A few days ago, I sent a letter to the main newspaper here in RI, the Providence Journal. The letter was a call for liberal talk radio parity. In it, I pointed out that I could get four conservative talk stations on AM, hear Limbaugh live on three (two AM and one FM), but the nearest progressive talk was out of Boston. I also pointed out that liberal talk out performs their conservative rivals in many of the 10% of the U.S. market that they are in, and yet still gets shut down to provide the umpteenth sports/religious talk station in that market.
Now, when you submit a letter to the editor, you need to put your name, address, and daytime phone "in case of substantive questions" on the part of the editorial staff.
So imagine my joy when I got back yesterday and found the following message on my machine. It was condescending and rude, and he didn't even leave his name or number. I can't give you the tone, but I can provide the words:
"Sir,um, I'd like to give you an intelligent answer to why there's no on air liberals. It's been tried with Air America, Al Franken, Sean Penn, the whole bunch, and if you listen to the clips; they were extremely boring, offered nothing, and the advertisers wouldn't advertise with them. Period. That's about it. Thank you sir, and you have a wonderful day."
Yes, Air Ameica went bankrupt due to a bad buisness plan, but they came back. But that fact, combined with FauxNews' hammering of their bankrupcy as proof that liberal talk doesn't work (how much money did FoxNews lose at first?), has led to a perception that liberal talk cannot work and no one wants it. Market after market proves that idea wrong, but the parent conglomerates keep shutting down profitable liberal talk while claiming that it doesn't pay the bills.
Let's face it; Franken had so little to offer that he was elected Senator. Rachel Maddow and Ed Shultz are so boiring that they got TV shows to go with the radio shows. And anyone who thinks Stephanie Miller is boring hasn't listened to her show for even one minute.
We need to contact our news outlets, write letteres to our papers, and challenge this false idea that there is no market for liberal talk. If we don't, the continuing domination of the airwaves by conservatives will continue to perpetuate the lie that no one wants to hear progressive talk. They are not serving thier communities, as they are required to do under FCC law, by keeping out the left's point of view.
Update:At the suggestion of a commenter, I went to see if my letter was published. Well, it was, yesterday (8/20). So anyone with a basic search ability could have found my number instead of just worrying about the paper staff. Apologies for the suggestion that someone at the paper might have been the caller. Mind you, the caller was still a coward.