Conservative Radio Dominance Not as Grave as Liberals Proclaim

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):

[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.