« Kucinich and Paul Stand Alone | Main | Media Bias Against Hugo Chavez »

June 22, 2007

Reining in Right-Wing Talk Radio

Republicans are getting so much heat over Trent Lott's statements a few days ago about the need to rein in talk radio and shut up young Republicans that they're now trying to make it look like it's the Democrats who really want to attack talk radio. Senator James Inhofe yesterday told John Ziegler on his radio show that he overheard Senators Hillary Clinton and Barbara Boxer say that right-wing radio was a problem in need of a "legislative fix." Inhofe claimed he told them there was no market for liberal talk radio. Ziegler inferred the two women were "conspiring to end talk radio."

Inofe's exact words were:

"I was going over to vote the other day and I was walking with two very liberal gals that didn’t pay any attention to me being with them. They were outraged by something you said or Rush Limbaugh or somebody said that upset them," Inhofe told Ziegler. "They said, ‘we have got to do something about this, these are nothing but far-right wing extremists. We’ve got to have a balance, there’s got to be a legislative fix to this.’" He added: "As we got off the elevator, I said, ‘you gals don’t understand. This is market-driven and there’s no market for your liberal trite.’"

Of course, Clinton and Boxer deny ever saying any such thing, though I personally think they probably did say something very like it, something that Inhofe mis-interpreted. Something that is actually all about saving free speech on the radio. Taylor Marsh tackles the story and links to a new report from American Progress that is no doubt what is causing so much angst on the right. It would seem that Trent Lott didn't know that report was coming down the pike, else he would have kept his own trap shut and not issued his poorly-timed comments.

The report in question, which calls for a return of the Fairness Doctrine and diversity of media ownership to ensure diversity of opinion on the airwaves, is described in a story on the Conservative News Service newswire as a call for greater government regulation of radio and an example of "amazing liberal hypocrisy." In light of yesterday's reports that the vast majority of political contributions by journalists are going to Democrats, this plays well with the right-wingers. Thank goodness, smart people with blogs are always on call, ready to debunk that sort of nonsense.

Posted by Becky at June 22, 2007 10:26 AM