Talk radio shrinks listeners' intellectual capital

Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck are to intelligence as Bernie Madoff is to investment. They operate Ponzi schemes aimed not at your money but at your mind. They ask listeners to invest time and trust in their simplistic views of America. Then they want a little more time and little more trust until the desire for a well-balanced, diversified portfolio of thought is gone. And like Madoff, they use the millions they gain from listener "investments" to enjoy lives of luxury.

They trade on pessimism in a land built by optimism. They pejoratively label anyone who disagrees with them "liberals" in a land founded on liberal thought. They verbally punish dissent in a land where dissent is traditionally welcomed and protected.

Thoughtful observers wonder how these negative voices became so prominent on radio and television. It helps to know a little about the history of broadcasting. Radio was once the primary source of entertainment and news. When television became the dominant entertainment source, radio experienced dramatic changes. Weekly entertainment programs gave way to recorded music, a less costly format. Still, government rules required broadcast license holders to serve "in the public interest, convenience, and necessity." The easiest way to meet the public interest obligation was to broadcast news, and so stations broadcast hourly news programs. In every radio station, teletypes clicked constantly, providing 24-hour news reports from Associated Press, United Press, or International News Service.

Because playing recorded music was an inexpensive format, almost anyone could obtain a broadcast license and launch a radio station. Thousands of new stations began broadcasting, and station ownership shifted from local owners to national groups. A few groups acquired hundreds or even thousands of radio stations. In Salt Lake Valley alone, the number of stations multiplied at least six times, most operated by absentee owners. So many stations went on the air that the Federal Communications Commission pretty much gave up enforcing the public interest clause. News programs disappeared ... as did the teletype and two of the news services. For many stations, news became another form of entertainment — comedy routines by untrained disc jockeys. They set the example for Jon Stewart, Keith Olbermann, and others who turn news into entertainment.