Online poll unmasks WJR’s bias

Either Detroit radio station WJR-AM 760 is not aware there was also a Democratic primary in Michigan or it’s finally admitting it only caters to the right side of the political spectrum. A recent poll asking people who they plan to vote for during Michigan’s Jan. 15 presidential primary only listed Republican candidates among the choices.

The poll confirmed what many former listeners of the powerful radio station have been saying for years since the station lost the broadcast rights for Detroit’s professional sports teams. To illustrate how conservative the listeners of the 50,000-watt radio station have become with a steady diet of conservative radio hosts, the poll put former conservative Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in second place with 25 percent over Arizona Sen. John McCain with just 10 percent. The real election results were much different, with McCain finishing second behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with 30 percent of the vote and with Huckabee in third with just 16 percent.

The self-proclaimed “Great Voice of the Great Lakes” has become the “Great Conservative Voice of the Great Lakes” with an almost exclusive line-up of conservative hosts that includes Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin and Dr. Laura Schlessinger. Even the few local hosts are conservative, and in a poll the Michigan Messenger conducted last October, WJR morning host Frank Beckmann was voted the second-most-biased commentator or reporter in Michigan. This was an honor Beckmann did not appreciate, and he claimed in numerous emails he was fair and balanced, despite plenty of documentation to the contrary.