Progressives need to get better at countering the right-wing's dominance of AM radio

[marmar]

from the UK Guardian:


Radio clash
A brief excursion into AM radio reminds: there's still a lot of nutty rightwing propaganda out there that has influence and needs to be countered.


Harvey J Kaye


Watching the television news reports from the campaign trail it's hard not to imagine that we Americans will witness the inauguration of either our first woman president or our first black president.

The two leading Democratic presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, are drawing huge crowds and raising tens of millions of dollars each in campaign contributions. Setting fundraising records, they are clearly unsettling the Republicans, who currently seem a sorry and confused lot.

In fact, while it's not clear whether the corporate types are actually registering their preferences or just putting their money where they think it will actually pay off, it is reported that even the folks on Wall Street are now giving more to Clinton and Obama than to their Republican counterparts. Already in control of Congress, the Democrats seem poised to take the White House.

Democratic Party activists have good reason to feel hopeful. But listening to local AM radio the other morning reminded me that liberals have yet to secure the kind of presence in public debate that the right has possessed and has made very effective use of for the past 30 years.

Yes, the left is active on the Web. But throughout America, conservatives continue to dominate the airwaves.

Taking a mid-morning break from my research on the making of the Four Freedoms - with thoughts of FDR, the New Deal, and labor organizing and singing in my head - I set off on a vigorous walk along one of Green Bay's urban trails. Taking a small radio with me, I tuned the FM dial to Wisconsin Public Radio to catch the tail end of a conversation with public policy professor Peter Dreier on poverty as an issue in the current political campaigns.

But at the end of the hour I had to find something else, so I switched over to AM to see what was happening locally. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/harvey_j_kaye/2007/07/radio_clash.html

[groovedaddy]

1. There need to be response teams

people who are adept or trained at countering the b.s. of conservative talk radio hosts.

[rurallib]

2. We really need to begin buying stations

keep the internet neutral, use youtube and other media such as that, hit the LTTEs hard etc.

[TwilightGardener]

3. It will not happen anytime soon. AM talk radio is supported and hosted by the

type of people who need to have an "us-vs.-them" dynamic going. Ginned-up outrage, division, and hatred are much more powerful and profitable than reasoned, fact-based discussion will ever be. No matter how pissed off the left is over Chimpy and the war, we will never have anywhere near the depth of disenfranchisement, anger and paranoia that plagues the conservative listening audience and fuels the Limbaughs, Hannitys and Ingrahams.

[monmouth]

4. I went up and down the dial both AM and FM this morning, just so

tired of TV. Not one, absolutely not one even leaning left station was to be heard. One sports/news show did a little rant about the Christian Right but very little, that was it. I'm not a fan of the Young Turks, their voices drive me crazy. I just get on DU to catch up... Oh I'm in Palm Beach County Florida, so you get my drift...

[baldguy]

5. The RW does not dominate AM talk radio.

The corporatocracy dominates AM talk radio.

If there was a free & open market with fair competition, then the best programs would become more popular, and would more closely reflect & serve as an outlet for the views of the listening public.

Instead, we have a very few multinational (and by definition UN-American) corporations setting the programs for 80% of America which advocate their own agenda, with the remaining 20% evenly (and fairly) divided.