The people who understand that the least seem, at least outwardly, to be the ones on the air.
You see, ladies and gentlemen, post-Limbaugh talk radio is not about convincing people to vote one way or the other. The people who listen to any given radio host have already made up their minds. Let me repeat that: Anybody who listens to Rush Limbaugh is already going to vote Republican. Anybody who listens to Air America is already going to vote Democrat. They are not there to change minds — they're there to reassure their constituencies. People like to hear their own opinions repeated back to them, and they absolutely hate to hear opinions on the radio that they disagree with.
Talk radio these days plays up both of those facts. The Limbaughs, Hannitys, Frankens, and Malloys of current talk radio don't want to challenge anyone; much as they take shots at the other guys, much as they may ask for the other guy to call in and explain some point, they don't actually want the other guys to call into the show and take part in any kind of real discussion. Sure, if you've listened to any of those people, you've heard the opposition call, but when was the last time you heard them get in a word edgewise? The hosts cut them off, do their best to make them look like fools, and move on. Why? Not because they're political hacks who don't want to allow the other guys to have any influence. They do it because that's what their fans want to hear: they want to hear the other side be made to shut up and look like an idiot.
Do you really think that anyone who hasn't made up his mind - the almighty Swing Voter - is going to listen to talk radio to help make a decision? Do you think that anyone who listens to, say, Laura Ingraham, is even slightly ambiguous about who they're going to vote for? No. Of course not. Talk radio in the 21st century is support-group radio: people listen to hear nationally prominent people say, "I agree with you." That's why local talk-radio is all but dead: nobody cares if some dude who lives in your hometown agrees with you or not when you've got a national celebrity to say what you want to hear.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Matthew T. Sussman
Michael J. West: Telling lies that Blogcritics want to hear.
2 - Ozy
Sorry Mr. West no cigar. Please keep trying to kid those who listen to am talk day after day to work and home. Come back when you can back up your nonsense with fact and stats.
Good night and Good Luck!
3 - Clavos
Awww, c'mon Suss.
In your heart, you know he's right.
4 - Michael J. West
Ozy,
I really love to write comments to the effect of "What the Hell are you talking about?" but in your case I genuinely have no idea what you're talking about.
5 - Baronius
I don't think that talk radio can get someone elected, but it does have a long-term "get out the vote" impact. There was a sense of isolation among conservatives, pre-Limbaugh. That's gone.
6 - MCH
"So all of you on the left who are terribly upset by Rush Limbaugh and his fellow conservative talkers, their nationwide soapbox, and their subsequent influence on the electorate: forget it."
It's not so much that I'm upset by anything Rush Limbaugh does or says. Just that I'm painfully aware of the irony that a phoney draft dodger has been able to make a fortune pretending to be a patriot; while many of the real heroes (who couldn't afford to buy their way out of Vietnam) are living in cardboard boxes, haunted by never-ending nightmares....
7 - Michael J. West
There was a sense of isolation
among conservatives, pre-Limbaugh. That's gone.
It is certainly gone, Baronius, but I don't credit Limbaugh for that. Pre-Limbaugh, I assume, means before he was nationally syndicated--which was 1988. Pre-Limbaugh was the Reagan Years.
Did Limbaugh unite the conservative movement? Or did Reagan? The 1980 and 1984 voting statistics pretty much answer that question, IMO.
8 - Matthew T. Sussman
Head On! Apply directly to the forehead!
Head On! Apply directly to the forehead!
Head On! Apply directly to the forehead!
9 - Michael J. West
Yes, MCH, we are all aware of how you feel about the draft-dodging chickenhawks. Painfully aware, to use your phraseology. Many of us, as a matter of fact, wish you would fucking talk about something else for a change.
10 - Michael J. West
Thank you sooooooooooooooooooooooo much, Mr. Sussman. Perhaps I should refer to you by your tribal name, He Who Has Editing Permissions And Yet Does Nothing To Fix Repeat Comments Except Make Fun Of Them.
11 - Clavos
Many of us, as a matter of fact, wish you would fucking talk about something else for a change.
Second...
12 - Bedford the Great
Actually, there was a internal Democrat poll a few years ago that got Tom Daschle cheesed because it said that Rush does indeed convert Dems into Republicans..
13 - Clavos
Turnabout:
Awww, c'mon, MJW. That was funny as hell!!
14 - Michael J. West
Got a source or a link for that, Bedford?
15 - Michael J. West
I'm not saying it wasn't funny, Clavos. I'm just observing...
16 - Matthew T. Sussman
MJW, you know I'm just givin' ya a good ribbing. Hell, not much else to do on a MONDAY MONDAY MONDAY
17 - Michael J. West
Oh, I know it Suss, I know. The only real crime here is that I'm still awake enough to bitch about anything.
18 - Samurai
"[R]eal heroes [...] are living in cardboard boxes, haunted by never-ending nightmares...."
HA HA! Living in cardboard boxes! Losers! I'm sorry, that just really cracked me up. Gave me a mental picture, you know, of some bum crouching in a urine-soaked box in an alleyway, looking paranoidly around and muttering to himself. Ahh...that's good stuff.
19 - Dave Nalle
Most people here on BC seem to operate on the inexplicable assumption that I'm a conservative. That said, I find myself listening to Air America more than Rush Limbaugh, because it's more entertaining to here people ranting about crazy shit than it is to hear someone plugging the same old party line.
I don't want to hear someone telling me something I already know. I'd rather hear a different perspective, even if it's flawed or a little wacky. What I find myself listening to most, of couse, is Neal Boortz, who doesn't toe the GOP party line and is a real independent thinker. He's hard on Bush and hard on the left and always provocative and entertaining. Second best IMO is Ring of Fire with RFK Jr. and Mike Papantonio. It usually has interesting topics. But it doesn't have the same crazy fanatic entertainment value of Randi Rhodes or Mike Malloy. They're all a better listen than Limbaugh, but even Limbaugh is better than Jerry Springer who's the radio equivalent of nembutol.
The point is that it all IS entertainment. And it gets the blood pumping even more when it's outrageous. You don't have to agree to enjoy it.
Dave
20 - Jet In Columbus
A sign of an intelligent mind is one that listens and learns from all viewpoints... bravo Dave Nalle Bravo
21 - Nancy
Those who DON'T listen to "the enemy" never know what the opposition is up to.
22 - Michael J. West
Listening to the enemy is one thing. Plenty of Limbaugh and Hannity's listeners are the people who hate them.
But Dave and Nancy, has there ever been even the slightest chance that those on-air personalities were going to sway your vote? Of course not. It's not designed to.
There's a website called Calling All Wingnuts that's dedicated to calling right-wing talk shows and challenging the things that its hosts say. Sometimes it's really interesting and amusing, but generally it's a waste of time; nobody's mind is going to be changed.
23 - Maurice
Great reading and great points, Michael. Much like religious factions will never presuade each other.
24 - Dave Nalle
I think an effective argument from a talk radio host can at least sway my viewpoint on a specific issue if not on who to vote for alltogether. Although I've always been for tax reform, I thought the Fair Tax was unworkably and sort of retarded until Neal Boortz explained it to me over and over again on the radio. I'm now more or less in support of it. But I doubt any of them are going to change my basic beliefs in some sort of sudden revelatory conversion experience. On the other hand, I think there ARE people out there who really aren't sure what they think - the Tabula Rasa element of the audience - and for them the ideas they encounter on the radio may be the first political ideas they ever consider, and they might be swayed by them.
Dave
25 - Michael J. West
I think an effective argument from a talk radio host can at least sway my viewpoint on a specific issue if not on who to vote for alltogether.
How many talk radio hosts make "effective arguments?" Boortz, and Lionel (who I would consider the left-leaning counterpart to Boortz), are extraordinarily rare exceptions, and even they are not really aimed at people who don't agree with them (although they both sometimes get blocks of callers who scream at 'em) -- most of the time they preach to the choir.
I think there ARE people out there who really aren't sure what they think - the Tabula Rasa element of the audience - and for them the ideas they encounter on the radio may be the first political ideas they ever consider, and they might be swayed by them.
In theory, maybe--but those people don't listen to political talk radio.