There's only a month left in this amazingly important election cycle, not counting all the recounts necessary to ensure Obama isn't stealing elections with illegal and dead voters. And old voters, and brown voters, and student voters without fingerprint IDs. That could take a while if they don't like the results.
And the primary mechanism they will use to force their irrational will will be Republican radio.
All elections, even in the bluest coastal areas, are impacted by what the talk radio blowhards are yelling from over 1000 coordinated radio stations. Apparently Obama is bringing in the ebola. Or is negligent and impeachable for allowing it here.
Republicanradio.org or republiconradio.org will provide a start for recording and transcribing republican radio as it trashes democrats and liberals and excuses the lunacy and corruption on the right.
The site also summarizes some of the points I've made here for about 10 years.
I have few social media skills..... Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Here is a part of it:
WHY REPUBLICAN RADIO
IS SO EFFECTIVE FOR SELLING LIES AND PROPAGANDA:
IT'S A MONOPOLY: 95% of political talk radio is Republican. In most parts of the country there are no alternatives for free politics while driving or working. The monopoly actively reduces the radio stations available to liberal and moderate talk show hosts. There is no significant talk radio competition to challenge its messaging dominance. The loudest advocates for free market capitalism hide behind and work for a monopoly.
IT'S LOUD AND IT'S EVERYWHERE: More than 1000 radio stations, including many of the loudest stations in the country. That’s an average of 20 per state, reaching 50 million Americans every week. Talk radio stations may be the only sources for local news, traffic, weather, and sports in an area. They may be the loudest stations in national emergencies.
IT'S COORDINATED: On important issues at critical times, all Republican radio stations will pump out the same talking points as instructed. National and local GOP and related think tanks supply material, topics, and guests coordinated for national and local political objectives. It provides the groundwork repetition for everything Republican. Republican radio’s more visible little brother, Fox ‘News’, also helps coordination.
Rush Limbaugh and other major talkers set the national tone but can also focus considerable attention to a local level when they name names and places and repeat them a few times.
The local talker’s job depends on following the party line. They and their callers reinforce previous messaging from national talkers and can play a significant part in local politics. On a major station, staff and talkers may have close connections to Republican elected officials, like WIS governor Scott Walker and Milwaukee talker Charlie Sykes, as demonstrated in the Reindfleisch emails.
IT DOMINATES MESSAGING IN THE US: There is no louder buzz machine on the planet. A Democratic president only has the bully pulpit when he’s on it. When 400 talkers reinforce each other with the same talking points and memes from 1000 radio stations they can drown out truth and common sense. And they can keep it going as long as necessary.
IT ENABLES AND PUSHES CORPORATE MEDIA TO PORTRAY THE INTERESTS OF A SMALL MINORITY AS MAINSTREAM: It excuses racism, misogyny, homophobia, and ignorance to make them ‘acceptable’. It enables vast amounts of denial and hypocrisy.
REPUBLICAN RADIO GETS A FREE SPEECH FREE RIDE: The only significant direct challenge to Republican radio the last 25 years is the ongoing StopRush, FlushRush, and BoycottRush efforts to educate Rush Limbaugh advertisers as to the misogyny and hate they help support.
ITS TALKERS ARE UNCHALLENGED: While liberal talkers encourage opposing viewpoints, Republican talkers seldom take callers that will contradict them. They're paired with call screeners for protection and use speciaalized software to prioritize preferred callers, including paid callers. Since they can't be challenged in real time they're always right, and lies sell better when delivered with unchallenged certitude.
PAID CALLERS are sometimes used to inject rumors, reinforce propaganda, and praise the hosts.
IT'S PRACTICALLY FREE FOR THE REPUBLICAN PARTY: Advertisers pay station operating costs and donor-supported think tanks supply much of the propaganda and coordination. The Republican political money advantage in TV advertising is overvalued when compared with their radio advantage.
IT IS ENDORSED BY HUNDREDS OF PUBLICLY FUNDED SCHOOLS: Many Republican radio stations broadcast professional, college, and high school sports. The association brings them commmunity credibility and advertising dollars while they attack teachers and public education, and spread global warming denial, racism, and misogyny.
IT'S ALWAYS REPUBLICAN FRIENDLY: The Republican Party and its politicians and organizations expect full support and cooperation from Republican radio talkers. Republican politicians expect major corruption and incompetence to be ignored or excused while Democrats should expect minor mistakes to be distorted and exaggerated.
IT SHORT-CIRCUITS DEMOCRACY WITH ALTERNATE REALITIES: Republican think tanks monitor local and national events and sentiment and combine their radio advantage with PR campaigns to short circuit the fact-based discussions that a democracy depends on for solutions and reform. Long term unchallenged repetition on a national level has distorted important issues and makes fact-based dialogue on climate change, health care, racism, immigration, and gun control practically impossible.
IT CONSTRUCTS AND DIRECTS MADE-TO-ORDER CONSTITUENCIES: Well-timed messaging is used to motivate public outrage, fear, and ‘concern’, largely based on exaggeration, distortion and disinformation. Timing and coordination and volume allow minority Republican radio constituencies to be represented as "popular opinion" (eg. Tea Party). They are used to enable or intimidate politicians and media and push legislation. Republican radio is the loudest political correctness cop and censor-by-threat in the US.
IT BEATS TV, INTERNET, AND OTHER MEDIA FOR SELLING LIES: Other media leave a record that can be examined and challenged and have to at least pretend to present other viewpoints. You can easily turn the channel or the page to find other sources for politics. Corporate media is more significant for what it leaves out, and the internet is still fairly democratic, with many choices. Republican radio is easier than TV to control at a local level.
IT'S ALEC'S BEST FRIEND: The success of ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) in electing candidates and passing and stopping legislation on the local level corresponds directly with the rise of Republican radio. So does the record historic rise in political partisanship and gridlock.
IT'S INVISIBlE TO DEMOCRATS AND LIBERALS - THEY DON'T LISTEN TO IT: The Democratic Party as well as liberal/progressive/democratic organizations and their supporters are regularly caught by surprise because they evaluate their strategies and the failings of their representatives as if Republican radio doesn’t exist. Most concerned citizens and activists are unaware of how much one radio station can trash their candidates, distort their values, negate their activism, and minimize their protests.
THERE IS NO WRITTEN RECORD OF REPUBLICAN RADIO: Until now there was no way to search, read, and analyze what Republican radio pumps out (see RECORD AND TRANSCRIBE TALK RADIO). Republican politicians and candidates make regular appearances on Republican radio and can say just about anything without fear of fact-checking.
DON'T LET REPUBLICAN RADIO LIE ABOUT YOUR CANDIDATES AND ISSUES
As elections approach, friendly interviews with Republican candidates, their aides, and think tank-sponsored guests become more common on Republican radio. They can say just about anything they want because Democrats and liberals don’t listen.
Talk radio is free advertising for the Republican Party and they feel comfortable saying things they wouldn’t on other media. Their radio appearances will provide more examples of ignorance, bigotry, and lies, which can be useful in advertising, letters to the editor, and debates.
Improvements in transcription software make it possible to get a good idea of what they’re saying and how often they’re saying it, without the pain of actually listening to it.
With a basic text application the transcriptions can be searched for points of interest. When the name of a Democratic candidate appears it is likely that she is being lied about and attacked with direction from local or national GOP-friendly think tanks.
Original recordings can be used for verification.
What are are they saying about:
Your representatives and candidates?
Global warming?
Health care?
War?
Energy policy?
Environmental regulation?
Racism?
Sexism?
Wall street regulation?
Net neutrality?
Censorship?
Immigration?
Abortion?
Supreme court candidates?
Drug policy?
Media reform?
Election reform?
Voter suppression?
Gun control?
Public education?
Unions?
Teachers?
You?
and:
REPUBLICAN RADIO MYTHS
MYTH: Republican radio’s primary purpose is to sell product for advertisers.
The advertising pays rent and salaries. Republican radio spreads disinformation and outrage to convince Americans to hate other Americans and to act and vote against their own best interests.
Republican radio’s more profitable purpose is to sell:
war
global warming denial
deregulation- wall street, banking, environmental, media, etc.
tax breaks for the 1%
privatization of the commons and the public sector
excuses, rationalizations, distortions, diversions
sycophant Republican politicians
unqualified Republican judges
lies and distortions used to swiftboat Democrats and liberals, short circuit democracy, and obstruct reforms
MYTH: Republican radio's popularity and success is market-based. Liberal radio fails because no one listens to it and it can’t compete.
When Ronald Reagan got rid of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, Republicans bought up hundreds of radio stations and subsidizied talkers like Rush Limbaugh. The Fairness Doctrine would have prevented the levels of unchallenged lying and distortion used so successfully today to create alternative realities and made-to-order constituencies.
One of Republican radio’s early successes was the media deregulation that allowed consolidation of Republican radio ownership to fewer companies/owners.
Liberal radio talkers have shown they can compete on an even playing field and even beat the main Republican talkers. That is why the Republican radio monopoly controls most of the loudest radio stations and works hard to limit direct competition by liberal talkers. Republican radio can’t handle the truth.
The argument that 95% of the people who would listen to talk radio prefer the hate and disinformation that the Republican radio monopoly is using to destroy American democracy is an insult to Americans.