Monday, April 13, 2009

Conservative Bloggers vs. Conservative Television

Talking about divides in conservatism these days is not very original, but I haven't seen anyone addressing one that seems obvious to me: the divide between conservative voices in print media (blogs, newspaper columns, and magazines) and broadcast media (radio and particularly television). Of course the divide isn't absolute, but it's getting hard to find a strict super-right religious conservative blogger, compared to two years ago. The same is not true of broadcast media.
Why the huge divide?

One of the two camps is less prone to dogmatism and inflammatory rhetoric, because they are:

1) Constantly aware that they'll be held accountable to their statements

2) Able to come to honest conclusions without having to dumb them down/paint them with sparkly colors for a big audience

3) Uninfluenced by monetary considerations (like advertising dollars or big contracts)

As for #3: as fiscal conservatives we're honest enough to be cynical about human nature. If your auto mechanic gets a bonus for using a certain company's components in car repairs, regardless of their quality, do you want to keep going to that mechanic? This is called conflict of interest, and if you're trying to get undistorted honest conservative thought, you're better off looking for it in print.

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