Trump just a symptom. RW Media is the cause of our political misery.
There was the genesis of right wing radio primarily with Rush, then Savage and Levine, and now Alex Jones. More and more vile. And, the total takeover of the radio networks and the AM band.
The Telcom Act of 1996 loosening the ownership rules that made more huge companies and the loss of local oriented radio and tv stations.
And, sitting back watching it all happen was Roger Ailes.
And, with the Backing of Rupert Murdochs money, the creation of the greatest right wing propaganda media outlet that this country has ever seen.
The holy grail.
Fox News.
Using the very cleverly tested and marketed slogan of "fair and balanced".
Using very attractive (primarily blonde) female anchors who were required to wear short skirts or dresses. And, the camera people and directors told to take a lot of low angle wide shots to show off those slim beautiful legs.
Completely blurring the once mandatory journalistic lines of what is straight reporting and what is opinion/editorial comment.
Completely going from information to entertainment and creating the new genre of infotainment that they soon found had a great and very PROFITABLE niche.
But, surely, this wouldn't last.
Surely REAL journalists would speak out against this vehicle of propaganda for what it was.
Surely no REAL journalists would work there.
Surely our politicians (even the sane moderate republicans) would join ALL Democrats and boycott them by never appearing on Fox and never issuing them media credentials because THEY WERE NOT MEDIA.
Well, don't call us Shirley because it all happened.
And, not only that.
Even worse, many other media outlets tried to copy much of what Fox was doing trying to emulate their success to gain better profits.
Because news was no longer what it once was for the broadcast networks.
Remember when news was considered a necessary public service that the networks must provide to be given our air space. Remember when news divisions were separate from entertainment divisions and it was ok if the news divisions lost money.
Fox News changed that forever.
And, nothing can kill them.
Yes, their ratings are a little down niw with all of the sexual harassment stuff forcing out Ailes and O'Reilly and others.
But, it doesn't matter now.
What Fox News does is now accepted and expected (even craved) by a huge portion of the public.
Sure, their audience is getting older.
But, they or another incarnation dreamed up by the Koch, Mercers or others will adapt and follow with new technologies and new ways to shape younger and future generations minds.
Did some of us try to stop it?
Yes, we called it Faux or Fixed news.
Had bumper stickers.
Tried to tell friends and family not to watch.
But, too many did and still do watch.
They are addicted to this type of non thinking authoritative media that feeds them a particular point of view with the truth abandoned and the facts not very important or even important at all.
America let this happen.
The Republicans thought this was what they wanted to offset their perceived mainstream media leftist bias. So, what if Fox was a little loose with the truth. It meant winning.
It meant a set of completely loyal voters.
And, it meant the end of America having a real free and honest press that we so need and sorely miss. It's happened right in front of us. Before our very eyes.
And, we thought it couldn't happen here.
And, we thought nobody like Trump could be elected.
To quote the ending of Planet of the Apes... Damn you, damn you all to hell.
= new reply since forum marked as read
We ARE right the overwhelming majority of the time.
But, our public figures and leaders run into a corner and hide when the endless droves of right wing shills come out with the knives.
HFH is it to defend the high ground?
They let BHO wither in the wind for 8 years, just an endless storm of complete bullshit thrown at him. In that way, they enabled the disconnect that allowed 45 to happen - they hate framed a capable, tough, thoughtful POTUS who did a darn good job, completely unopposed for 8 years.
No pushback as all, which helped to create this bizarre hellscape that 1/3 of the country made his term out to be, with the "middle" 1/3 thinking if they think it is that bad, something must be wrong.
it is not possible for liberals/democrats to ignore talk radio and have a democracy and that should be clear now. after reagan killed the the fairness doctrine they put the same few hundred assholes on every corner and stump in the country to scream all day that liberals are whores thieves and traitors and the left did nothing for 30 years.
and the talk radio monopoly is not something to compete with - it's wall mart vs mom and pop. - that's a rw talking point based on the crap about it being a representation of market demand, that americans favor lies hate and bullshit over truth and common sense and fairness and democracy by a 20 - 1 ratio. and then there's the fact clearchannel /iheart is 20 $BIL in debt - market demand, and balance the budget, my ass....
fox, like the tel com act, is a symptom of talk radio, started 9 years after reagan killed the fairness doctrine in 87 and the cons had 9 years and 1000 radio stations to scream all day about 'liberal' media, money is free speech, deregulation will lower cable costs, etc. and getting a lot of assholes elected because of the same unchallenged repetition about single payer is communism, global warming is nothing, environmentalists are destroying capitalism, tort reform will free the people, etc.
the basic solution is to recognize the problem. talk radio is the only major medium with no free easy challenge from the other side of the spectrum. it needs recognition for being the main producer of the alternate reality millions live in, for making bush, palin, and trump 'acceptable' enough that they could even get close to the white house. it needs to be reduced to its true market demand so the only advertisers it has are hard core trump supporters who will lose customers for their principles.
here are a few things people can do:
to start, dems and media and political scientists need to be encouraged to poll trump support for talk radio so they can't keep ignoring it. too much analysis ignores the fact that this is actually the talk radio president and most of putin’s trolling piggybacked it. i’ll bet it shows the closest association outside of ‘white’
thank all local businesses that advertise on RW radio stations — thank them for trump, trumpcare, global warming, privatization of public education, voter suppression, deregulation, tax breaks for billionaires, etc. it’s easy and fun to listen to a few minutes here and there and get a few email addresses for thank-you notes that can get to the boss/owners.
protest it — include the radio stations in any progressive protests — they may be better places to protest than capitols — republicans will notice and freak out. advertisers will flee.
and to combine a few of those, push the 88 universities that endorse 257 limbaugh stations to stop crapping on their mission statements and start looking for apolitical alternatives to broadcast sports on — maybe their political science faculties and students can start studying the most dominant political factor in the US the last 30 years. people need to wonder why the unis should drop rw radio. it will start a discussion, gop will freak out, media will notice, and advertisers will flee all
monitor it — should be easier now to automate recording and transcribing the main rw talkers so people can search and study the patterns and repetition. if all of a sudden there’s a spike in, say the word ‘iran’ or ‘mueller’ or ‘deep state’, etc, it probably means something. knowing about it before it becomes reality means not always having to play catch up
credit it — trump needs a RUSH tattoo on his forehead, as do all republican pols and media hacks. they all ride the talk radio bandwagon and feed from the daily smorgasbord of talking points and excuses. dems in media could accurately preface answers to republican media hacks and politicians with “that’s what limbaugh says but...”
investigate it — how long has putin been using it? did they find a way to feed limbaugh and coordinate with him and others? are any of them being paid freelance money? exposing the talk radio gods as tools, especially russian tools, would help. Trump guy Sam Nunberg analyzed 1000s of hrs of RW radio & reported to Trump in 2014. to coordinate with Russian ops?
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