The 20 universities listed below are excellent places to protest for women’s rights and many other issues.
Those universities broadcast sports on 51 Trump/Republican talk radio stations that feature Rush Limbaugh. With few or no exceptions the local/state/national talk show hosts on those stations are anti choice, support Trump, deny global warming, and call for public schools to be privatized.
The number after the state is the number of Limbaugh radio stations in those states endorsed by the listed universities. The $ figure after the state is the value of Republican propaganda those universities endorse in their states if a 1 hour infomercial or advertisement on a radio station cost $1000 x 15 hrs/day x 5 days = $75,000/WEEK. FREE!
ALABAMA 8 $600,000 Auburn 3, Alabama 2, Southern Alabama 2, Troy 1
ARKANSAS 3 $225,000 Arkansas 3
GEORGIA 14 $1,050,000 Georgia 7, Georgia Tech 5, Georgia Southern 2
KENTUCKY 3 $225,000 Louisville 2, Kentucky 1
MISSISSIPPI 6 $450,000 Mississippi St. 3, Mississippi 2, Southern Miss 1
MISSOURI 6 $450,000 Missouri 6
OHIO 10 $750,000 Ohio St. 6, Toledo 1, Dayton 1, Bowling Green 1, Xavier 1
UTAH 1 $75,000 Utah St. 1
8 states, 51 stations = $3,375,000/WEEK to help sell anti-abortion, anti-choice misogyny, patriarchy, and authoritarianism.
(Total of 260 Limbaugh stations endorsed by 88 universities x $75,000 = $19,125,000/WEEK, or about $5BIL/year. Full list at republiconradio.org)
FREE! Paid for by national and local advertisers, many of whom don’t know shit about what they’re sponsoring, believe the trolls saying RW radio is just political entertainment, or are trying to save money by allowing themselves to be bundled onto those stations.
Complaints about money in politics and Democratic deficiencies in messaging and framing are hollow until that is fixed.
Those universities have no excuse not to start looking for apolitical radio stations to broadcast sports on. They are renting their brands, logos, mascots, and community credibility to those stations and those stations use the association to attract advertisers. Protests at those universities merely need to stimulate a community discussion about that support.
Republican politicians don’t feel threatened by local or national protests, such as at capitols, because the Republicans on their radio stations are louder. Iraq, global warming, health care, and OWS protests may have scared them temporarily but they know those stations are louder and will support them and keep attacking protestors long after the protestors have gone home.
Protests that directly threaten the GOP’s only distinct political advantage, talk radio, will cause them to freak out. That will bring media to those protests.
Cascade
1 Protest at university
2 Local GOP and RW talk radio freaks out
3 Media notices
4 Advertisers and advertising industry notice
5 Protests at more universities
6 In order to be able to use those very loud radio stations the ad industry finally applies market demand to the 20-1 monopoly and it collapses as radio stations have to alter programming or offer balance
Students can protest continuously right on campus. Any university that rereads its mission statement and considers looking for apolitical alternatives will shame others into following. But it doesn’t really matter what the schools actually do. Any community/media discussion about the protests will cause advertisers on those stations to have second thoughts, especially since artificial intelligence-enhanced transcription makes it easy and cheap for those protestors to list advertisers and associate them with what those stations are saying (very little listening required). Ad agencies using those stations will have to begin asking advertisers if they actually support the lies, misogyny, racism, and global warming denial — or risk losing clients. The advertising industry wants the millions of ears the loudest of those stations reach — they’re not all ignorant racist Trump supporters. The ad industry will begin to force those radio stations to convert to alternative programming or begin to offer balance.
Destroying the Republican talk radio monopoly will remove the most important weapon Trump has for keeping Republican politicians in line. In Michigan 19 Limbaugh stations that depend on 3 Michigan universities will be calling Republican MI representative Justin Amash a traitor for calling for Trump’s impeachment — Michigan St. 11, Michigan 7, Western Michigan 1.
Defending those associations in relation to free speech, market demand, and publicly funded universities not playing political favorites is bullshit. Those stations play a major role in Republican politics and may even weigh in on regent elections and president selection at those universities.
Some of those stations are the loudest stations in those states and have close direct relationships to local and state GOP. GOP politicians and their staffs coordinate with and get regular interviews on those stations. Those stations are used to distort issues and attack democratic candidates. All the Republican reps voting for the misogynist anti-choice, anti-women bills in those states in large part owe their elections and reelections to those radio stations.
Republican talk radio company Iheart/Clearchannel was recently (still is?) $20BIL in debt. 20-1 market demand for the right wing bullshit doesn’t exist. It’s a purely partisan propaganda monopoly that has very little to do market demand or free speech. Those 20 universities and the 70 or more other major universities Republican talk radio depends on cannot continue to separate themselves from the lies and racism they endorse with their logos and community credibility.
And those stations are not just selling anti-choice misogyny and patriarchy, they’re supporting Trump and the Republican agenda, attacking and defining Democrats like AOC, Pelosi, Warren, and whoever the Democratic choice is. They also enable Trump administration defiance and attacks on Democratic investigators and will enable and intimidate witnesses, judges, and juries.
In Florida and Georgia Democrats lost important governors’ elections by very small margins. How much difference did those radio stations make? (FLORIDA 20 $1,500,000 Florida 10, Florida St. 4 Miami 2, South Florida 2, Central Florida 2)
If you’re planning to protest on Tuesday and if you’re a student at any of the 88 universities listed at republiconradio.org you might be more effective right on campus. Or if you’re tired of protests that are ignored by media and their intended targets maybe a change of strategy can help. It might only take a few out of thousands to finally get the GOPs attention.