The most consistently left-wing news program on network television is probably "Frontline" on PBS.
The most consistently right-wing personality on national radio, meanwhile, is probably Rush Limbaugh, with his EIB (Excellence in Broadcasting) network of more than 200 stations.
Left meets right at 9 tonight on MPT (channels 22 and 67), as "Frontline" presents "Rush Limbaugh's America." And, while "Frontline" manages a fairly balanced report, it is a remarkably shallow one.
The fundamental problem is that producer Stephen Talbot was unable to decide whether he wanted to profile Limbaugh or analyze his audience. In the end, Talbot's report comes up short on both counts, as well as several others, which it should have addressed but didn't.
Limbaugh declined to be interviewed for the pro- gram, reported by media critic Peter Boyer. As dittohead listeners to Limbaugh's radio program know, he is leery of the mainstream media ("the LTC power elite," he calls them), who control most of what you see and hear on television, according to Limbaugh.
With a daily audience of more than 18 million viewers and listeners to his syndicated radio and television shows, Limbaugh doesn't need the exposure. And, he tells his listeners, he doesn't need to be quoted out of context or suffer an editing job that makes him look or sound foolish. He's seen how the sausage of television newsmagazines is made and it turns his stomach, thank you very much, Mr. Frontline Producer.
The sausage-making in this report mainly involves rounding up the usual sound-biters and letting each have a nibble or two for or against Limbaugh.
The pro-Limbaugh folks include Mary Matalin, the former Bush aide turned cable talk-show host; William Kristol, the GOP strategist; and Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman of Texas, who defeated Democrat Jack Brooks in November. The anti-Limbaugh group includes Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist; Democratic U.S. Rep. John Bryant of Texas, who claims Limbaugh was responsible for killing his lobbying reform bill; and Jeff Cohen of FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a media watchdog group with a decidedly left-wing bias, despite the acronym).
But so much attention is paid to the superficial balancing act of quotes for and against Limbaugh that "Frontline" fails to get beneath the surface and explain why Limbaugh's right-wing politics and beliefs have taken hold.
There are important questions to be asked in connection with this phenomenon called Limbaugh. For example, while other conservative or liberal commentators have been popular, why have they never been able to translate that popularity into getting out the votes for specific candidates and issues as Limbaugh did in November? Or, why have neither left-wing nor more moderate elected officials been able to counter or blunt Limbaugh's power? What are the needs and niches Limbaugh fills? And what is likely to happen to the broadcaster and his power in the next year or next five years?
"Frontline" not only has no answers, it never even bothers to pose most of the right questions. Instead, what we have are old clips of Limbaugh on television or the radio, interviews with Limbaugh's brother and mother, and a few brief interviews with people who knew Limbaugh back when he was a local radio personality on the ropes.
Boyer and Talbot attempt to paper over the vacuous center of their report with unsupported psycho-history: "He had taken the Limbaugh legacy far from Cape Girardeau [Mo., Limbaugh's hometown], but he still seemed that uneasy boy who could solve his separateness only by reaching for a microphone."
In the end, "Rush Limbaugh's America" tells us very little about Limbaugh or the Americans who listen to him. It's almost all superficial balancing, with little or no analytic substance -- just the kind of nonfiction television that PBS accuses the commercial networks of doing in its ads asking, "If PBS doesn't do it, who will?"