So I finally finished that book. I liked it better than Eric Alterman's "What Liberal Media". I am going to write about some of my reactions to the book. I found it extremely interesting and well-researched.
However, as I have finished the book, I have one issue of criticism. The book does an excellent job of idenitfying the problem of the media, but it offers no solutions of how to change the structural imbalances that exist in the media system.
More beneath the fold.
I read and learned about how the right has taken over the media, how the right maintains its "persecution complex" about the media, and how it shapes the agenda. The Brock book does an excellent job of showing that the media has never been "liberal" or as "biased" as the right makes it out to be.
But now I wonder what the solution is. Air America has not succeeded. For whatever reason the left-wing equivalent of talk radio doesn't seem like it is going to work. For whatever reason the left is too willing to be fair and open-minded. They aren't willing to aggressively manipulate the truth the way that the right does. So the talk-raido format doesn't seem like a solution.
However, talk radio does reach a lot of people. Here in the DC area, as I now have to drive to work everyday because Metro doesn't stop nearby, I have been listening to WMAL. WMAL is the DC Talk Radio station, and it is dominated by conservatives. (There is an Air America affiliate, but it has a very weak signal that can't be heard outside fo the Beltway). Their entire lineup is right-wing.
Their AM drive time show, the Andy and Grandy show, has all a former Iowa Republican Congressman, the man who was on the Love Boat. Chris Core, the most reasonable of the hosts, is conservative. Then it is Limbaugh and Hannity. The worst of them is Mark Levine, who basically yells at people and seems very hateful. Chris Plante is next, who is very conservative and ideological. There is no left-leaning voice at all on the entire station.
What is the way to effectively challenge these voices? Calling in is pointless becuase the hosts will hang up on those who will diagree. Left-leaning talk radio has not worked. So what is the answer to the structual problem of imbalanced media?
Discuss.