Listen, Liberal by Thomas Frank

[certainot]

75. dem politicians, strategists, etc don't listen to talk radio

and since there's no way to read analysis of it everyone has ignored and underestimated it, designating rw radio's dumb little brother fox as leader of rw media.

when hillary called it a vast right wing conspiracy limbaugh howled with laughter and so did most dems. whenever a prominent dem politician has even mentioned 'fairness doctrine' the rw radio empire screams FREE SPEECH!!! dems who mention it are derided. and criticism of it that goes anywhere usually devolves into personal criticism of limbaugh, which is useless.

and liberals and the left join in, having no fucking clue how many times it's kicked their ass.

its rise in the early 90's perfectly matches the rise of ALEC and record breaking partisanship, and many victories for the republicans in what should have been no brainers for dems.

if the left wants the party to go left there'd be no better way than to protest those stations and the universities that support them and generally go on the offensive re rw radio.

i've been laughed at and dismissed for 20 years for wasting my time with rw radio. dems/liberals get headaches listenign to it so they ignore it- the biggest political mistake in history.

since 25 years of content is impossible to analyze i decided to quantify it with a dollar value - and at a time when the left is screaming about money in politics, it cannot be ignored:

at a cheap $1000/hr x 15hrs/day x 1200 stations, rw talk radio is worth 4.68 BIL$/ year or 390MIL$ /month FREE for coordinated global warming denial, pro republican wall st think tank propaganda, free market deregulation bullshit, swiftboating, and the hate and fear used to get people to vote republican.