FREEDOM HIGHWAY

talk

The AM radio band in the US is a fascinating thing. Incredibly skewed towards the right wing, talk radio's domination by ultra-conservatives politically and evangelicals religiously has gone a long way to legitimizing and mainstreaming the set of ideological beliefs and policy priorities which now hold sway in the Bush administration. Social scientists have long studied this influence since political talk radio gained prominence in the 1990s, studying the demographics of this format's listenership and even positing a so-called "Limbaugh effect" and its quantitative results in elections. More generally, however, there can be no doubt that repeatedly broadcasting a narrow set of political views over and over again is an extremely effective way to reinforce those views in listeners who are already sympathetic to them. Concentration in media ownership and consequent über-syndicalisation (Adams Research reported in the mid-90s that "it is nearly impossible to find an inhabited place in the US where the Rush Limbaugh show cannot be found on the dial," my observations lead to similar conclusions about Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Glen Beck and Michael Savage) serve to intensify this persuasive power.