just a darn second N

Now wait just a darn second Noel!  Are you trying to say that liberals would knowingly falsify the data to make their point?  I am shocked, shocked I tell you, and thoroughly disgusted at this blatant attempt to Swift Boat such a fine organization.

Radio K.A.O.S

When I saw the map presented at the Take Over America conference (online, I wasn't actually there) I noticed that it had 100% conservative and 0% liberal talk portrayed in Houston.  So I sez to myself "myself" I sez, that's a bunch of BS!  Although it's not exactly at peak hours, there are plenty of occasions when lefty shows are spewing pablum from my car radio.  How can it be 0%?

Truth is, the current "hush Rush" campaign is less than honest. (see below)

When a liberal speaks, the truth is busy elsewhere.

Let's make a deal

I'll agree to conservative limits on talk radio when Dem's agree to liberal limits on the rest of media. Go ahead and give conservatives equal time on CNN and the NY Times and we'll see that the EIB gives equal time to liberals.

(something tells me they won't take the deal)


If you hamper the war effort of one side, you automatically help out that of the other. --George Orwell

the Center fudged the numbers

the Center fudged the numbers a bit to make it look like things were much worse than they actually are

Wish I could say I was shocked, but unfortunately this seems to be the norm for the left these days. I wish there was a way to make these liars completely irrelevant, and embarrassed.

The dishonesty of the lefti

The dishonesty of the leftist journalists cannot be suppressed. It is their right to mislead, especially about the right!

Sen. BoBoxer won't be stopped. She's a textbook version of a personality disorder hit by a life-changing hormonal event.

GeezeFor all those sucking

Geeze

For all those sucking down any of the data from this report , besides the bad data, you have to look at the originators

Center for American Progress and Free Press

Just go to Discover the networks and read the entries for both of these groups, hit the search key and just cut and past their names and then read the entry info.

CNN`s Lou Dobbs just spoke up

CNN`s Lou Dobbs just spoke up in favor of talk radio. He said it`s ridiculous to try to shut it down or change it.

Precisely. And remember, t

Precisely. And remember, this is the same Left that sees mainstream news media outlets as right down the middle objective and gets defensive when you tell them otherwise. Oh, except for Fox News of course, which is at the Ruby Ridge militia level of right wing extremism.

If liberals don't lie about

If liberals don't lie about their intentions outright, or at the very least sugar-coat them so thick you can't actually see what the real intention or idea is, they would never get over 30% of the vote in any national election. By having the media do the sugar-coating and hiding for them, they can muster up tight elections at 50-50. If not for the media and 365 days a year of "campaign" material for liberals, the Left would have zero power and America would be a better place than it already is.

Liberalism thrives on a combo of emotions, exaggerations, and drama. Logic and common sense has no place in the liberal mindset.

Liberalism thrives on a combo

Liberalism thrives on a combo of emotions, exaggerations and drama.

Great point.  It explains so many things, including Bill (ick) Clinton's popularity.

Upside Down

Here's one to confuse the heck out of you. It did me. I was listening to an American college student being interviewed going to school in Sydney, Australia. She said "radio here is TERRIBLE! Everything is LIBERAL talk radio!". No follow-up comment. How could that be. Australia?

It took several hours of Googling to find the answer. The Conservatives in Australia are the Liberal Party and our Libs would be Labour. So Liberal talk radio is Rush Limbaugh down there. Neat!

Upside down. Australia. Not just that way on the map. I've been there. A very nice country. They had the "GoggleBox" 50 years before Google came along.

Who knows -- if Hillary, Nancy and Hillary get their way, we'll be calling Sydney to talk on Liberal (conservative) radio!

Wow,Talk about "topsy tu

Wow,

Talk about "topsy turvey".

Don't you love the way this is being depicted as never having happened?

Hillary is Captain Courageous.  What a fool.

It will stun you just how clo

It will stun you just how closely American politics are followed in Australia.  Well, it did me, anyways... 

(By contrast, how many Americans know that there is an election due in Australia this year, and that the 11 year old government of John Howard looks vulnerable to the campaigning of Labour leader Kevin Rudd?)

MAKE WAY FOR THE SAN ANTONIO SPURS!!!  THE 1999, 2003, 2005, AND 2007 NBA CHAMPIONS!!!!

The Bull of this

It seems to me that radio stations go out of their way to put liberals on the air, and not have popular conservatives competing with them.  In South Florida, Sean Hanitty is not on, during his normal time of 3 to 6 p.m. on any station.  Now, who else is on at that time?  Randi Rhodes is on WJNO which is a pretty powerful AM station in Palm Beach.  I feel relatively sure that, if Hannity were on any of the 3 remaining stations that have audience and the power to be heard, he would make a huge dent in RR's numbers.  Still, none of these "conservative" owners have taken the plunge to get him on.  He is on WJNO from 9 to Midnight, which in itself is humorous since  he's on television at 9 p.m. also. 

We all know that Liberals are great at creating numbers to support their assertions and, it appears, this is just another example.  If there were a conspiracy to shut down liberal thought, you'd think they could find a way to get Hannity on to compete against Randi Rhodes. 

Never argue with an idiot.  They'll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

pb,Sean is on at 6:00 p.m. (w

pb,

Sean is on at 6:00 p.m. (when I leave work late) on WIOD 610.  You know....the station that the Broward County Commission tried to yank their hurricane coverage from last week, because it carried Rush Limbaugh (even though it has the strongest signal in Broward County).

What a wonderful thing, all of the libs on the Broward County Commission got shouted down for putting their politics before the public safety during a weather emergency.

Do you suppose they learned their lesson? 

I'm guessing, not. 

Risking lives for ideology

Being in radio, I would wager that every broadcast and cable station in South Florida has their Emergency Alert Receivers tuned to WIOD.  Those annoying data tones you hear during tests can trigger receivers at other stations, which in turn override everything else on those stations so that emergency information can be relayed instantly.  Shutting out WIOD over ideology just makes the jobs of emergency personnel that much harder.  Stupid, stupid, stupid.

When you put the clowns in charge, don't be surprised when a circus breaks out.

Stupid and much worse.  Than

Stupid and much worse.  Thank heavens this was not carried out.  It would have been downright dangerous.

We're at 11:58 PM

Like that Doomsday nuclear bomb doomsday clock shown to us way too often (show it, instead, to who can make a difference like Iran and North Korea), our First Amendment is at 11:58 PM. The election of Hillary or any Democrat as president will move us to midnight. Read the loopholes and fine print in the "Fairness Doctrine" and the president can make it law by executive order. Of course it would then be fought in the courts for years and, by the time it reached the Supreme Court the libs are hoping to have it packed with RBG clones. Unless some federal judge issues an injunction against a presidential executive order and gets it to stick (very unlikely) Talk Radio followed by all other forms of free speech will cease. Few know how close we are. You have to read the documents. The Fairness Doctrine was originally meant to protect the rights of alternative political parties. It was a touchy feely nonsense bill meant to show how truly free our free speech is. In 1988, third parties were close to zero and sinking fast. Fortunately, the law was never fully implimented. It was said last year when the Dems took the house and senate that Nancy Pelosi believed there was enough still there to allow her to put it back into force just by declaring (as Speaker) that the law had never been set aside and was still in effect. That was on tenuous ground and little has been said about it the last few months. If she does go that route, don't expect any notice. It will come out of the blue and the media will be given 24 hours to comply.

It's been said the First Amendment protects the Second Amendment and vice versa. Lose one and the other soon follows. In fact, they would all soon follow. How easy it appears the citizens of the greatest and most free civilization in the history of mankind will give up all that so many before them fought and died for. Have we become a nation of sheep? We'll soon find out. This will lead either to servitude or our Second Civil War. Either path will destroy our country with only our enemies the winners.

Talk Radio fills an unsatisified want. The rest of news media didn't provide the factual and accurate news people sought so Talk Radio filled that need. Have a hot summer day and the ice cream man becomes popular. That's free enterprise. No one is forced to listen to radio. No one is forced to read or watch the media that has become mostly liberal dogma. One is winning and one is losing. The reason is obvious. The people want honesty. If they don't find it in one place they'll keep looking until they find it elsewhere. Unless their paths are blocked or the sources of honesty are silenced. We are close to that point of silence. Those that glibby say "it can't happen here" are wrong. It can and will happen here. Few realize just how close we are.

"hosts were categorized

"hosts were categorized as conservative, progressive/ liberal, or indeterminate/ neither based on self- identification, show descriptions, and listings in Talkers Magazine. Only hosts with evident and near- indisputable leanings were categorized."

Does this mean that NPR is listed as "neither" since they are self identified as non-biased.  By the same guidlines Fox News should be listed as neither since they are self described as "fair and balanced"?  You decide (don't let the libs decide for you).