No choice but right

Recently, the Center for American Progress released a study that confirmed what many of us already knew: The nation’s radio airwaves are dominated by conservative talk.

According to the study, 91 percent of news/talk radio programming is comprised of conservatives. In response to this staggering imbalance, it has become necessary to revive the Fairness Doctrine, a federal policy established in 1940 to force broadcasters to allow equal broadcast time to opposing views.

The Fairness Doctrine intended to ensure that broadcast companies were adequately informing citizens of important news, but was vetoed by Ronald Reagan in 1987. Not coincidentally, Rush Limbaugh began to syndicate his show soon after, leading the charge toward a conservative media revolution that has reorganized American politics.

Of course, pundits on the Right insist that this spike is due to the demands of the so-called Free Market, arguing that conservative radio is ubiquitous simply because most people want to hear it.

Unfortunately, the numbers say otherwise: 56 percent of the American public and 53 percent of regular talk show listeners identify as liberal or moderate. Why would they not want radio options that reflect their views?

Not coincidentally, the rise in conservative radio has been paralleled by an equally sharp drop in local ownership over the past 20 years. Since the 1980s, the number of large media companies has shrunk from over 50 to less than 10. At the same time, locally owned networks have been swallowed up by companies like Clear Channel, which owns more than 1,200 radio stations around the country. Why does this matter? According to the Center for American Progress study, locally owned companies are considerably more likely to provide non-conservative programming. Simply put, conservative radio dominates because American people don’t have a choice.

– Marc Lamont Hill is a professor at Columbia University.

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