TALK RADIO….Via Digby, here is Dan Shelley, former news director and assistant program director at Milwaukee’s WTMJ, telling us about his career working with his station’s right-wing talkers:
To succeed, a talk show host must perpetuate the notion that his or her listeners are victims, and the host is the vehicle by which they can become empowered. The host frames virtually every issue in us-versus-them terms. There has to be a bad guy against whom the host will emphatically defend those loyal listeners.
This enemy can be a politician — either a Democratic officeholder or, in rare cases where no Democrat is convenient to blame, it can be a “RINO” (a “Republican In Name Only,” who is deemed not conservative enough). It can be the cold, cruel government bureaucracy.
….Conservative talk show hosts would receive daily talking points e-mails from the Bush White House, the Republican National Committee and, during election years, GOP campaign operations. They’re not called talking points, but that’s what they are. I know, because I received them, too. During my time at WTMJ, Charlie [Sykes] would generally mine the e-mails, then couch the daily message in his own words. Midday talker Jeff Wagner would be more likely to rely on them verbatim.
On the groupthink/talking points front, Digby suggests that “there are some disconcerting parallels between the right wing talk radio hosts and bloggers.” Do you agree?
UPDATE: Edited slightly based on feedback from Digby in comments.
