Talk radio update

We played bridge with some friends on Friday night, and they had a copy of the new Vanity Fair, which has an article about Rush Limbaugh. Amazing statistic: The average age of conservative talk radio listeners is 67, and rising. So amazing, in fact, that I find it hard to believe.

But if it's true, then Limbaugh may be in even more trouble than the "liberal media" he excoriates.

By the way, if you are among those who argue that MSM are in decline because they are too liberal, it might be instructive to recall what editorials from the early giants of the newspaper business had to say:

E.W. Scripps: "I have only one principle and that is represented by an effort to make it harder for the rich to grow richer and easier for the poor to keep from growing poorer."

Joseph Pulitzer: "Tax luxuries, inheritances, monopolies ... the privileged corporation."

William Randolph Hearst: "Shall organized capital control the people, or shall the people control capital and limit its power? ... The trusts ... are teaching us that it is feasible and necessary for the nation eventually to take possession of and manage its own properties, industrial as well as others."

These newspaper owners not only survived with such opinions, they thrived -- they all made millions and millions of dollars. Ben Bagdikian, whose "The Media Monopoly" was the source of these quotes, argues that these chains' devotion to the common man fueled their success. The bland, no-offense corporate dailies are the real reason newspapers started to fall flat, he says.