General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNYT "Talk Radio Is Turning Millions of Americans Into Conservatives
The medium is at the heart of Trumpism
https://nyti.ms/2SFJqYc
At least 15 million Americans every week tune into one of the top 15 talk radio programs. They are not monolithically conservative, but they are overwhelmingly so. A dozen of the top 15 shows feature conservative or libertarian hosts with devoted followings like Rush Limbaughs Dittoheads or Michael Savages Savage Nation and only one leans left.
Talk radio may face an aging audience, a decline in ad revenue and competition from new mass media forms like podcasts, but there are still millions of Americans whose politics are shaped by what they listen to on talk radio all day, every day. Fox News gets more of the attention for shaping conservative opinion and for its influence on the Trump administration, but we shouldnt overlook the power of conservative talk radio.
The conservatism of talk radio only partly overlaps with institutional conservatism, that of right-wing Washington think tanks, magazines and the Republican Party itself. By the early 2000s, it had embraced a version of conservatism that is less focused on free markets and small government and more focused on ethnonationalism and populism. It is, in short, the core of Trumpism now and in the future, with or without a President Trump.
Talk radios power is rooted in the sheer volume of content being produced each week. The typical major talk radio show is produced every weekday and runs three hours, so just the top 15 shows are putting out around 45 hours of content every day. Even setting aside hundreds of additional local shows, the dedicated fan can listen to nothing but conservative talk radio all day, every day of the week, and never catch up.
snip
(this is an "of course it has...where have you been" op ed to me. it's called propaganda and brainwashing)
bullimiami
(13,096 posts)elleng
(130,964 posts)a: tending or disposed to maintain existing views, conditions, or institutions : TRADITIONAL
conservative policies
b: marked by moderation or caution
a conservative estimate
c: marked by or relating to traditional norms of taste, elegance, style, or manners
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conservative
NRaleighLiberal
(60,015 posts)Crunchy Frog
(26,587 posts)to describe today's Republicans. They use similar terms to describe us. In their usage to describe us, it's completely inaccurate. It would be totally accurate used to describe them.
Just another case where we're taking "the high ground" and ceding the narrative to them.
brush
(53,785 posts)Thugs are trying to kidnap governors, refusing to wear lifesaving masks, suppressing votes and blindly following a mad man stupid enough to get covid because he took his own advise not to wear a mask in a virus infected nation.
JHB
(37,160 posts)...so don't let them disengage now that the hellbeast they fed has gotten loose.
Let the foamers define "conservatism", and categorize the "real" conservatives for what they truly are: useful idiots who helped destructive forces take power.
DBoon
(22,366 posts)would be a better title
NRaleighLiberal
(60,015 posts)it happens in all fascist/dictatorial countries.
enough to make me
gay texan
(2,453 posts)So, i have an classic vehicle. I've restored its original Delco AM radio. Working on the night shift, i drive home about 4 in the morning. On the ride home I've been listening to AM radio. It's absolutely staggering how many stations pump out the same bullshit across the dial.
misanthrope
(7,417 posts)that got a big boost in the 1990s and has continued since.
gay texan
(2,453 posts)It's why classic rock radio died.
IcyPeas
(21,885 posts)a lot of them aren't conservative, they are downright wackos and racists and conspiracy theory believers.
Crunchy Frog
(26,587 posts)BusyBeingBest
(8,054 posts)They want to hear someone jabber their own RW beliefs back at them and thus validate them. This is their medium, they can have it.
NRaleighLiberal
(60,015 posts)Crunchy Frog
(26,587 posts)They wouldn't have put so much resources into this kind of propaganda if it wasn't effective. But it's much easier to just brush it off and dismiss it than it is to take it seriously.
If you've never watched "The Brainwashing of my Dad" you really should.
judesedit
(4,439 posts)Our military was given access to Air America for a very short while if I recall correctly. They've been being brainwashed for decades.
dustyscamp
(2,224 posts)Loki Liesmith
(4,602 posts)This is not new and talk radio is past its glory days. Everyone it was going to convert has already been converted.
Dream Girl
(5,111 posts)Who listens to staticy AM radio?
Alacritous Crier
(3,816 posts)IADEMO2004
(5,555 posts)Hate radio everywhere add some Jesus radio Pop Country and NPR..... slim pickings in the Midwest.
JHB
(37,160 posts)...and that's because "Trumpism" isn't a real thing, it's merely a continuation of four decades to Republican grievance politics that "institutional" conservatives and "both sides"-media people (i.e., people who should have seen this coming a long time ago) have slapped a term onto to wash their hands of their own blindness and culpability.
The Republicans have been on this precise trajectory since Rush rallied Republicans to full-on resistance to Bill Clinton after Poppy Bush lost to him. (And moving sharply in this general direction for even longer.) Lost, in part, because foamers like Rush crucified him for being a weak approximation of an actual fiscal conservative for going back on his "read my lips" pledge.
Think Republicans being afraid of Donald's tweets is anything new? It's just a continuation of how any Republican who disputed Rush or even just downplayed his importance was on his show within 48 hours trying out for the Olympic back-pedaling team. "Oh, no, Rush, I never said anything like that. The lying liberal media took my words out of context, just like you always say. You're a swell guy!"
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)We need a wealthy Dem to buy them up & start broadcasting truth!
Upthevibe
(8,052 posts)...Of course it's propaganda and brainwashing, and it's been going on since at least 1988 when Rush's show started.
....And this happened because of the elimination of The fairness doctrine in 1987.
"The Fairness Doctrine introduced in 1949, was a policy that required the holders of broadcast licenses to both present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that wasin the FCC's viewhonest, equitable, and balanced. The FCC eliminated the policy in 1987.
I won't get into my rant regarding my belief that the elimination of this policy has been a major contributing factor that got us to where we are now.
Crunchy Frog
(26,587 posts)RANDYWILDMAN
(2,672 posts)So the drones who follow it know what it really is.
All about going back to when everything was white and great and etc and etc and stupid and women and brown people couldn't vote or live in their neighborhood.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)Crunchy Frog
(26,587 posts)It's so entrenched now that I don't know if it can even be addressed.
Maybe if we go through a Rwanda type situation people will finally recognize its toxicity.