Paul Harvey, the first member of the conservative media elite

There has been a running thread on this blog — and throughout American culture the last couple of decades — about ‘liberal media elites.’

The narrative goes something like this:

A semi-coordinated network exists of Hollywood types, news executives, celebrities, writers and musicians.

This network pushes a broad progressive agenda that is at odds with the silent majority of Americans, who tend to be more traditionalist, more conservative.

This outline of the culture war doesn’t make any sense any more. The most powerful — and best coordinated — part of our media culture is conservative.

At a time when Air America is going under and big newspapers like the New York Times are imploding, Fox News and Rush have emerged as the elite megaphones of our age.

But I’m skeptical that our media culture ever worked in the way that conservatives claim.

From Ronald Reagan to John Wayne to writers like H.L. Mencken, we’ve always had powerful right-of-center voices in our media.

Our media have also been controlled by fiercely conservative corporate interests, from GE to Newscorp.

Another sign of the conservative media elite’s long history emerged this week with the New York Times’ expose of Paul Harvey’s longstanding government ties.

The article details how Harvey coordinated his conservative views — and his massive broadcasting power — with the interests of J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI.

Harvey also offered his services to Republican Senator Joe McCarthy. The entire effort was kept secret, from the public and Harvey’s audiences, according to the Times.

A senior FBI official added a handwritten notation to ensure that Harvey’s letter would not be distributed outside the bureau’s top brass: “No dissemination since identity of Harvey cannot be revealed.”

Harvey is hardly alone in mingling his media power with conservative politics. Diane Sawyer, ABC’s news anchor, was a close confidante of Richard Nixon and helped write his memoirs.

(Actually, the list of media potentates with ties to the Nixon administration is remarkable, also including William Safire and Patrick Buchanan.)

By any measure, these figures have wielded colossal media power, earning fortunes and often putting their voices in service of the big government that many conservatives distrust.

And that, as they say, is the rest of the story.