Poisonous talk radio

[kimbutgar]

It came to me in a dream and that we are living with the results of poisonous talk radio that has infiltrated the rural and suburban parts of our country and filled low information people with hate and lack of empathy. Listening day in and day out has became cancerous to people's hearts and souls. It is an affiliction that we have to find a cure for otherwise our country will die. Fox and clear channel has given us the biggest heartburn.

[AJT]

1. I completely agree.

[pangaia]

2. You weren't dreaming.

[PsychoBabble]

3. Not JUST a dream ...

I spent 12 hours driving across flyover country this past weekend. Radio show came on - I thought it was an evangelical religious show at first from the pacing ... but it was nastily political. The level of thought and emotional manipulation was shocking. It was, other than mariachi and country music, the ONLY thing to be heard ..... toxic. Day after day.

[jrthin]

4. It's real. Fox and Clear Channel

are a cancer on the US. They have and will continue to destroy this country.

[WiffenPoof]

5. I Completely Agree

In fact, I'm surprised that the subject of poisonous Talk Radio hasn't been discussed more. For me, it is one of the prime reasons we ended up with the mess we're in.

I have often asked myself if there will come a time when Rush Limbaugh will hang his head in shame.

[RDANGELO]

6. It started with Rush Limbaugh when nobody stood up to him.

The Democrats mostly ignored him. Now it would take a very concerted and exhaustive effort to put them down.
The person who could have killed it in the bud was Ronald Reagan, but he was benefiting from it politically.

[Moostache]

7. You are describing the symptoms...the disease is capitalism and profit motive.

The things you say are 100% true. Hate radio HAS poisoned the population and the minds of millions...BUT, the underlying REASON for it is simplistic and hideous: PROFITS.

The radio stations use the listeners to drive ad sales and the ad sales drive profits and the biggest the audience, the bigger the profits. The slapdish conspiracy theory, racist mishmash on the air is the way it is because it is titillation meant to stimulate the basest of human instinct and done so because it is the easiest way to manipulate people and get those sweet sweet ad dollars.

All of this is done with full knowledge that it is bad for the people being manipulated, bad for the civil discourse of the nation and bad for the policy decisions of the government (which is STILL of the people, though less frequently FOR the people).

This insatiable drive to grab ever more dollars and profits has led to the consolidation of media into too few hands and with too little diversity of opinion and policy proposals as a direct result.

People ARE people.
Corporations are not.
Unless you live in the Divided States of Corporate America circa 2017...

[c-rational]

8. Public airwaves should not be allowed to be used against the interests of the American Public.

We have free speech but we can't yell fire in a movie theatre.

[Mighty mag]

9. I agree

Living in the reddest of red counties in the south, I'll never forget the first time I heard Rush on the radio. I was shocked at the amount of hate and judgement coming from him. Around here through people take him as gospel. I just shake my head.

[Va Lefty]

10. Exactly...

Worst thing Raygun did (quite a list) was appoint FCC members who repealed The Fairness Doctrine

[get the red out]

11. I have seen this for a long time

I just changed my sig line to reflect it, then saw this OP.

Living in a red state, I am surrounded by it. And no, it isn't all just people with less education, VERY educated people fall under its spell in droves. You can't argue with their lies when they see the truth as nothing but propaganda from the evil left either.

[Orsino]

12. We allowed media to grow beyond legal responsibility.

Huge swaths of the population are being whispered to or shouted at all day long without a whiff of accountability.

This is the result. Freedumb.

[GliderGuider]

13. It's a 40-year brainwashing experiment that is now bearing fruit.

It's similar to a flooding technique called "psychic driving", that was developed by Dr. Ewan Cameron in the 1960s for the CIA.

Over time (more than a generation now) it has literally re-wired the logic circuits of many of those exposed to it, as a result of normal neuroplasticity. As a result they no longer perceive and interpret the world the same way as those who have not been exposed.

Go to any radical right-wing site and you will see this characteristic on prominent display.

[CrispyQ]

14. I consider DUer, certainot, to be our resident expert on hate radio.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028541449

It's worth a click.

[mn9driver]

15. Every radio in exurban and rural America is tuned to this crap.

I've had the opportunity to listen to whatever is tuned on a LOT of car radios in these places. The propaganda and hate indoctrination is constant. It is everywhere.

This has been nearly 40 years in the making. America is in big trouble.

[Botany]

16. And the so called main stream right talk media get their talking points from even ...

.... more extreme alt right sites like Breitbart and Info Wars and for the last
few years Russia/Putin have been feeding these sites propaganda. I have seen
upclose how that kind of attack information has poisoned their minds.


*********
LA Times: Some right-wing media sites under investigation for possible Russia ties


Here are today’s headlines:

FBI’s Russian-influence probe includes a look at Breitbart, InfoWars news sites (McClatchy)

snip

But this report focuses on the FBI looking into right-wing websites like Breitbart and InfoWars to see if they played any role last year in a Russian cyber operation that dramatically widened the reach of news stories that favored Trump’s presidential bid.

In recent months, intelligence officials have confirmed that Russia did seek to influence the 2016 election by, among other things, hacking into emails at the Democratic National Committee.

McClatchy, citing anonymous sources, reports “operatives for Russia appear to have strategically timed the computer commands, known as ‘bots,’ to blitz social media with links to the pro-Trump stories.”


http://www.latimes.com/politics/washington/la-na-essential-washington-updates-some-right-wing-sites-under-1490115530-htmlstory.html