Beware the Secret Communist Muslim Anti-Trade, Windfall Profits Tax Guy

Matt Welch | June 11, 2008

Via Matt Drudge, I see that Camille Paglia has discovered that the AM airwaves ain't so friendly to the Democratic nominee:

Meanwhile, conservative talk radio, which I have been following with interest for almost 20 years, has become a tornado alley of hallucinatory holograms of Obama. He's a Marxist! A radical leftist! A hater of America! He's "not that bright"; he can't talk without a teleprompter. He knows nothing and has done less. His wife is a raging mass of anti-white racism. It's gotten to the point that I can hardly listen to my favorite shows, which were once both informative and entertaining. The hackneyed repetition is numbing and tedious, and the overt character assassination is ethically indefensible. Talk radio will lose its broad audience if it continues on this nakedly partisan path.

Judging from my exhaustive data set of listening to Neal Boortz for about 53 seconds this weekend, I can second that observation − the ominously pondered Obama's-secret-agenda shtick will be a main feature for the next six months, as Dave Weigel has already been documenting. You can almost hear the soundtrack of The Shadow playing in the background.

What this heavy breathing might end up obscuring (much in the way that Obama's "McCain = Bush" strategy obscures plenty that is troubling about the GOP nominee) is something that has received precious little attention this election cycle: The Democrats, while eyeing the prize of a unified Donkey government, have jerked themselves to the significant economic left of John Kerry and even Howard Dean of 2004, not to mention Gore 2000 and the two Bill Clinton terms. Here, I'll let Dem blogger Matthew Yglesias say it:

[T]he "center" wing of Democratic Party economic thought has shifted substantially left over the past few years. You can see that as many members of Clinton's economic team have grown more populist, in Bill Galston deciding that the era of big government is back, in any given Paul Krugman column, etc.

As for Paglia noticing just now that conservative talk radio engages in "hackneyed repetition" and "overt character assassination," the most charitable reaction might be that everyone's ears hear their own unique frequency.

Comments

|6.11.08 @ 10:13AM|#

Matt Welch, you're first to confirm something that I have noticed for the last couple of years. Talk radio used to be worthwhile--brash and bright. Now it's all shtick.

I blame George W. Bush. Seriously, power ruins everything.

Kyle|6.11.08 @ 10:16AM|#

"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!"

|6.11.08 @ 10:23AM|#

Judging from my exhaustive data set of listening to Neal Boortz for about 53 seconds this weekend

"exhausting" is probably the word you're looking for, Matt.

And in more important news, did everyone see that Donaghy came clean and admitted that the NBA rigs its playoff games? If you watched any basketball at all, that much was blindingly obvious. But now, finally, people can start discussing the issue without being called a nutjob.

Chris Howell|6.11.08 @ 10:25AM|#

She's been following talk radio for 20 years and she's just now noticing that it's become a partisan cesspool of shouting, rumor,and hate?

She thinks that talk radio will lose it's audience if it continues on this path? That's laughable! Talk radio lost it's audience back when Larry King was on local radio in Miami and married to his 5th wife.

The hackneyed repetition is numbing and tedious...? Rush Limbaugh has been calling his echo-chamber audience "ditto-heads" for at least 15 years.

Next thing she be lamenting about that Jack guy living with those two girls on Three's Company.

|6.11.08 @ 10:40AM|#

Talk radio used to be worthwhile--brash and bright. Now it's all shtick.

When, in the 50's?

There are definitely more of them now, but Rush and pals are Howard Stern + politics. Instead of saying "Show us your tits!" they say "Hillary Clinton is a communist and Barack Osama Bin Sadam Hussein wants to convert your children to Islam!" And their listeners say "Ditto!" instead of "Babba booey!" There are many things wrong with the Liberals in this country, but "Conservative" talk radio is the two-minute hate extended to four hours.

|6.11.08 @ 10:43AM|#

It's not just talk radio. Seems like we used to sit around the kitchen table and have vigorous debates about issues. Now the loudest shouter wins. I can't even talk with my colleagues about stuff unless we safely agree on all the issues to begin with. Otherwise someone gets "offended." Maybe there is a glimmer of hope these days, but I'm not sure. One thing I DO know is one of the reasons I like reason.com message boards is that most of the discussion is substantive and courteous, even when people disagree. And when there is shouting, it's WITTY shouting.

|6.11.08 @ 10:43AM|#

Talk radio was so much more highbrow and substantive back when Rush Limbaugh played the theme to the Jeffersons every time he discussed a black political figure.

Uy, yeah, Camillia, it's the radio hosts who've changed.

|6.11.08 @ 10:47AM|#

Obama. He's all things to all people.

If I ever run for president, I'm not going to say anything. I'll just wave, smile, and nod my head knowingly.

|6.11.08 @ 10:49AM|#

That's because the "Morans who need to get a brain" probably would just be confused by something like the Ginsberg/Lofton interview.

|6.11.08 @ 10:56AM|#

Chris Howell | June 11, 2008, 10:25am | #
She's been following talk radio for 20 years and she's just now noticing that it's become a partisan cesspool of shouting, rumor,and hate?

She thinks that talk radio will lose it's audience if it continues on this path? That's laughable! Talk radio lost it's audience back when Larry King was on local radio in Miami and married to his 5th wife.

The hackneyed repetition is numbing and tedious...? Rush Limbaugh has been calling his echo-chamber audience "ditto-heads" for at least 15 years.

Next thing she be lamenting about that Jack guy living with those two girls on Three's Company.

QFT

|6.11.08 @ 10:57AM|#

He's a Marxist! A radical leftist! A hater of America! He's "not that bright"; he can't talk without a teleprompter. He knows nothing and has done less. His wife is a raging mass of anti-white racism.

AM Radio? Heck, I read this from commenters on this blog just about daily.

Poi Boy|6.11.08 @ 11:00AM|#

Rush is still fun. That is the 45 minutes of commercials per hour don't cause you to jump in front of a semi truck.

T|6.11.08 @ 11:00AM|#

If I ever run for president, I'm not going to say anything. I'll just wave, smile, and nod my head knowingly.

We have an exhaustive compilation of your statements right here at HnR, and handily searchable at that. You won't make it 5 minutes if you run.

Unless, of course, you're handing out high paying campaign staff jobs. I'm sure most of us would be willing to accept a free market solution to your past indiscretions, as it were.

|6.11.08 @ 11:05AM|#

You can almost hear the soundtrack of The Shadow playing in the background.

Y'know, if Barack were to fall out wearing a cape and a fedora, brandishing two .45s, I might just vote for him.

|6.11.08 @ 11:20AM|#

I turn on talk radio when I drive home from work, just to see if they are saying anything interesting. I never learn my lesson as I am always dissappointed. Especially lately, as they (particularly Hugh Hewitt) have become incredibly moralizing and suffused with reliogiosity. That, combined with the rumor spreading and character assassination discussed in the article as well as their incessant cheerleading for the Bush administration in everytihg save immigration, is actually one of the main reasons I refuse to even consider voting Republican in this election.

Metal Messiah|6.11.08 @ 11:22AM|#

Talk radio has made America stupid, lazy, and easy to control.

|6.11.08 @ 11:23AM|#

oh, and the name dropping. Hewitt name drops like nobody's business. That's annoying. Plus, you know who is not funny at all these days? Dennis Miller, that's who. Anybody ever listen to his show? God awful.

|6.11.08 @ 11:24AM|#

Talk radio is also responsible for global warming.

Balancing act|6.11.08 @ 11:32AM|#

Would you say that talk radio's function is to balance out print media's flight to the left?

economist|6.11.08 @ 11:35AM|#

How would you shout on the message boards anyway? Is it WHEN PEOPLE OBNOXIOUSLY TYPE IN ALL CAPS IN THE VAIN HOPE THAT SOMEONE WILL ACTUALLY PAY A SHIT'S WORTH OF ATTENTION TO THEIR INCREDIBLY LAME POST?

economist|6.11.08 @ 11:40AM|#

Barack Obama's not a Marxist. There are several different types of socialism, with Marxism simply being the most virulent form. But I can understand the fears about his wife. And his pastor. And his Weather Underground terrorist friend. And his unwillingness to be specific in his policy proposals. It seems "Change" has become the new buzzword.

Sean Scallon|6.11.08 @ 11:56AM|#

"Talk radio will lose its broad audience if it continues on this nakedly partisan path."

She cannot have been listening to conservative talk radio for the past 20 years.

T|6.11.08 @ 11:58AM|#

Talk radio will lose its broad audience if it continues on this nakedly partisan path.

And now for your cringe inducing though of the day: imagine partisan talk radio hosts naked!

Eewww.

|6.11.08 @ 11:59AM|#

Talk radio will lose its broad audience if it continues on this nakedly partisan path.

I catch about half an hour or so of Rush every week while running errands, so this is based on a pretty small sample, but . . .

Its a pretty funny "nakedly partisan path" that includes relentless ripping of both major-party nominees.

|6.11.08 @ 12:01PM|#

ALL CAPS COMMENTS REMIND ME OF OLD PEOPLE WHO DON'T REALIZE THEY ARE TALKING TOO LOUD BECAUSE THEY ARE LOSING THEIR HEARING.

What?

jp|6.11.08 @ 12:19PM|#

Mention of talk radio brings only one thought to my mind:

Thank god for in-car CD players and the Teaching Company!

Egosumabbas|6.11.08 @ 12:35PM|#

I hate to break it to you Mr. Welch, but while Obama is not a Marxist, he is definitely a socialist. Don't believe me? I just heard him on NPR saying he would raise taxes. And I doubt he's going to reduce any spending, and he has lots of pet programs he wants to impose. The only silver lining is that we *might* have reduced military spending but cutting back the Iraq War, but I doubt there we would have net reduction there (Darfur comes to mind).

|6.11.08 @ 12:39PM|#

I can hardly listen to my favorite shows, which were once both informative and entertaining.

Was Camille Paglia recently freed from her father's basement after prolonged captivity?

jp|6.11.08 @ 1:05PM|#

Was Camille Paglia recently freed from her father's basement after prolonged captivity?

Nah, somebody just changed the buttons on her car radio without telling her. All these years, she's been under the impression that "Marketplace" is "conservative talk radio."

|6.11.08 @ 1:20PM|#

I don't listen to talk radio (okay, I listened to Dennis Miller online back when it was available for free), so I cannot comment directly on it. Still, it sounds like talk-radio may be aimed at cranky, old baby-boomers. The anti-Obama rhetoric sounds like the equivalent of turning the sprinklers on when the neighborhood kids are playing on your lawn.

|6.11.08 @ 1:28PM|#

In a perfect world, commenters would have access to blink tags and be able to set font colors. Style sheets would be nice, too.

T|6.11.08 @ 1:53PM|#

In a perfect world, commenters would have access to blink tags and be able to set font colors.

I bet you're all #FF00FF and blinky when nobody's looking. NTTAWWT, mind you.

|6.11.08 @ 1:56PM|#

T,

Sir, my seconds will call upon your seconds.

|6.11.08 @ 2:08PM|#

In a perfect world, commenters would have access to blink tags and be able to set font colors. Style sheets would be nice, too.

I shudder to think what Edward, Apaulogist, and Neil would do with that kind of power.

EJM|6.11.08 @ 2:11PM|#

[Michael:] Still, it sounds like talk-radio may be aimed at cranky, old baby-boomers.

"Cranky, old baby-boomers" practically represent the average talk station's target demo.

As far as "hackneyed repetition" (Paglia's phrase) goes, that's what radio (in general) is all about. Or, as the then-PD of KMJ in Fresno said when his station dropped Dr. Laura several years back, "It was like playing rock 'n' roll on a country music station."

|6.11.08 @ 2:16PM|#

Chris Potter,

With great power comes great responsibility.

|6.11.08 @ 2:29PM|#

In a perfect world, commenters would have access to blink tags and be able to set font colors. Style sheets would be nice, too.

Jeebus, PL, I'd settle for buttons that would let us do links, and maybe even basic formatting (quote, italics, bold, strikethrough). Perhaps someday, computer technology will allow such luxuries.

|6.11.08 @ 2:32PM|#

I think putting in manual tags works 9i) just fine

|6.11.08 @ 2:43PM|#

joe,

You should be restricted to ASCII Latin and numerical characters, even after we adopt full-immersion blogging.

|6.11.08 @ 3:12PM|#

Conservative talk show hosts say "Obama is a Marxist" while Matt says "The Democrats, while eyeing the prize of a unified Donkey government, have jerked themselves to the significant economic left of John Kerry and even Howard Dean of 2004, not to mention Gore 2000 and the two Bill Clinton terms."

Wow the distinction is mind blowing....almost as if those Radio show guys are on a medium that uses short hand labels to make a point while Matt uses a medium that allows for more elaboration....truly fascinating.

Seriously Matt, way is the cheap shot at Radio show hosts saying the same thing you are even in this post?

|6.11.08 @ 3:24PM|#

This is really all that needed to be said:

The Democrats, while eyeing the prize of a unified Donkey government, have jerked themselves to the significant economic left of John Kerry and even Howard Dean of 2004, not to mention Gore 2000 and the two Bill Clinton terms. Here, I'll let Dem blogger Matthew Yglesias say it:

[T]he "center" wing of Democratic Party economic thought has shifted substantially left over the past few years. You can see that as many members of Clinton's economic team have grown more populist, in Bill Galston deciding that the era of big government is back, in any given Paul Krugman column, etc.

As for Paglia noticing just now that conservative talk radio engages in "hackneyed repetition" and "overt character assassination," the most charitable reaction might be that everyone's ears hears their own unique frequency.

I really do not understand why the first part was tacked on to it. Are you trying to disguise the point by hiding it deep in the article with a shadow comic and some random "radio show hosts are crass" commentary?

|6.11.08 @ 3:27PM|#

In a perfect world, commenters would have access to blink tags and be able to set font colors. Style sheets would be nice, too.

Halo 3 fan sites are your perfect world?

|6.11.08 @ 4:07PM|#

Joshua,

Don't be ridiculous. My perfect world is one where I have godlike powers and adulation, with a giant statue of me that doubles as a space elevator.

Otherwise, it's Libertopia.

M2|6.11.08 @ 4:36PM|#

"As for Paglia noticing just now that conservative talk radio engages in "hackneyed repetition" and "overt character assassination," the most charitable reaction might be that everyone's ears hear their own unique frequency."

Matt,

I read Paglia's piece in Salon this morning. I have followed her work for more than a decade. And if you think she wrote that she's "noticing just now" the decline of conservative talk radio, your reading comprehension is well below average. Here is what Paglia wrote:

"Meanwhile, conservative talk radio, which I have been following with interest for almost 20 years, has become a tornado alley of hallucinatory holograms of Obama. He's a Marxist! A radical leftist! A hater of America! He's "not that bright"; he can't talk without a teleprompter. He knows nothing and has done less. His wife is a raging mass of anti-white racism. It's gotten to the point that I can hardly listen to my favorite shows, which were once both informative and entertaining. The hackneyed repetition is numbing and tedious, and the overt character assassination is ethically indefensible. Talk radio will lose its broad audience if it continues on this nakedly partisan path."

She says she follows it "with interest". I've read Farrakhan's paper "The Final Call" for years. In your mind, Matt, does that make me a black muslim?

And frankly, anyone that would think that Paglia listens to talk radio because she is a conservative thinker, has to have spent the last twenty year's living in a cave.

Matt Welch|6.11.08 @ 5:28PM|#

M2 -- I'm familiar with that whole quote, as you might notice in the post, where I, um, quoted it.

And frankly, anyone that would think that Paglia listens to talk radio because she is a conservative thinker, has to have spent the last twenty year's living in a cave.

I did not call her a "conservative thinker."

skrode|6.11.08 @ 11:02PM|#

Just tryin somethin' new from html page

skrode|6.11.08 @ 11:05PM|#

Again just tryin somethin new.

skrode|6.11.08 @ 11:08PM|#

Once again just tryin somethin new.

zoltan|6.12.08 @ 12:43PM|#

What was talk radio's reaction to Ron Paul?