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http://news.yahoo.com/s/dailybeast/20110513/ts_dailybeast/14060_rushlimbaughandrightwingtalkradioflameoutaslistenerstunetoindependents_1Ratings for Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and other hyper-partisans are declining as listeners seek honest talk from hosts like Michael Smerconish over angry rants. A more civil conversation will add value to our political debate, writes John Avlon.
There’s new evidence to suggest a demand for something different than hyper-partisanship in the world of talk radio and political media.
It’s not just the sunset of the Glenn Beck Show on Fox or the dispatch of Keith Olbermann from MSNBC to CurrentTV. It’s the shuttering of a pioneering conservative radio station and data showing the demographic decline of Rush Limbaugh.
In contrast, growing numbers of listeners are tuning into independent voices who can be honest brokers in debates and don’t just angrily parrot talking points...
Imo, right-wing radio and TV has gone a long way towards destroying the social fabric of this country. I see it as being more damaging to our way of life than terrorism because, whereas terrorism fundamentally unites us, hate radio and TV [liberals included] fundamentally divides us. It divides us through misinformation and misrepresentations, generalizations, and the simplificiation of complex problems and challenges.
For example, it was striking to realize that most right-wing radio fans I know didn't know that Obama has a Ph.D., that he was the President of the Harvard Law Review, and most importantly, that he is a expert at Constitutional Law. They were quickly buying into Trump's innuendo that Obama never attended Harvard, or he was somehow coddled by evil socialists at Harvard who were using him to further their agenda. Several people stated plainly that Obama was no more accomplished than Sarah Palin - a women who had to attend five or six colleges to get a BA in communications!
If someone doesn't like Obama because in their opinion he is pursuing the wrong policies, I can respect that provided the objections are real, which they usually aren't. Rarely if ever can any of these folks explain Obama's position or the logic behind his policies. This tells me that they don't really hate his policies, they just hate the policies as represented by talk radio and Fox noise.
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