Why Did Air America Fail?

Former Air America CEO Danny Goldberg talks about why Air America did not survive and the difference between progressive talk and its funders and right-wing talk and its funders.

I think the New York Times got it exactly wrong on Monday in declaring that “the enduring legacy of Air America’s failure is that political media from either side of the aisle is more successful when run as a business instead of a crusade.”

That very attitude is what has hobbled the growth of liberal talk radio, but conservatives have never thought about media that way and they still don’t. The week before Air America shut its doors the Rev. James Dobson announced he was starting a new radio show with his son Ryan, a 39-year-old tattooed surfer who shares his father’s ultra-conservative views. On Dobson’s Facebook page he asked his supporters to fund the new show. “Your participation will be greatly appreciated, especially during this time when startup costs will be very expensive. The budget for the first year, including the costs of radio airtime, will be about two million dollars.”

Conservatives believe in doing whatever it takes to promote their ideas. Richard Viguerie, viewed as one of the architects of the modern conservative movement, wrote a book in 2004 called America’s Right Turn: How Conservatives Used New and Alternative Media To Take Power, in which he explains how the right wing used talk radio among other tools. Viguerie stresses that conservatives understand that ideological change does not usually occur overnight; that it takes patience and long-term thinking to build a movement.

via Air America Radio, RIP — It Didn’t Have to Be This Way | | AlterNet.

Tags: media, USA