Webb: Growing up in the '50s and '60s, I enjoyed reading James J. Kilpatrick, the grand old man of conservative columnists, in the Deseret News. There weren't many conservative voices in those days. "Liberal" was almost always an appropriate adjective for "media."
Today, things are rather different — and much improved. It's been fun to watch the rise of the conservative media, one of the most interesting political trends of the past decade or so. Conservatives rule the talk radio airwaves. Conservatives are dominant in New Media (Internet) commentary, particularly in the "blogger" (Weblog) community that is a rapidly growing communications channel. In television, the ever feisty and decidedly patriotic Fox News Channel has carved out for itself a successful niche.
The new and determined conservative voices aren't simply covering the news from a conservative perspective. They're also aggressively criticizing liberals, including the liberal media, particularly the big newspapers and the three major networks. Johnny Apple of the New York Times, for example, has been pounded on a number of fronts for his Iraq war coverage. Some prominent bloggers (people who write commentary on a certain type of Web site) doggedly monitor the New York Times and gleefully report any errors, perceived biases and conflicts of interest.
Some media experts believe the blogger phenomenon is actually improving the quality of journalism because prominent journalists know an army of watchdogs, some with very large followings, are waiting to pounce on any mistake or unfair reporting.
The war in Iraq has been a terrific event for the conservative media, providing a showcase for patriotic, pro- Bush, pro-war reporting, and an opportunity to bash the liberal media voices that have been less enthusiastic about the war. Even Letterman and Leno are poking fun at the contrast in coverage between Fox News Channel and the liberal National Public Radio.
Clearly, the axis of stuffy old liberalism — the New York Times, Washington Post and L.A. Times — along with the three major networks, still have the most communications firepower. Their collective audience dwarfs the followers of the upstart conservatives.
Still, the conservative media are on the upswing. Used to be the only place you could find a consistent, literate and persuasive conservative voice, outside of individual columnists, was the Wall Street Journal editorial page. Today, old-timers like William Safire and Bill Buckley are joined by conservative stars like Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh, who rule the radio airwaves.
And these guys project optimism, seem to have a lot of fun, and exhibit faith in the goodness and capability of the American people. They are as much entertainers as political commentators, but people connect with them.
In Utah, the state's most listened to news/talk station is KSL Radio, which features conservative hosts Hannity and O'Reilly. Local host Doug Wright is a political moderate but tends to lean conservative.
The Deseret Morning News has a generally conservative editorial voice, while the Salt Lake Tribune is decidedly liberal. The Tribune has a few conservative national columnists, but a glaring deficiency is the lack of even one conservative among its many local opinion writers.
So why does the Tribune have double the circulation of the Deseret Morning News in conservative Utah? Go figure. Perhaps, with the Deseret News' switch to morning publication, that's about to change.
Wilson: I must link hands with LaVarr and sing the song of joy concerning a conservative revival in the press. That's because the liberal press ran the world for so long. After all, America's journey through the past century was mainly a liberal crusade. We regulated the money-grubbing businesses of the Industrial Revolution, made sure our food and drugs were clean, and ushered millions of minorities and women into the mainstream of American life. That's to say little of our efforts to impose a progressive income tax that spread our wealth not only to allow us to gain a better paycheck but also to guarantee markets for the capitalists.
All of these magnificent achievements of America's progressive century were aided by a press that reflected the goodness of our country. But benevolence only goes so far. Kindness can cause problems.
Congress got into trouble running deficits, ironically and greatly aided by the big spending Ronald Reagan (cut taxes and build the military). We pushed minority integration so far we angered white guys who got tired of standing in line behind blacks, reds and browns. The government got out of hand and restricted drugs too far. We put gay and lesbian civil rights on the table. And we elected the Reagans and Bushes to cut taxes so wealthy people could buy a new BMW or two and live in a house behind a gate and a fence.
Arthur Schlesinger Jr., in his book "Cycles of American History," called this shift a "transition from a public regarding culture to a private regarding culture."
America, Schlesinger says, goes from efforts to build public life to efforts to build private life, back and forth, and does so in measurable cycles.
Presently we are shifting to a private regarding culture. And the conservative press has become its conch shell, a sound blowing wistfully into the wind.
You see, the conservative press, mostly the shrill ilk of Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh, loves making fun of people. And making fun of people is a truly American sport. It is particularly pleasing when we are led to believe that government is our problem, the liberal press is a villain and big-spending politicians are to blame. Wars and Iraq come and go. But these enemies can be relied upon to always be there.
It is so satisfying to have someone, anyone and anything, to pick on when we need the psychological relief from 9/11, a Republican economy and the fear of war.
Let's hear it for the conservative press. They will blow their shell loud and hard until we catch on again and then once more head toward the goodness America is famous for. There must be opposition in all things.
Democrat Ted Wilson, former Salt Lake mayor, directs the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah. E-mail: tednews@hotmail.com.
Republican LaVarr Webb was policy deputy to Gov. Mike Leavitt and Deseret News managing editor. He now is a political consultant and lobbyist. E-mail: lavarrwebb@msn.com