In regards to my previous post, “Air America’s Biggest Weakness is Its Institutional Mindset,” I made the point that the decision to create the liberal radio network, “Air America,” came from a false assumption on the part of liberals that the dominance of conservatives in the talk radio market was through a coordinated effort. Well, some notes sent to Power Line Blog, taken by a student who attended the Dean’s Lecture at Yale Law School where Al Franken was talking, give weight to the points I made in that post.

Now, apart from the fact that Al Franken as a guest speaker for a Dean’s Lecture at Yale Law School seems to me somewhat akin to appointing Bozo the Clown as Ambassedor to Canada (on second thought…), there is some value to examining the lecture notes provided to Powerline. Here are some salient points which support what I’ve been saying:

Starts with the “myth of liberal media.” Something that the right has been repeating over and over again for the last forty years. There is a lot of bias in the media but it isn’t liberal. The mainstream media maybe has some biases in terms of politics but they are pack mentality biases…

BUT there is a right-wing media: Fox News and talk radio. This is why Franken went into talk radio.

Of course, quite a few other liberals, including Al Gore have made similar points. “There is no liberal bias in the media,” while, at the same time underscoring their belief that “conservatives are aligned and coordinated and using radio and other media outlets like Fox News to spread their message.”

Yadda, yadda…

Is there a liberal bias in the MSM? No doubt.

Are liberals coordinated in their efforts to present certain points of view? I don’t believe so.

I just think that liberals report on the same things and in the same ways because, first of all, they borrow ideas from each other. Secondly, the same issues interest them. And, finally, the MSM has become increasingly evangelistic in it’s attempts to influence society.

And, of course, talk radio does lean heavily in the direction of conservative thought. Talk show hosts know it, they admit it, and they are happy to talk about it just about any time. So, at least conservatives recognize their own slant and are honest about it, whereas the Al Frankens of the world just can’t admit the MSM is heavily influenced by liberal thought.

Another thing that conservative radio hosts do, which Al Franken does not, is take calls from listeners on a regular basis and invite guests with opposing viewpoints to debate with them on the air. The question for Al then is, what’s he afraid of?

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com