Talk Radio

Mr. McEnroe's post to the class blog concerning conservative radio talk show hosts references an article which makes some fairly obvious observations. I was not, for instance, blown away by the revelation that conservative talk show hosts employ the "us vs. them" approach in order to gain and hold their audiences.

One would not have to be an especially intelligent or sensible person to realize that Rush Limbaugh, the most popular conservative radio talk show host, does not rely too heavily on facts or journalistic "fairness" in his presentation of the news. This story from the Rush Limbaugh web site is a good example of the mentality behind his radio show:

RUSH: I mentioned mere moments ago, ladies and gentlemen, that President-Select Obama met with Senator McCain and said that they were going to work together. That scares me. It just scares me. We now have, ladies and gentlemen, the actual audio of Senator Obama this afternoon making this... It's not really an announcement. It's sort of a casual comment.

OBAMA: We're going to have a good conversation about how, um, we can do some work together to (bleep) up the country.

RUSH: So they're going to... "We're going to have a good conversation about how to do some work together to (bleep) up the country." Here it is again, ladies and gentlemen, exclusively here on the EIB Network.

OBAMA: We're going to have a good conversation about how, um, we can do some work together to (bleep) up the country.

Mr. Limbaugh can't actually believe that Barack Obama told reporters that he intended to discuss f-ing up the country. It must be a joke. I work with twelve year old kids who are beyond that level of humor.

What Rush is doing with such a joke is akin to what the Daily Show does. A joke is made at the expense of a politician for the benefit of the audience most of whom will find it funny because they see some truth in it. Liberal leaning media sources also seek material which buttresses their views and the views of their audience. What is the difference?

Mr Shelley's article assumes that the conservative viewpoint is only palatable when presented in a dishonest manner. Surely, intelligent people would not agree with conservative viewpoints if they were only presented in a somber and reasonable fashion. Am I now to believe that conservative radio talk show hosts are capable of "fooling" vast numbers of "intelligent" people as Mr. Shelley suggests?

The stereotyped liberal view of the talk radio audience is that it’s a lot of angry, uneducated white men. In fact, the audience is far more diverse. Many are businesspeople, doctors, lawyers, academics, clergy, or soccer moms and dads. Talk show fans are not stupid. They will detect an obvious phony. The best hosts sincerely believe everything they say. Their passion is real. Their arguments have been carefully crafted in a manner they know will be meaningful to the audience, and that validates the views these folks were already thinking.

So, if the listeners are "not stupid" and have views already in agreement with the talk show host, then what, exactly, is the point of the article? If the point is that conservative radio talk show hosts, people who are, "after all...in the entertainment business," should be held accountable for misrepresenting the truth in their broadcasts, then the same standard would have to be applied to any "entertainment" which relies on the political agreement of a particular audience.