Radio Free Europe

In Sweden the elites debate what is important to them (HT, Instapundit). The public has other priorities, of course. The same would be true in the USA, but because of the free market, we have what I call the counter media. The Murdoch empire, conservative/libertarian/contrarian blogs and talk radio fill the void created by a craven MSM. So, while publications seen only in dentist offices display their pieties and priorities, talk radio and the blogosphere worry about topics the MSM would rather not deal with or in a different manner than the MSM cares for. The most glaring one is illegal immigration. Except for the war, this is the topic that dominates talk radio. It affects flyover country and the working class far more (and far more negatively) than it does those ensconced in red brick buildings in Cambridge, K Street offices and glass towers in Manhattan and LA, . No wonder why the influence of the MSM is imploding. That and the MSM is staffed by bozos.

Back to Europe which could use a Rush Limbaugh… seriously. Take the UK. The most powerful media institution in the UK is the BBC- a tax fed a liberal monoculture staffed by ‘Grauniad’ reading commuters. And they drive the debate as they wish, ignoring inconvenient opinions. What if, instead there was a talk show host who aimed for, well, the Daily Mail readership (I know the DM’s rep, but work with me on this one). Maybe they’d start talking about things the BBC would rather ignore or downplay.

Of course that would never happen. The media elites believe the need to control the debate. For the greater good, of course. Give the working class a media platform unsupervised by their betters, they’ll store coal in it. Besides, look at America. The country took a very large rightward tilt when Punch Sulzberger and Walter Cronkite stopped controlling the discussion and that horrible Rush Limbaugh and his ilk came forth. At least Congress seems to be wisely reconsidering.