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alp227

(31,959 posts)
Wed Jun 3, 2020, 03:38 PM Jun 2020

I listened to right wing talk radio to observe the echo chamber in action.

As a regular everyday listener to public radio (NPR, CBC, and the BBC) I decided to get an idea of what conservative media has been saying about the civil unrest. So in addition to All Things Considered I also listened to The Mark Levin Show over the past two days to get the other side's perspective and understand their tactics.

Links to the shows I listened to: 6/1 (summary, audio); 6/2 (summary, audio)

A summary of the ideas I'd heard in these shows:

- The riots are "insurrections" and "domestic terrorism" and need to be stopped immediately
- Mainstream media is "endorsing" and "excusing" riots (6:10 of 6/2 audio) because they see it as a "learning moment to advance their left wing agenda" (9:05 of 6/2 audio)
- Democrats are not forcefully condemning the violence or are only doing so passively: "Has Biden? No! Barely mentions it, in passing." (4:20 of 6/2 audio)
- The media is more favorable to police brutality protests than Tea Party or opposition to the coronavirus lockdowns (5:30 of 6/2 audio)
- The national media is ignoring what he says will be lasting damage to communities resulting from the riots (21:00); ironically after those comments, Levin read verbatim from an article in the Star Tribune (Minneapolis local paper that is editorially liberal from what I understand) Riots, arson leave Minnesota communities of color devastated
- Most people were "united" in "their repulsion", so the killing of George Floyd is only an isolated incident (4:00 of 6/2 audio)
- At least TWO TIMES in the 6/2 show (6/2 audio, 12:00, 17:30) Levin played audio from an Iowa woman whose sister Italia Marie Kelly was shot to death after a protest where the woman tearfully blamed "protesters" for the killing. Levin demanded to know if Joe Biden would be going to that victim's funeral, in response to news about Biden going to George Floyd's funeral. As usual, Levin also wanted to know why Italia Kelly isn't a national story yet.

My responses:

- The Associated Press had a story about Italia Kelly on June 1: Woman, 22, killed at protest as civil unrest roils Davenport. Its reporting said the shooting was "apparently random." Yet Levin and others in right wing media take Kelly's sister at her word blaming a protester for the shooting. First, it's absolutely despicable that they would rush to politicize Italia Kelly's death like that without waiting for the facts to come out, and Levin had the gall to play that "a protester killed my sister" clip TWICE in the same show where he complained about mainstream media "inflaming" the situation. I will be awaiting to see if arrests are made in Kelly's killing, and I really doubt that Levin will issue a retraction if it comes out that the shooting was not related to protests.

- Despite Levin's calling out of the New York Times and other national outlets for ignoring the riots' impacts on poor communities, back on May 31 the NYT had exactly the story Levin was demanding: ‘Please, I Don’t Have Insurance’: Businesses Plead With Protesters. And in the very next hour when I switched to a local NPR station for All Things Considered, one of the stories from the first part was: Neighbors In Minneapolis Unite To Protect Small Businesses During Unrest.

- In the middle of his "Just asking questions" about "why aren't Democrats condemning the violence? If they do they're only doing so quietly," Levin also skipped over the ENTIRE PARAGRAPH from former Pres. Obama's Medium.com essay about George Floyd:

On the other hand, the small minority of folks who’ve resorted to violence in various forms, whether out of genuine anger or mere opportunism, are putting innocent people at risk, compounding the destruction of neighborhoods that are often already short on services and investment and detracting from the larger cause. I saw an elderly black woman being interviewed today in tears because the only grocery store in her neighborhood had been trashed. If history is any guide, that store may take years to come back. So let’s not excuse violence, or rationalize it, or participate in it. If we want our criminal justice system, and American society at large, to operate on a higher ethical code, then we have to model that code ourselves.


- There are instances of cognitive dissonance. At 32:30 of the 6/2 audio Levin asks: "Why are the people in these communities portrayed as supporting the rioters?" That was just a few minutes after Levin literally read a quote from that Star Tribune story where a business owner said: "Even though it hurt my businesses, I understand." Also at 1:28:15 of the 6/2, Levin complains that Sen. Kamala Harris built her career on "identity politics", yet at 1:31:20 Levin calls out Wolf Blitzer, Jake Tapper, Dana Bash, and Andrea Mitchell for ignoring incidents of anti-Semitic vandalism at Jewish business and places of worship - at the same time pointing out that those reporters are all Jewish.

- At 1:26:09 of the 6/2 audio, Levin complains that major city mayors are not forcefully calling for their cities to be protected and the violence to stop, ignoring that the mayor of Atlanta made an entire speech calling for an end to violence with FOUR calls to "go home". As well as comments by the Twin Cities' mayors calling on protesters to respect the curfew.

Conclusion:

As you'd expect, Levin's show has the usual ask lots of loaded questions, whataboutism, hasty generalizations, and strawman arguments you'd expect from conservative talk radio. Levin's "this is what the media isn't telling you" really does sell - but the outcomes show that you cannot get your news only from shows like his and expect to be well informed.

Was there ever a time when left and right in this country based their views on a common set of facts? I mean, I could listen to conservative talk radio in one hour complaining how mainstream media is ignoring the damage done to local businesses, and then tune to NPR the next hour and hear literally that kind of story they say is missing!
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I listened to right wing talk radio to observe the echo chamber in action. (Original Post) alp227 Jun 2020 OP
Makes me wonder why the protests aren't taking place maxrandb Jun 2020 #1
exactly - - how many protestors is one unchallenged blowhard worth? they keep going long certainot Jun 2020 #17
Great idea! Karadeniz Jun 2020 #19
You all more patience than me listening to that a whiner nasally voice of levin kimbutgar Jun 2020 #2
There are at least two sides/spins in politics. Most news is loaded in one direction or another Hoyt Jun 2020 #3
Nice analysis. Seriously. yonder Jun 2020 #4
Thank you. I feel it's important to understand the "other side's" message alp227 Jun 2020 #8
all they have is unchallenged coordinated repetition certainot Jun 2020 #18
That is a lot of talk I don't give a rats ass about. pwb Jun 2020 #5
Unfortunately, that talk has quite a following. alp227 Jun 2020 #9
You go there if you want but pwb Jun 2020 #11
I don't interpret the OP as pushing right wing sites. femmedem Jun 2020 #14
Agree with you. Karadeniz Jun 2020 #20
"Was there ever a time..." you ask Grins Jun 2020 #6
when people somewhat agreed on facts get the red out Jun 2020 #7
idiot Dennis Prager "the left wants to destroy the country because they hate Trump". Of course, he Demovictory9 Jun 2020 #10
All Things Considered? DownriverDem Jun 2020 #12
That's not what the OP meant. femmedem Jun 2020 #13
Thanks, Alp RussBLib Jun 2020 #15
I can just hear Levin screaming at the top of his voice. louis-t Jun 2020 #16
 

certainot

(9,090 posts)
17. exactly - - how many protestors is one unchallenged blowhard worth? they keep going long
Thu Jun 4, 2020, 07:42 PM
Jun 2020

after the protests end.

anti iraq, OWS protests should have included rw radio stations - and the 87 universities that support 260 limbaugh stations

that is where all this lying and alternate reality starts, the only medium where they can do the necessary unchallenged repetition

limbaugh leads and sets the tone for all 1500 stations

all their advertisers need boycotting and condemnation untill the ad industry has to break up the monopoly

kimbutgar

(20,871 posts)
2. You all more patience than me listening to that a whiner nasally voice of levin
Wed Jun 3, 2020, 03:50 PM
Jun 2020

It gave me a headache listening to him once.

 

Hoyt

(54,770 posts)
3. There are at least two sides/spins in politics. Most news is loaded in one direction or another
Wed Jun 3, 2020, 03:52 PM
Jun 2020

unless it sticks strictly to facts, like "The city deployed 500 patrolmen tonight."

As soon as someone adds "To control riots/dissidents" vs. "To patrol protests/demonstrations," it changes the tenor.

alp227

(31,959 posts)
8. Thank you. I feel it's important to understand the "other side's" message
Wed Jun 3, 2020, 04:31 PM
Jun 2020

Reading the Media Matters website inspired me to be an amateur snooper on RW radio. Granted, there are some center-right outlets that I can actually stomach at times (The Bulwark, National Review, Reason)...and then there are the total Trump sycophants like the average AM radio show.

While it's easy to laugh at the stupid things Limbaugh and Hannity says, Levin is a lawyer and self styled constitutional scholar, and he brings a veneer of credibility to his audience. The left ignores the popularity of the intellectual right at their own peril.

 

certainot

(9,090 posts)
18. all they have is unchallenged coordinated repetition
Thu Jun 4, 2020, 07:45 PM
Jun 2020
fakenewsradio.org describes how easy and cheap it is now to get accurate transcriptions of their crap and list advertisers, if you want to do any more analysis!

alp227

(31,959 posts)
9. Unfortunately, that talk has quite a following.
Wed Jun 3, 2020, 04:35 PM
Jun 2020

Mark Levin has 2.2 million Twitter followers and 1.5 Facebook followers. A big part of his large following is not only his passionate delivery on the radio but his background as a staffer in the Reagan administration and former president of the Landmark Legal Foundation, which championed school vouchers and limiting teachers' unions, along with his books.

pwb

(11,204 posts)
11. You go there if you want but
Thu Jun 4, 2020, 10:27 AM
Jun 2020

you should not push right wing sites here. Rules? I will let it slide this time.

femmedem

(8,187 posts)
14. I don't interpret the OP as pushing right wing sites.
Thu Jun 4, 2020, 12:51 PM
Jun 2020

Quite the contrary: the OP was debunking right wing misinformation and giving the rest of us the tools to do the same.

Grins

(7,128 posts)
6. "Was there ever a time..." you ask
Wed Jun 3, 2020, 04:03 PM
Jun 2020
“ Was there ever a time when left and right in this country based their views on a common set of facts?”

Yes. Prior to August 5, 1987 when, under law, they had to.

That is the date the Reagan administration, with some help from guys named “Scalia” and “Bork”, killed The Fairness Doctrine and hate-radio was born.

And congrats on your listening to misshapen garden gnome, Mark Levin. I can’t bring myself to do that.

get the red out

(13,458 posts)
7. when people somewhat agreed on facts
Wed Jun 3, 2020, 04:04 PM
Jun 2020

Before the 24 hour news cycle, Walter Cronkite was the most trusted voice delivering the news (his contemporaries like David Brinkley, Howard K Smith, were trusted as well). He signed off every night saying "And that's the way it is", and people absolutely believed him.

I am not saying the 24 hour news cycle is all bad, I was in jr high when we got CNN and to me if Bernard Shaw said it, then you believe it! With dubious news sources rapidly crowding the internet, and RW radio being the solution for people who wanted to hear bellowed what they just kept bottled up, racism, homophobia, Sexism, anti-Semitism. They wanted their hate to just be another point of view.

Just my long-winded diatribe.

Demovictory9

(32,320 posts)
10. idiot Dennis Prager "the left wants to destroy the country because they hate Trump". Of course, he
Wed Jun 3, 2020, 04:39 PM
Jun 2020

NEVER mentions Trump's destruction of American's justic system or the firing of everyone who might investigate where he doesn't want investigation or his filling the government with lackies and fools ... etc.

femmedem

(8,187 posts)
13. That's not what the OP meant.
Thu Jun 4, 2020, 12:50 PM
Jun 2020

Last edited Fri Jun 5, 2020, 05:52 AM - Edit history (1)

The OP was saying that in contrast to his usual dose of NPR, presumably including All Things Considered, the OP decided to listen to right wing radio.

My apologies if you meant that as a joke and I'm suffering from humor impairment.

RussBLib

(8,983 posts)
15. Thanks, Alp
Thu Jun 4, 2020, 12:56 PM
Jun 2020

That took a lot of work, and psychic punishment by listening to Levin. All those links must have taken a lot of work too.

Thanks so much for doing this. It helps everyone be a little more informed. Now you should take a rest for a bit to cleanse your mind from the Levin BS.

Kudos.

louis-t

(23,199 posts)
16. I can just hear Levin screaming at the top of his voice.
Thu Jun 4, 2020, 01:14 PM
Jun 2020

He's got one of those gravelly, annoying voices that right wing radio loves. Hannity, Levin, a local guy that died, Mark Scott.

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