When the Reagan administration finally ended the Fairness doctrine, political talk radio exploded and Rush Limbaugh became the King of talk radio. Limbaugh influence can’t be overestimated. Limbaugh entertainment style combined the use of humor and political discussion took conservatism to the common man and woman. And his impact was seen in the 1994 as he gave visibility to conservative ideas with the result being the Republicans taking over the control of the Senate. Talk radio allowed conservatives commentators to outflank the mainstream media.
Another aspect of the change in the media was Fox Television, which provided a place for conservative journalists to work. As the 90’s ended, Fox overtook CNN as the leading cable news network. The 2004 election also showed the impact of the Internet as bloggers set up a new network of news gathering but unlike talk radio, the left has proven as adept in getting their ideas across as the right. Regardless, the Internet forced the mainstream news media to be more accurate in their newsgathering and allowed their bias to be revealed. I wrote last year that the average person could learn more about the truth of Gulf War and its aftermath from selected blog and Internet sites than from much of the mainstream media. That is still true today. The 2004 election showed that that the mainstream media was not only partisan, but also they were not providing their viewers with all the news fit to print or hear.
Beyond the media debate, Anderson points out that conservatism is evolving. Many young conservatives, including many conservative bloggers, are becoming more libertarians on social issues including stem cell research and gay rights. There is no monolithic thought on social issues as even some social conservatives are willing to compromise on the gay rights issue.
Hollywood is now becoming less hostile to conservative ideals. Comedy Central South Park is the anti-liberal show and a example of a new Hollywood. Despite its vulgarity, South Park skews every liberal icon. South Park writers Trey Parker and Matt Stone are the anti-Christ of the left but it doesn’t mean that they are conservative. They have attack some conservative ideas but their biggest targets are the left. (Parker and Stone can be classified more as libertarians than conservatives.) Their unabashed patriotic stance was represented in their movie, Team America: World Police with the bad guys being Islamic fundamentalist terrorists and North Koreans. This movie doesn’t pretend that there are two sides to the debate in the war on terrorism and of course, they go after the Hollywood left.
Article comments
1 - Harvard Irving
This isn't a book review, it's political posturing.