We have another election disaster, even if Biden wins. Even if he wins McConnell will probably be back running the senate obstruction for the next two years. Democrats LOST seats in congress.
James Carville’s famous “It’s the economy, stupid” directive to Bill Clinton campaign workers helped win in 1992 but 2 years later Democrats lost the House for the first time in decades and the Republican congress thanked Rush Limbaugh by giving him an honorary seat. It’s been the radio, stupid, for 30 years.
Carville recently updated his advice to “It’s the COVID, stupid” but no, it’s still the radio, stupid.
Just heard Claire McCaskill wonder out loud how we got here. According to her and others who never got the “It’s the radio, stupid” memo, Democrats have to work harder to connect with the dittoheads who think, for instance, Democrats are now communists working hand in hand with the FBI and CIA deep state to destroy Trump. Then Robert Gibbs says Democrats have to look in the mirror. So they live in cities and maybe watch Fox to check on RW media and have no fucking clue. Mc Caskill lost her seat because she thought the immigrant caravans were a legitimate issue instead of something from the ass of a few hundred professional liars coordinated for years to attack immigrants and distort the immigration issue to force voter suppression legislation.
Media is now concerned that Democrats have to learn how to communicate and appeal to Trump voters. You know why Trump ‘appeals’ to a large chunk of the American electorate? It’s the radio, stupid. You know how to respond to Republican lies? Preface every response with “Well, that’s what Limbaugh says but….”
Andrea Mitchell asks David Plough what are Democrats doing wrong if a scumbag (paraphrasing) like Trump can get nearly 50% of the US vote. It’s the radio, stupid.
Like just about every Republican politician the last 30 years Trump piggybacked 1500 unchallenged radio stations. Radio stations that are licensed to operate in the public interest but spent most of the year calling COVID a ‘Democrat’ hoax, like the global warming ‘hoax‘ they’ve been yelling about for 30 years.
Wake up Americans, especially you who live in cities with lots of options on the radio dial, and you who think you can ignore talk radio because you believe it’s just another part of the free speech spectrum and if it makes your head hurt you just turn it off or put on another CD.
Like GW Bush, Trump is another candidate who would never have gotten anywhere near the White House, much less get close in a national election, if Democrats didn’t completely ignore 1500 coordinated radio stations yelling over and distorting any national conversation on any major issue Republicans want to dominate.
Can anyone find a single poll relating Trump support to talk radio? Even after Trump spent two hours on the Rush Limbaugh show recently? It’s the radio stupid, because it dominates the primary, secondary, and tertiary buzz in at least 40 states with 80 senators.
And now the same city-dwelling music-listening TV-watching book-reading analysts who have completely ignored the only unique political advantage Republicans have are wondering what happened and are going to tell Democrats they have to do more to appeal to the bullshit coming out of the asses of a few hundred professional liars on 1500 radio stations reaching 50 million people a week. Media will now ask every Democratic politician how they are going to appeal to that vast chunk of the population that has been soaked in 30 years of unchallenged exaggeration, distortion, hate, and lies.
What’s that radio advantage worth with simple math? If the Republican Party, or Putin, would pay $1000 for a one hour talk radio infomercial, 1200 radio stations x 15 hours per day has been worth $90MIL/week or almost $5BIL/year to Republicans. For 30 years. It’s not the money in politics, stupid.
It’s all FREE. It’s paid for by radio advertisers and endorsed by universities (including these 87 institutions of higher education) and professional sports teams that broadcast sports on them.
Now all those radio stations that have been blaming local and state Democrats for bankrupting businesses for COVID and using it to wreck the economy, are pivoting to do what they did for Florida in 2000.
This morning (Wed) at 12 EST Limbaugh is yelling with royal I’m-never-wrong royal certitude that Trump already won and Kamala “Kommie” Harris (the “Ho” of “Joe and the Ho” — it rhymes!) is wrong to say every ballot has to be counted, insinuating Democrats are cheating by counting ballots instead of votes…
Suicidal dying Limbaugh sets the tone for all other Republican messaging because all Republicans know he’s coordinating with the Trump White House.
Those radio stations and their owners need to be held responsible for the violence their lies may direct at election officials, politicians, and media.
All those companies and schools and sports teams need to be asked if they support Trump, racism, COVID inaction, and global warming denial.
It is the radio, stupid. An incredible amount of progressive activism is undone every day by a few hundred idiots and liars on 1500 radio stations.
A few media mentions of Republicans using radio in the Florida Latino community to label Biden a socialist and communist are the only references I’ve heard to radio. Guess what. 20 Limbaugh radio stations in Florida depend on 5 Florida universities to attract advertisers to pay for those radio stations to call Biden a communist and criminal.
Roger Stone once boasted in an interview how he used talk radio to stop the 2000 vote recounts. Sam Nunberg says he listened to “1000s of hours of talk radio” for Trump in 2014 yet in all the media interviews no one ever asked him details that might associate that to coordination with Russian interference.
All those same radio stations are now going to scream bloody murder about ‘late’ vote counts favoring Biden, and the counting has to stop, etc., like they did in 2000.
There is a solution
From fakenewsradio.org 94 radio stations in 6 critical states, featuring Limbaugh, often including the loudest in any state, depend on 24 universities to keep crapping on their mission statements and broadcasting sports on them to help them use those associations to attract advertisers.
In Pennsylvania 14 Limbaugh stations, often the loudest in the state depend on 3 Pennsylvania universities — Penn St. 11, Pittsburgh 2, Temple 1. Likely all encouraging protests to stop vote counting.
In Florida, 20 Limbaugh stations — Florida 10, Florida St. 4 Miami 2, South Florida 2, Central Florida 2. 20 stations x $75,000/week = $1.5M/week free pro Trump bullshit.
In Michigan, 19 — Michigan St. 11, Michigan 7, Western Michigan 1
In North Carolina, 16 — North Carolina 8, North Carolina State 3, Duke 3, East Carolina 2
In Ohio, 10 — Ohio St. 6, Toledo 1, Dayton 1, Bowling Green 1, Xavier 1
In Georgia 14 — Georgia 7, Georgia Tech 5, Georgia Southern 2
And in Arizona — Arizona St. 1
How do Democratic strategists continue to ignore that simple math?
All those schools are good places to protest because as long as they can be used to attract advertising they are helping Trump. It is irrelevant how a particular school reacts to activism that gets media attention to this issue because it will attract activism to the other schools, including at least 64 other universities that do the same. That will scare advertisers.
The advertising industry will worry about a trend and if they finally have to start asking advertisers if they actually support trump, racism, global warming in order to protect them from boycotts and bad PR the RW radio monopoly will have to be broken up. The ad industry wants those 50 million pairs of ears and they don’t want to have to ask those questions.
Here’s Paul Matzko, the author of “The Radio Right: How a Band of Broadcasters Took on the Federal Government and Built the Modern Conservative Movement.” In a NYT Oct. 9, 2020 op ed Talk Radio Is Turning Millions of Americans Into Conservatives. The medium is at the heart of Trumpism he writes:
Yet talk radio still somehow manages to fly below the national media radar. In large part, that is because media consumption patterns are segregated by class. If you visit a carpentry shop or factory floor, or hitch a ride with a long-haul truck driver, odds are that talk radio is a fixture of the aural landscape. But many white-collar workers, journalists included, struggle to understand the reach of talk radio because they don’t listen to it, and don’t know anyone who does.
Moreover, anyone who wants to make an effort to understand talk radio runs into a barrier immediately: Because of the ocean of content, one must listen to it at great length, a daunting task for anyone not already sympathetic with a host’s conservative views. The time commitment suggests the depth of listener loyalty.
Along with artificial intelligence making it easy, cheap, and accurate for any activist to transcribe their local blowhards and list advertisers with little listening required the ad industry will have to act and put Limbaugh and sons out to pasture.
Not to mention that Limbaugh, who told millions for years that smoking doesn’t cause lung cancer, is dying from terminal stage 4 lung cancer. The talk radio monopoly that made Trump possible and keeps Republicans in these elections and is now calling for disrupting the vote counts was made for him and he can’t be replaced with one person. They’re going to lose a lot of ad revenue when he croaks.
All the advertisers, universities, and pro sports teams broadcasting on 1500 Republican talk radio stations share responsibility for the Trump COVID disasters, and they need to hear about it.
Stacy Abrams, do you know that 3 Georgia universities support 14 Limbaugh stations that have spent at least 20 years using the immigration issue to create the pretext for voter ID/suppression?
Reverend Barber, do you know that 4 major universities in your state have helped pass voter suppression legislation and use black athletes to help Republicans excuse racism?
Michael Moore, do you know that 2 universities in Michigan support 18 Limbaugh stations while they oppose public education, gun reform, and excuse lead poisoning?
If progressives are going to complain about Democrats compromising they only have themselves to blame.
Thursday, Nov 5, 2020 · 5:46:30 PM +00:00
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certainot
FYI
I just turned on Limbaugh Thurs morning for a few seconds and he mentioned ‘reporter’ James O’Keefe and something about stolen ballots, a USPS scandal, etc.
If you want to know what Trump is going to do and what the White House strategies are check in with Limbaugh once in a while.
