Actually, Republicans do want political bias on the airwaves
But only if it's their own
A proposal pending in the US Congress would use the power of the government to protect biased political commentary on the airwaves.
Every Republican in the Iowa delegation supports it.
They won’t admit to this fact, but it’s true.
Republicans say they don’t want the government to fund biased broadcasters. This is why they claim to support taking back money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports NPR and PBS.
Yet, they’re gung-ho about using government coercion to support their rightwing friends on talk radio.
Their means for doing this is a bill to force unwilling automobile manufacturers to build their new vehicles with AM radio, which they know is heavily biased toward rightwing talk shows.
This is a big gift to the likes of Sean Hannity, Glen Beck and a bevy of local imitators.
AM radio is important to their survival.
As Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, once said, “Rush Limbaugh would not exist without AM radio.”
This legislation has come to the fore because some automobile manufacturers, including Ford and Tesla, have said they don’t want to put AM radio in their vehicles any longer, especially electric ones.
The electric engines, they say, interfere with the AM radio signal, and it’s sufficient to offer satellite and FM radio.
That explanation isn’t good enough for Congress. Thus, the bi-partisan bill: “AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act.”
Democrats who back the bill, like Sen. Ed Markey, of Massachusetts, say AM radio is needed in case of local emergencies, like storms. Republicans, who are perfectly willing to jettison those characteristics when it comes to public broadcasting, have a different motivation: Preserving rightwing radio on the airwaves.
The fact is, automobiles are vital to AM Radio, and thus rightwing talk shows: 44% of AM/FM radio is heard behind the wheel of a car or truck. If vehicles don’t come equipped with AM radio, rightwing radio would suffer—and so would rightwing politicians.
It doesn’t seem to matter that this vehicle mandate will raise costs. An industry-aligned research group puts the price tag for fixing the technical issues in electric vehicles at $3.8 billion.
I have a lot of affection for AM radio. In my broadcasting days, one of my first jobs was at an AM station. I also spent many an hour as a kid trying to tune in AM radio in order to hear baseball games. And it’s not just rightwing talk that’s on AM radio stations. In some places, you can find news, farm reports, sports and other programming that are of great value to their audiences.
But that’s also the case with public broadcasting. These stations offer a wide range of children’s programming, the arts and music, as well as news reports, that are of great value to their audiences.
Yet, Republicans, including Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, voted to rescind funding for these stations. So did Iowa’s delegation in the House.
Republicans freely admit their motivation for abandoning free-market principles in the case of AM radio is political. “AM radio is a haven for people to speak, even if their views are disfavored by the political ruling class,” said Cruz, who is one of the lead sponsors of the proposal.
You know full well whose views he’s talking about. Anybody who spends time in a car knows the views expressed on AM talk radio shows are predominantly rightwing.
The last time I regularly heard liberal programming on AM radio was 15-20 years ago, when Air America made its brief run.
The network didn’t last long. Maybe it was market forces that killed it.
Republicans, however, don’t demand that AM radio and its programming withstand market forces. Nor do they complain about political bias on AM talk radio, like they do on NPR.
Instead, they seek to use the power of the government to protect rightwing bias while using their authority to try to kill perceived liberal bias.
The hypocrisy would be stunning if it wasn’t becoming so normal.
I want to be clear: Nobody with an ounce of honesty would equate AM talk radio with National Public Radio. Public radio offers a range of viewpoints, even if some believe it tilts to the left. AM Radio hosts like Sean Hannity offer just one perspective: Donald Trump’s.
Yet, Republicans protect one and condemn the other.
Ernst called PBS “partisan propaganda.” But she pushes a government protection plan for rightwing radio.
Republicans want you to believe they’re against government support for politically biased programming. But that isn’t true. Congressional Republicans, including every member from Iowa, are pushing for a government mandate to preserve political bias on the airwaves: Their own.
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In 2009, I bought a new car - a rare event for me. High on my priority list was satellite radio because I couldn’t stand the constant stream of conservative blowhards on AM radio. I haven’t looked back and even though I began my journalism career in AM radio, I almost never listen to it now. AM owners have no one to blame but themselves.
Bring back the Fairness Doctrine!!! And yep, they are hypocrites. But we have known that for a LONG time.