Webloggin » Free Speech Is On The Line in 2008 Elections

There is always a very good possibility that, whichever Republican wins in the primaries, you won’t like that person. You may even be tempted to throw away a vote by abstaining or making a “protest vote” for a third party candidate. I’ve urged against that conduct on the ground that, no matter how bad the Republican candidate is from your point of view, the Democratic candidate will only be worse. My particular sticking point on this issue is the Supreme Court, but you can substitute just about any policy or practice in its place. Just today, Richard Baehr reminded me that free speech will also be on the chopping block if too many conservative voters, dissatisfied with the primary process, decide to “make a statement” in November 2008.

UPDATE: No surprise that Michelle Malkin has extensive blog coverage of the increasing momentum behind the attack on conservative talk radio.

UPDATE II: Incidentally, liberals are right that talk radio is dangerous — for liberal ideas. From 1987 through 2002, I spent all of my drive time listening to the liberal gold standard, aka NPR. That, as well as the SF Chron, the NY Times, the New Yorker, and the New Republic, completely informed my universe of ideas.

I got disenchanted first with NPR. I’d find myself in the car hollering at the radio “that’s wrong,” or “that’s illogical,” or “that’s stupid,” or “that’s anti-Semitic.” Eventually, I couldn’t make myself listen to those shows any more. The question became, then, where to go? I like talk in the car, not music, so I decided to amuse myself by listening to . . . gasp . . . Rush Limbaugh.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Rush wasn’t the brutal idiot so beloved of liberal stereotypes. Instead, the show had a format that allowed Rush to develop ideas and, because of the interview and call-in format, to defend those ideas. Most he defended well; some he defended badly. I was impressed despite myself — and despite the irritation of the constant commercials, something I’d gotten used to doing without during my public radio years.

From Rush it was a hop, skip and a jump to my favorite radio personality, Dennis Prager, the man I consider the most logical, humane, liberal, rational spokesman around. Again, Prager is able to be precisely this because the long, open format of talk radio allows him both to expand upon and, even more importantly, to defend his ideas. It didn’t take me long to discover Michael Medved and Hugh Hewitt. By then I realized that the blinkered world that is NPR can be very informative, but that it is not a marketplace of ideas. Every story is carefully constructed so as to advance a conclusion, but that advocacy is hidden from the credulous liberal audience. Nothing is challenged; no fresh air is allowed; and most importantly, no alternate views are given free voice. Instead, opposing views are limited to 10 or 15 second bites that are immediately rebutted in the static format of a 6 minute radio story.

I eventually concluded that while talk radio definitely has its faults — the primary one being that it doesn’t provide a well-rounded news report, because it’s primarily an opinion format — the virtues far outweighed the faults. There is no hidden agenda, because each show’s host is remarkably open about his beliefs. There is lots of time to develop ideas, especially because of the interview format. And unlike NPR, which is careful to give 98% of its interview shows to people with whom the hosts agree, talk radio hosts such as Hewitt, Medved and Prager seem to relish the opportunity to have on people with whom they do not agree. These ensuing conversations, therefore, provide a rare marketplace of ideas — rare, at least, in today’s one-sided major media.

Which gets me back to my original point — the liberals are right to fear talk radio because, one ideas are removed from the rigidly orchestrated framework that is the MSM and NPR, and get full airing and debate, liberal ideas don’t smell so good any more.

Others on this subject:
Sister Toldjah, JammieWearingFool, Iowa Voice, Hot Air, Conservative Blogger, La Shawn Barber

Fairness Doctrine