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Democrats, Don't You Touch That Dial

As a conservative, I endure the occasional annoyance of the many institutions of modern life wholly dominated by the left.

TV network news. Major metropolitan newspaper editorial pages. The halls of academia. Hollywood and other corridors of popular culture. All are filled with voices in complete discord with my views. I somehow survive.

As a grownup, it is my job not to whine about this. I have spent years disagreeing with views from those worlds, but I would never suggest government should impose balance to those left-leaning enclaves.

Besides, free markets work. There is a vast variety of opinion on most op-ed pages, and countless TV channels and Web sites have us buried in more views from the left, right and center than anyone could navigate.

Those same free markets have yielded an interesting phenomenon in my profession of talk radio. Conservative hosts outnumber liberals by as much as 3-to-1.

There is nothing inherent to radio talk shows that would make them a right-leaning exercise. Many of the same executives cashing checks from talk radio advertisers also are purveyors of generally liberal TV content and music stations aimed at young adults and women, not exactly the GOP base.

That's because radio companies want to do one thing above all: make money. Their top officials do not lie awake reflecting about immigration, stem cell research or the surge in Iraq. They worry about the bottom line, and right now there is more appeal (thus, more revenue) among conservative shows.

To those who say talk radio needs balance, talk radio is balance. With newscasts, movies and college courses pumping reliable liberalism every minute of every day, disagreeing Americans have found one place to invest their collective attention: call-in radio shows.

Most of us who host them are more than glad to welcome opposing views and do so constantly. But for some, the mere existence of a single avenue of American media tilting right is a scourge that must be squashed by government edict.

Hence the exhumation of a dinosaur fraudulently called the "Fairness Doctrine." This relic of a law once forced radio stations to devote quantifiable amounts of airtime to both sides of controversial issues.

This may sound perfect to a fifth-grader, but in the real world it led to a virtual disappearance of issues from radio, as stations ditched news and interview shows, rather than be dogged by government nannies policing for perceived even-handedness.

A 1969 Supreme Court ruling found this constitutional, with the limited number of program providers at the time. Largely ignored by the 1980s, it was abolished 20 years ago when the FCC finally realized that it inhibited, rather than enhanced, debate.

When I first heard the latest rumblings of Democrats seeking to revive it, my reaction was a derisive chuckle. How comical that the left is not satisfied with the numerous landscapes of discourse that it dominates.

But when actual U.S. senators began to express favor for thwarting the tastes of millions of radio listeners, it was no longer funny. The House, led by Indiana Rep. Mike Pence (a former Indianapolis talk show host), passed a measure last week 309-115 blocking the FCC from jump-starting this egregious censorship. John McCain, a genuine First Amendment villain from his campaign finance "reform," may earn redemption by leading the charge in the Senate.

The only genuine talk radio "fairness" is to examine ratings and revenue as the honest criteria for which shows last. If that means Rush Limbaugh is the biggest radio talk host and Al Franken and Air America fizzle, so be it. There are successful liberal shows, and there may be more.

But that should be determined by what real listeners want, not by bureaucrats empowered to impose what they think is "fair."

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