On Wednesday night, the Democrat-dominated Rules Committee killed the proposed Walden-Pence Broadcaster Freedom Amendment. The amendment would have prohibited FCC funding from being used to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, which reigned on broadcast airwaves for nearly four decades.

Some attribute the elimination of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987 to the popularity and success of conservative talk radio today. Democrats’ resentment is obvious when you consider that their own attempts to pump up liberal talk radio have all fallen flat. Liberal drivel simply lacks the mass appeal of conservative talk radio as shown by the top list below.

Top Five Radio Talk Shows

According to TALKERS Magazine, the following is compiled from Arbitron data, estimating the minimum weekly audiences for the highest-rated talk radio shows through March 2009.

• Rush Limbaugh, 14.75 million
• Sean Hannity, 13.75 million
• Glenn Beck, 8.25 million
• Michael Savage, 8.25 million
• Dr. Laura Schlessinger, 8.25 million

Other notable talkers

• Dave Ramsey, 4.75 million
• Clark Howard, 3.50 million
• Kim Komando, 2.50 million
• Ed Schultz, 2.50 million
• Don Imus, 2.00 million
• Dennis Miller, 2.00 million
• Howard Stern, 1.20 million

Of these top talkers, only Ed Schultz has an exclusively liberal politics talk show format, and the lackluster ratings are a reflection of that.

Links

• Pence “Profoundly Disappointed” as Democrats Reject Vote Banning Fairness Doctrine
• TALKERS Magazine’s Top Talk Radio Audiences (Updated March 2009)