Talk-Radio Parenting Advice Is A Crime

You can count on most any talk radio discussion of behavior rights and wrongs, especially child-rearing, to include the host's intense background work on the subject...

"I was (fill in Sean Hannity anecdotal experience) and I turned out pretty good," or "if I were that eleven-year-old I would have (fill in Bill O'Reilly machismo here)."

Inherent in both statements are questions surrounding definition and validity.

Is Sean's "pretty good," any good at all?

Would Bill ever do anything he says he would do in someone else's situation; especially a terrified eleven year old kid?

This week, amongst the "I know what's best for you" subjects covered were a four-year-long hostage-ordeal for a young boy and a "spanking is a crime" bill being considered in California.

The crime is in how talk radio teaches the listeners how to form our judgments. The crime is that gets passed down to our kids.

The rights and wrongs of the stories and issues are, at best, debatable. In the case of O'Reilly's bald-faced lie that he never judged the young kidnaped victim, it's despicable.

What is not debatable, but still despicable, is the constant effort by the Right Wing Broadcast Lords of Loud to dumb down their willing audience and plow them with judgments that one hopes don't get passed down to the children.

Of course there's no kidnapping here. After all, the Folks™ do continue to tune in.

But why do they tune in? Elementary (as in school).

The Lords of Loud make us feel right. And who doesn't want to be validated?

It's go to the gut. It goes to where instinct and narcissism live. Where we neither think nor self-examine, let alone research the subjects themselves.

Problem is, the gut isn't necessarily fed by facts or morality.

If there is any substantiating to be had in talk-radio, it's cherry-picked and opposing information is chucked or demeaned.

The Lords of Loud have taught us that louder is righter. Very righter. So righter that any differing opinion is not only wrong, but most likely anti-American. What a lesson for the kiddies. Fairness Doctrine be damned, revenue-producing ratings sing volumes as to what is fair. And right.

Putting themselves in others' shoes and telling us how we should act has been the mainstay of talk-radio. And it doesn't matter in actuality whether they are right. They just have to say they are.

Afterall, have you ever heard anyone say, "I was (fill in whatever behavior they're supporting), and I turned out horribly?"

Steve Young is the author of "Great Failures of the Extremely Successful" and his column appears in the LA Daily News Sunday Opinion page...to the left of O'Reilly's...really.