Attack of the rightist radio!

This morning I awoke to the voice of Rush Limbaugh going on about faith-based initiatives…. This morning I awoke to the voice of Rush Limbaugh going on about faith-based initiatives. Some conservative must have set my radio alarm to AM 1020.

On my way to work, I flipped the radio stations through Sean Hannity, Michael Reagan and Chuck Colson before I gave up and finally settled on Radio Disney. At least Hilary Duff doesn’t bombard me with her ideas on welfare reform.

At home, I was channel surfing when I saw Bill O’Reilly bashing affirmative action, Tucker Carlson expressing his admiration for President Bush and Joe Scarborough stating that homosexuals should not be allowed to adopt. And suddenly, it hit me. These conservatives are taking over the world … and they’re starting with the media.

Whatever happened to the days when “fair and balanced” actually meant something? Whatever happened to the days when you could watch or listen to news commentators without being showered by the same opinion over and over? Well, those days are over. They were over a long time ago and they had disappeared faster than you could say “fairness doctrine.”

In 1949, the Federal Communications Commission instituted the fairness doctrine, which stated that radio and television broadcasters are required to air contrasting points of view and to present these views in an equal and fair manner.

But in 1984, the FCC discontinued the fairness doctrine, claiming that it prevented the “presentation of controversial issues.” When the House and Senate subsequently passed a bill to reinstate the doctrine, President Reagan was quick to veto it.

The demise of the fairness doctrine has brought us where we are now — almost completely surrounded by the rants of conservative television and radio hosts.

According to an article by Edward Monks of the Wall Street Journal, the time allotted to conservative talk radio hosts is nowhere near the time for liberals. In fact, there are more conservative talk radio hosts than there are liberals.

And according to an 8-year-long study conducted by Media Matters, right-wing voices considerably exceed the number of left-wing voices on Sunday talk shows such as ABC’s This Week, CBS’s Face the Nation and NBC’s Meet the Press.

And don’t even get me started on the Fox News Channel. For one thing, their famous “We Report, You Decide” and “Fair and Balanced” slogans should be classified as deceptive advertising. Home to television hosts Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly and Brit Hume, the Fox News Channel is overwhelmingly conservative. And if anyone tries to disagree with Fox’s position, they’ll be told to shut up and be threatened to have their mikes cut off. And as Fox is leading in the ratings race, other 24-hour news networks are sure to follow its bad example.

To make matters worse, Tony Snow, Fox News talk show host and conservative radio personality, has recently been appointed as the new White House press secretary. It seems Fox’s love for the Bush administration is not one-sided.

And I don’t know about you, but this merging of Fox and the White House reminds me a little of Berlusconi. You know, the former prime minister of Italy who owns all of Italy’s media, dominating it in the process. Will we soon become a nation with media influenced by the people in power?

Or maybe the media will take its bias one step further. Maybe it will be the one doing the influencing by choosing who will lead the country. Take the 2000 Bush/Gore election for example. Fox News employee and cousin of Dubya himself, John Ellis, was one of the people in charge of analyzing voter data and calculating which candidates would win each state.

Ellis prematurely and erroneously called the state of Florida for Bush, causing other news networks to quickly follow. Not to mention, Ellis was in constant contact by telephone with Bush during election night. What was the topic of conversation? We may never know. But Fox News’ little stunt made it clear that it’s really, really nice to have friends and family in the right places.

So what does all this mean for America? It’s bad news. Without a balance of different ideas and viewpoints, society suffers. The more we surround ourselves with one-sidedness, the more close-minded and intolerant we become. The more we watch or listen to the right’s near monopoly, the more we encourage it to continue.

The discontinuation of the fairness doctrine has made opinions programs anything but fair. But there are ways we can fix this problem. By writing to our state representatives and senators, we can call for a reinstitution of the fairness doctrine.

By boycotting television and radio stations that do not display a wide variety of opinions, we can measurably reduce their ratings and cause them to change their ways.

But if you are like me and you cannot help but watch O’Reilly because you love to scream at the television, do not let O’Reilly be your only source. Explore other forms of media.

And remember, when all else fails, there’s always Hilary Duff.

E-mail Elham at elk23@pitt.edu.