As easy as it might be to forget them in the cobwebs of the AM radio
dial, the liberal pretenders to the Rush Limbaugh throne are still
broadcasting, and they're often utterly, shamelessly ridiculous. Case in
point: Even Al Sharpton lamely used his radio show to defend Joe
Biden's anti-Republican "they want to put y'all in chains" race baiting
in front of a black audience.
Another case in point: Liberal radio hosts adore Harry Reid for making
utterly unsubstantiated ugly charges that Mitt Romney evaded taxes for a
decade. Bill Press has routinely declared his love for the tactic —
even on CNN, where someone might have noticed. On "Reliable Sources,"
Press taunted the journalists who might want to play by the rules of
evidence.
"Harry Reid is not a journalist. Harry Reid is a Democratic politician
who doesn't want Mitt Romney to get elected," Press curdled. "What he is
doing may be diabolical, but it's brilliant, because what's Mitt Romney
been talking about for the last two days, he's been talking about his
freaking tax returns. So Harry Reid is playing hardball."
On "The Stephanie Miller Show," her regular guest Lee Papa, who calls
himself "The Rude Pundit," echoed Press and added that liberal lies
haven't been strong enough. "My ethical standard is that we (Democrats)
should be telling better lies. So frankly I don't even care if this is
true or not. I think it's remarkable that a Democrat is actually playing
hardball." Miller enthusiastically agreed.
Usually, when authors take up the subject of talk radio, it's a
jeremiad that conservative talkers are out to ruin our national
discourse with their lies. Who would that be? Start with Bill Press, who
wrote a book titled "Toxic Talk: How the Radical Right Has Poisoned
America's Airwaves." The book is touted for exposing the "destructive
power of Rush, Glenn Beck, Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage,
Bill O'Reilly" and all those conservatives who push "lies, propaganda,
and bigotry" on the populace.
Press also wrote "The Obama Hate Machine: The Lies, Distortions, and
Personal Attacks on the President — and Who Is Behind Them." Press is
presumably the Obama love machine that puts out lies, distortions and
political attacks to get Obama re-elected, despite his horrible record.
Now there's a rebuttal to that book.
It's called "The Right Frequency: The Story of the Talk Radio Giants
Who Shook Up the Political and Media Establishment." Author Fred Lucas
chronicles conservative talk-radio stars over the decades, reminding us
how they kept the American idea alive. (A disclaimer: Lucas works during
the day as the White House correspondent for CNSNews.com, a division of
the Media Research Center, which I lead.)
Lucas travels back to the early days of radio history, describing, for
example, how Fulton Lewis predicted to Mike Wallace in the 1950s that
the Republican Party could be a majority party if they would only let
the conservatives run it, instead of the wishy-washy, me-too moderates.
But it's really fun to remember how liberals have failed to find their
anti-Limbaugh. In the 1990s, ABC Radio tried to make a star out of Texas
Agricultural Commissioner Jim Hightower, thinking they could sell
ultra-liberalism if it sounded folksy enough. He bombed. They tried to
sell Mario Cuomo as a radio host, although he was far too pompous for
the regular folks. He lectured a libertarian caller: "What if you have a
plague? Floods? You'd just let everybody drown?" He bombed. They tried
former Virginia Gov. Doug Wilder. Bomb.
In 2004, the media elite went gaga over the anticipated ascent of Al
Franken and the Air America network into Limbaugh's orbit. The New York
Times and Washington Post each promoted their debut on the front pages
and in cover stories in their Sunday magazines. Newsweek published a
three-page spread featuring Franken in a flight suit on an aircraft
carrier. Time only gave it a page, with the headline "America Needs Air
America." None of it worked.
At the outset, Air America was sold as a "tremendous business
opportunity" with a "hole in the market you could drive a truck
through." In the end, Air America later fell right through that hole in
the market into bankruptcy and liquidation.
It's rather funny. The left regularly augment the puny power of liberal
radio hosts by promoting them on TV, from Sharpton and Ed Schultz and
Rachel Maddow in the evenings on MSNBC to live morning shows with Bill
Press and Stephanie Miller on Al Gore's tiny-ratings channel Current TV.
None is threatening the right. We're asked to "Lean Forward" in MSNBC
promos, and Current TV promos expect us to believe their big "weapon" on
their talk programs is "the truth." Try telling that to Press or Miller
as they as they celebrate character assassinations against Republicans.