‘Talk radio is running America’

June 15, 2007

Poor Trent Lott.

Comments by Republican senators on Thursday suggested that they were feeling the heat from conservative critics of the bill, who object to provisions offering legal status. The Republican whip, Trent Lott of Mississippi, who supports the bill, said: “Talk radio is running America. We have to deal with that problem.”

I see. A far-right senator believes the “problem” with the policy discourse is far-right radio for a far-right audience.

Keep in mind, this wasn’t a stray comment for Lott, who seems to have been thinking about this. The other day, the WaPo quoted Lott saying, “I’m sure senators on both sides of the aisle are being pounded by these talk-radio people who don’t even know what’s in the bill.”

You mean right-wing blowhards like Limbaugh can rile up a large audience based on nothing but demagoguery? And that conservative audience will bombard Hill offices with whatever they last heard on the radio?

Welcome to our world, Trent.

For that matter, it’s worth noting that Lott’s comments are drawing the ire of leading conservatives, who don’t appreciate being called a “problem.”

* NRO’s Andrew Stuttaford: “I’d say that Trent Lott was an embarrassment to the Senate GOP except for the fact that it was the Senate GOP that chose him to be their whip, so I’ll just say instead that, judging by this report in the New York Times, he has, once again, made a fool of himself with remarks, that even by the abysmal standards of Senator Lott, stand out for their ignorance, dim-wittedness and faint suggestion of the bully.”

* Red State: “So, let me get this straight, Trent Lott thinks that 1) radio talk-show hosts are ignorant, and 2) they’re a ‘problem’ he wants fixed. I’d say Lott just put his foot in his mouth again.”

* Hugh Hewitt: “I think that this is a complaint that the old days were more fun for senators, and that the senators especially don’t like the new media’s ability to inform, inspire and direct public opinion. The end result of Senator Lott’s blasts…is to of course further motivate the base because to the reality of a bad bill and past insults is now added a genuine note of dislike — which is not the way to build a party.”

By comparison, the Democratic base and the Democratic congressional leadership practically walks in march step.

Talk radio is running

  • Aw crap. You’d think I’d know how to close a tag…

    “Talk radio is ruining America.”

  • Now consarnitall!

    I thought blogs were running America. Let’s make up our minds, here.

  • Latter-day Walter Winchells are “new media”??

    And when we’re talking about talk radio blowhards, it’s best not to use terms like “ignorance, dim-wittedness and faint suggestion of the bully,” because it just confuses people about who you’re referring to.

  • The attack dogs are turning on their masters? Why, that’s just horrible. I feel so terribly awfully bad for them. Really. I do.

  • Hey Will, if you are using the Foxfire browser, there is a handy Foxfire extension that makes hyper-coding easy. It’s called bbcodeXtra and it’s a free download extension. You can do bbcode, html, and xhtml coding via a right-click menu. By the way, this site uses xhtml.

  • What he really meant to say is “stop letting the public interfere with our decision making”.

  • Maybe if the rest of the country had followed Mississippi’s lead and elected Strom Thurmond we wouldn’t have had all these problems with talk radio over all these years.

  • Lie down with rabid, mangy, incontinent dogs. Get up with plauge carrying fleas.

    The only reason I’m only laughing myself a little sick about this is I’m afraid the ReFugs will become desperate to scrape up some red meat to appease their evil pets.

  • I find myself agreeing with Sen, Lott on this subject, except for the tense.
    I believe that talk radio HAS ruined America, primarily by keeping (expletive deleted)s like Lott in office.
    Oh, and talk radio, thanks for George W. Bush, too (he wrote sarcasticly).

  • slip kid no more, I’ve been using bbCodeXtra for awhile an truly like it. In addition, resizable form field lets you stretch out the textbox for easier composing.

    I am also at the moment experimenting with bbComposer which turns the textbox into wysiwyg editor. It’s a litte persnickety but very powerful. I haven’t made my mind up about it yet, primary because you typically don’t need its full power here at th Carpetbagger Report.

  • Maybe Lott will follow up his rhetoric with some action? Like bringing back the Fairness Doctrine? I’ll not hold my breath.

  • First, there was Gingrich, then Ralph Reed and now Trent Lott back from the dead! These guys are recurring nightmares.

  • Maybe Lott – or anyone else – should watch Hotel Rwanda if he wants to see what the end result of inflammatory talk radio can be.

  • Wow. People who don’t like kids listening to hip hop all the time let this toxic crap from talk radio flow through their life like air.

  • Trent Lott didn’t seem to think talk radio was such a bad thing when its nails were scratching the Dems’ faces. It’s only now, that the nails are beginning to be ingrown that he’s bothered. Learn to live with it Lottie; we’ve had to, for years.

  • two comments i made earlier at think progress:

    #1
    lott is exactly right, though why this would concern him is puzzling.

    doing something about the false information routinely broadcast by some talk radio shows, though, is not all that hard

    if the political will is there.

    you start with congressional investigations and hearings involving the heads of the corporations that support talk radio shows.

    you insist the corporate chiefs explain why their corporation supports false information and false accusations being made by their media stars like limbaugh, boortz.

    you hold these corporations responsible for the content of their shows and remove their public licensing if they fail to co-operate.

    then you re-institute the “fairness” rule (both sides must be represented in public commentary)

    which the fcc abandoned in 1986, which abandonment lead to the rise of irresponsible talk radio.

    this would be a good start.

    #2

    1)accuracy in public discourse is not a matter of party

    or of liberal or conservative affiliation.

    it is a matter of what conforms with reality.

    2) my suggestion was to investigate the corporate executives who support inaccurate talk radio.

    in other words,

    follow the money.

    much of the inaccuracy and viciousness in talk radio is commercially planned.

    like advertising, it is deliberately designed to manipulate emotions and to sell product by doing so

    3) the “fairness doctrine” was in place for decades prior to 1986 when the reagan administration FCC abandoned it.

    shortly thereafter began the reign of the talk show know-nothings, e.g., g. gordon “shoot’em in the head” liddy, oliver north, rush limbaugh, et al.

  • No Sen. Lott. Talk radio is not running America. LaRaza, the Catholic church, the Chamber of Commerce and other special interest groups are running America!

    • Comments are closed.