The Dem Congress doesn't seem to be lifting a finger to force the media conglomerates to put some balance in AM talk radio.  Many had hoped it would be one of the first priorities of the new Congress, knowing as they must that as soon as the right wing talk juggernaut brushed itself off from the 06 electoral pasting, it would quickly reinflate to quash all of the Dem initiatives.  Quite simply, AM right wing talk radio holds the balance of power in this country right now, with 20-50 million dupes at any given time and hardly a minute of balance from 24/7 far right agitprop lies.

I began monitoring rightalk in the early 90's as they virtually assassinated Bill Clinton on a daily basis.  During the Hillarycare debacle which was a staple of right radio reaction, a front page New York Times article described a flash mob protest against Hillary's plan in which a public school teacher was quoted as saying "Rush says my doctor would go to jail for treating me," to which the Times sniffed in reply: "No such proposal has been discussed in the Clinton Health plan."  

This caught the attention of Kathleen Hall Jameson of the prestigious Annenberg School of Communication at Penn, funded by the conservative TV Guide fortune, who began a dozen-years study of the lies of right wing talk radio, determining that "false certainty" on almost every issue was held by a huge majority of listeners - enough to swing 5 out of the past six elections.  Why on earth hasn't Jameson been called as the star witness for Congressional hearings designed both to pressure the media corps and educate the public to exactly how our politics in this country turned so false and nasty?

Another witness should be George Mitchell who is hailed as some kind of Democratic statesman but who as chair of ABC turned over their entire radio station network to far right activists who were allowed to lie without challenge for 15 years, took over the Federal government and wrecked the reputation of this country in the world. If Mitchell plays dumb, then he should be reminded that in negotiations with the religious right to end their boycott of Disney, his execs proudly boasted that they maintained the biggest right wing talk network - home to Limbaugh and Hannity - and intended to keep it that way, which was enough to get the boycott called off without meeting any demands.

Even as a struggling bankrupt startup, Air America is credited with Howard Dean as helping to win a dozen seats in the past election.  This is because the right's radio empire is mammoth but built upon a tissue of lies which collapse with close scrutiny, another reason why opposing callers armed with facts are shut out or shut down, and all balance is drowned out of the mix since the corporations that benefit from the rightist tax policies (and outright licensing graft in the case of the 02 and 04 elections) have proven they don't intend to budge toward balance without being pushed.  

However, Air America has even bigger problems with Bush-career-sponsor Clear Channel, who generously offered to fill out their network with its underperforming stations.  Many suspected a dirty trick in the works but business analysts said it was a smart move in case Dems returned to power.  Well, the Dems won the 06 election, but Clear Channel must have gotten a call from Karl Rove since they are dumping AAR stations even as the Dems have taken power.  They must have forseen the Dem's blindspot here since NO ONE in the Dem Congress is making this an issue unless they are being interviewed on the Ed Schultz Show, and Schultz only seemed to waken to it when the affiliate count for his hugely popular show stalled at 100 and then lost 20 stations when Clear Channel started smothering them in the crib.

  Annenberg's own research shows that between 20-50 million Americans at any given time are duped by the lies of right wing talk radio.  Today for 3 hours Limbaugh is beginning to trumpet the Dem's reesponsibility for losing Iraq.  Don't be surprised or blindsided yourself when in a few months this is the conventional wisdom, forced into the dumber end of the body politic through the pipeline of the greatest disinformation network since Goebbels.