Would the Koch Bros and ALEC and the GOP spend $1000 for an hour long infomercial or advertisement promoting their agendas?
They don’t have to. They’ve been getting that on 1200 radio stations for maybe 15 hours a day for nearly 30 years — for free.
The analysts are constantly wondering how we got here. Trump’s Kellyanne Conway just told Chuck Todd this morning that Hillary’s outspending Trump by millions and flooding the airwaves with negative advertising.
The Democratic Party and progressive organizations continue to make a huge mistake by not making clear to media what a huge advantage RW radio is for Republicans. And for not turning blame for the Trump disaster onto talk radio gods like Limbaugh.
I’m generalizing and rounding out but maybe this simple math will help put this problem into perspective.
$1000 x 15hrs x 5days = $75,000/station/week.
$75,000 x 1200 stations = $90,000,000/week for the last week of this election, free for Trump and the GOP.
That may not all be pro-Trump personally but it’s all anti-Hillary. And it’s all anti-Democratic and anti-democratic.
One of the major advantages of RW talk radio over other political media is that it can be coordinated on the state and local level. The station staff and local blowhards are closely tied to the local and state GOP and their friendly think tanks.
If you are active in support of local progressive issues or candidates that pose a threat to the GOP, the RW talk stations in your area could be working against you to the tune of $75,000/week each. But it’s more than that because most of the new distortions and hate and lies are tied into decades of unchallenged repetition.
The GOP candidates and the think tank hacks are on those stations regularly. The GOP and think tanks are helping coordinate topics and timing. And their people are calling those shows to reinforce and push the talking points.
It’s better than TV ads.
And the local blowhards and their callers can say just about anything they want because they are seldom heard and even less frequently challenged in real time.
Those stations will help Republicans win many close elections and will be screaming about every close vote count in the country on Nov 9th and 10th, and maybe for weeks and months afterwards. Remember Al Franken. They’re saying he’s an illegitimate senator.
And we let 90 major universities rent their sports logos to about 255 Limbaugh stations without complaint. Those associations help them attract advertisers to pay for that anti-democratic propaganda. Using the same math, that’s 255 x $75,000 = $19,125,000/WEEK worth of global warming denial, Republican efforts to defund public education, and general hate, lies and obstruction, all endorsed by those universities.
RW talk radio is the single most important media tool Republicans have for keeping the House and Senate and obstructing Hillary in the next 4 years. But the Democratic Party and progressive organizations continue to ignore it. There is no organized effort on their part to address it and, until it is challenged it will continue to enable assholes like Trump, delay global warming action, sell hate and division, and forcing and enabling compromise.