Today Rush Limbaugh denied using paid callers in response to an article,
Radio Daze, by Liel Leibovitz. While he is a pro at denying reality, I can believe him. Radio talkers like Limbaugh and Hannity may be unaware they are being duped.
It makes for better talk if they don’t know. One of the functions of paid callers to their shows would be to reinforce their credibility, worship them, and feed their enormous highly paid egos so it makes sense that they would be out of the loop. Doubt created by knowing their worshippers may be fakes would damage their certitude, which is paramount for selling their message.
Most talk radio hosts have regular and favorite callers who get through. How many are paid callers? I heard one today on the Ed Schultz show saying how wonderful a voter ID law will be for Wisconsin. It was a voice I had heard before and Ed seemed to recognize him. Ed disagreed but the caller made his sales pitch.
If there are banks of paid callers calling radio talk shows from right wing think tanks or government agencies Americans need to know about it.
This level of coordinated misinformation makes national discussions of important problems impossible and short circuits the feedback loops that democracy depends on.
It is fraud. And money is changing hands. Advertisers need to know if they are sponsoring paid political propaganda as opposed to entertainment, which is how the right wing talkers are sold.
Right wing radio is the GOP’s most important media tool. If the GOP is using hired callers and organizing scripted callers for national and local radio talk shows to push referenda, legislation, and candidates and attack others all year around should the money used be included in filings to the Federal Election Commission (FEC)?
The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) needs to know. If it’s fraudulent advertising should the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and other federal agencies investigate? Maybe the Better Business Bureau needs to know.
If staff and owners of stations know paid callers are being bumped to the top of the order are they complicit?
Here are some excerpts from Radio Daze by Liel Leibovitz:
A short while later, he received the following email: “Thank you for auditioning for Premiere On Call.” it said. “Your audition was great! We’d like to invite you to join our official roster of ‘ready-to-work’ actors.” The job, the email indicated, paid $40 an hour, with one hour guaranteed per day.
But what exactly was the work? The question popped up during the audition and was explained, the actor said, clearly and simply: If he passed the audition, he would be invited periodically to call in to various talk shows and recite various scenarios that made for interesting radio. He would never be identified as an actor, and his scenarios would never be identified as fabricated—which they always were.
Curious, the actor did some snooping and learned that Premiere On Call was a service offered by Premiere Radio Networks, the largest syndication company in the United States and a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications, the entertainment and advertising giant. Premiere syndicates some of the more sterling names in radio, including Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sean Hannity. But a great radio show depends as much on great callers as it does on great hosts: Enter Premiere On Call.
Rachel Nelson, a Premiere Radio Networks spokesperson, defended the Premiere on Call service and said that responsibility for how it is employed falls ultimately to those who use it.
“Premiere provides a wide variety of audio services for radio stations across the country, one of which is connecting local stations in major markets with great voice talent to supplement their programming needs,” Nelson wrote in an email. “Voice actors know this service as Premiere On Call. Premiere, like many other content providers, facilitates casting—while character and script development, and how the talent’s contribution is integrated into programs, are handled by the varied stations."
That may be the case on a non political basis but I doubt many local stations or even the national talkers and their staffs do much of this except in relation to some mechanism that ensures the paid callers don’t have to wait long.
The main national right wing talkers are well coordinated as a unit on a daily basis. The main ones regurgitate much of the same material. They’re getting paid millions to sell national GOP and US Chamber of Commerce talking points. To be useful the call needs to be timed right and be on topic. And to be successful they have to get past the call screener. Paid callers are not going to be waiting for 2 hours and maybe not get on. How does the call screener know he needs to let the paid caller through? Maybe they have their own area code. Or password.
Do the Heritage Foundation, US Chamber of Commerce, and the Pentagon have their own paid caller banks? Do they compete? Do lobbyists use them to stop or push legislation? The Abramoff emails had some references to coordinating radio when trying to influence politicians. Local right wing talkers often reinforce the national shows and coordinate with state and local GOP political needs. Are they getting preferred topics lists and how are these coordinated with paid callers on a national scale?
What percentage of the calls that make it through to Limbaugh and Hannity during a day, reaching many millions of listeners, are from real callers? The real answer may be very embarrassing considering how few they usually take in a day. How will their loyal callers, who try in vain for years, feel when they find out the paid callers always get bumped to the top?
How much do Limbaugh and Hannity depend on paid callers to reinforce, worship, prompt a talking point, start a buzz, inject a rumor, attack a political enemy, distort, divert blame, or make an excuse. Or teach a nation of teabaggers 2+2=3 and prompt them to scream 2+2=3! in town halls.
Constituencies for or against any issue can be created with a few paid callers reinforcing radio talkers. The talkers read variations of the same script, paid callers represented as the public agree but never disagree, and the whole program reaches 50 million Americans a week. Republican politicians don’t need to listen to the public anymore. How many GOP positions are taken because they know they can create an enabling constituency in days or weeks?
What part did paid callers play to reinforce and rationalize the talking points for going into Iraq, make excuses for a dry drunk AWOL dictator wannabe, sell wall street deregulation, praise an unqualified supreme court nominee, swiftboat a war hero or dedicated public servant, and attack publicly financed broadcasting? Or call single payer a communist plot, create death panels, ACORN voter ‘fraud’, or get certain uncooperative Attorney Generals fired? How many were paid to repeat the phrase "Tiller the baby killer?" How many are calling pro Walker radio stations in Wisconsin.
If the GOP has a problem and wants a distraction it can turn a molehill into a mountain in a day. Madison Avenue can’t create that kind of buzz. Just get some paid callers on 200 or 600 radio stations to reinforce a host who just introduced a lie or anecdote or rumor and by prime time it becomes real and true and big in the rest of the media.
On several occasions I have heard what seemed like a staged series of calls coordinated to lay out all the most important RW talking points on a particular topic, like attacking Iraq- why we needed to go, why we need to stay, and why critics are traitors. And by the way, life on an aircraft carrier is fun! Ending with a nasty jerk with an arab accent badmouthing America. Or a slurred-mouthed hippie asking "What about peace, dude... can't we all just get along?" And now for some more calls, folks, doesn't that last guy make you mad? All lines are open!
How many politicians were made or destroyed and how much legislation was passed or obstructed because the Karl Roves could inject a groundswell buzz of worship or lies into the national media whenever they wanted? Or present ten possible excuses for why such and such a GOP politician shouldn't go to jail? Or why a particular investigation is un-American.
Progressive talkers Randi Rhodes and Thom Hartmann and Stephanie Miller like to call them out or play with them when they hit their shows. But they may not always be obvious. And while most national right wing talkers do anything they can to avoid dissenting callers the progressive talkers often have to beg and challenge to get conservative callers- it makes for better radio.
Paid callers make a total joke of the claim that right wing talk radio dominance is based on market forces and popular demand. Right wing talkers are constantly saying “The American people want so and so” and the rest of the media often agree. Talk radio talkers on TV are often asked what their callers have been saying.
And how can our universities continue to rationalize broadcasting their sports on stations using paid callers to deny global warming/climate change?
If Americans don't demand investigations they are democratically suicidal. Whistleblowers need to be encouraged- not only the paid callers but call screeners and other radio staff.
If Limbaugh and Hannity and Beck are not taking paid callers they should encourage an investigation to clear them.
Federal Communications Commission
Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau
Consumer Complaints
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, D.C. 20554
1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322) voice or 1-888-TELL- FCC (1-888-835-5322) TTY
Americans need to take this seriously. Free speech is a joke until the radio is fixed.
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