I?ve flummoxed some of my friends and colleagues in recent months by arguing that there is a real market for left-leaning talk radio in the U.S. I don?t buy the silly idea that creating a liberal talk-radio network is necessary to democracy so as to balance conservative talk radio and the Fox News Channel. Such a supposition requires a warped view of how the news media work and how most news and opinion operations lean. But I do buy that it would be a welcome addition to the overall public-policy debate in the country to have some left-leaning talkers on commercial radio, and that there is probably some money to be made in the endeavor.
Here?s a piece from a former employer of mine, The New Republic, that gets some things right and some things very wrong about the liberal talk-radio idea. The main omission is any discussion of National Publc Radio and its news and talk offerings, which would constitute the major competitor for listeners to a new liberal network on commercial stations.
Bottom line: the project should be a business proposition, thinking through how to acquire and/or stitch together stations in college towns and big metros and how to employ real broadcast talent to deliver good, funny, liberal-leaning talk. Instead, proponents are treating it like a political crusade. That will fail.
