I recently toured Western Iowa with two nationally known speakers seeking to inform and persuade Iowans about the existential threat that the existence of nuclear weapons poses to United States national security. Part of our goal was to support President Obama's initiative on nuclear disarmament. This tour included a public relations effort that resulted in good television and radio coverage in Sioux City, minimal coverage in metropolitan Des Moines and zero coverage by print media. Perhaps the best exposure we had was on a conservative talk radio show. It's large audience was evidence of the reach of conservative talk and served as a method for getting our message out.

Why the Left Has No Answer to the Right-Wing Lie Machine

by Ernest Partridge

An Uneven Contest: What if there were a great debate concerning the nature and future of American society, and only one side showed up?

That approximately describes the condition of the U. S. media today.

The right wing is operating a super-charged carnival of hype, hysteria and hoopla, while the left struggles along with a pipsqueek sideshow: a few magazines like The Nation, Mother Jones and The American Prospect, with minuscule circulation among the already converted, some tolerated columnists like Paul Krugman, Bob Herbert, and Frank Rich, and of course there’s Shultz, Olbermann and Maddow on MSNBC.

Last Friday, Bill Moyers’ Journal on PBS broadcast its final program. Shultz-Olbermann-Maddow remain on MSNBC at the sufferance of the owners and managers of NBC and MicroSoft, while Comcast is attempting a takeover of NBC. If successful, how long will this lone outpost of progressive cable-TV commentary remain?

The influence of FOX News is amplified as their antics and outrages – “birtherism,” climate change denial, baseless accusations of “socialism” or even “fascism” – are uncritically reported far and wide by the mainstream media (MSM). In addition to FOX, the airwaves are crammed solid with right-wing talk shows – about 90%, by some counts. Leading these is Rush Limbaugh, with an audience estimated from fifteen to thirty million.