Independent-minded talk radio host and Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Michael Smerconish gives us our political Quote of the Day — on something I have long contended: that the growth of talk radio which has turned politics into verbal professional wrestling and big bucks entertainment has damaged America’s political landscape by accentuating the left/right and Democratic/Republican partisan divides — and leaving a big fat hole in the middle. I did my syndicated Cagle column this week on Barack Obama and America’s pretzel politics. Smerconish HERE in a must-read addresses the issue of our donut politics — the hole in the middle.
Key parts:
Media polarization based on a faux ideological and partisan divide is having a horrific effect on Washington, where collegiality used to be commonplace but is now kryptonite. Before, politicians raised a glass with one another at the end of the day. Today, they raise their voices as if they’re on a perpetual split screen.
And they get rewarded for it by each party’s respective base – in the form of campaign contributions and increasingly important primary-election support. The more doctrinaire the view, the more likely it will be encouraged with campaign funds and interview requests.
That individualism is dead in D.C. is not subject to debate. The National Journal recently detailed how Congress is more divided today than at any point in the last 30 years…
There are many reasons for this, including the diminished role of seniority, which allows telegenic ideologues to rise to positions of power. Gerrymandering robs us of competitive races, while closed primaries cater to each party’s base, further isolating moderate voters..
But the media is also a big contributor insofar as it gives voice to the extremes while ignoring the middle. That’s because the loyalty derived from partisan listeners (as well as viewers or readers) is thought to outweigh the benefits of seeking to expand the listening tent.
As I have said many times: The traditional role of politicians and political parties has been to build coalitions that win elections and govern by aggragating interests. Talk radio hosts and producers seek to saw off specific demographic chunks an deliver them to advertisers. This means whipping up partisanship, anger, whatever it takes to have this demographic come back for more. In a sense, talkers aggravate versus aggragate interests.
And then there is the issue of centrists and moderates on talk radio and cable shows.
Exactly how many of them do you see on many of these shows?
I’ve been on a few panels (notably on Ronald Reagan Jr’s old MSNBC show, Rich Sanchez on CNN and CNN’s Don Lemon has had me on seventimes as part of a three person independent voter panel that he and CNN producers really like). More often than not on most of the cable shows you see it set up left-right or Democrat-Republican with people talking over each other or shouting — and you see that smug look on the host’s face and they often say it: “We’ll have to have you two back on!!!” Partisan anger, the inability to agree is what our media now thrives on. Solutions? BORING. Discussion that doesn’t have anger? Zzzzzzzzzzzz.
A few years ago I was on a local Air America station show in San Diego where the liberal host invited me on supposedly to talk about a moderate’s point of view. But he and his producer really used it to suggest I was really a closet conservative Republican. Why, how could any could be an independent?”How can anyone be a moderate?” he asked, not talking about the issues he promised to talk about with me. And when I answered he and his producer repeatedly and loudly talked over me: “A moderate cup of coffee…a moderate case of cancer…a moderate case of AIDS” — and then hung up. To me it was quintessential talk radio: I was invited on under false pretenses and the whole segment was to say moderates can’t exist.
Which seems to be the position of many cable and radio talk show hosts and producers.
MORE:
It’s time to change that business model, I argued to the NAB [National Association of Broadcasters]. A Wall Street Journal-NBC News survey conducted at the end of August found that 40 percent of Americans said their general approach to issues is “moderate.” Indeed, the only people whose politics align perfectly with the right- and left-wing litmus tests are those discussing current events on radio and cable television. In my experience, most people are conservative on some points, liberal on others, and haven’t reached an opinion on the rest.
But you’d never know they exist from listening and watching the media today, which extend themselves not to the middle, but to the extremes.
And, indeed, it is a desert out there.
I used to love talk radio. I was a HUGE fan of Rush Limbaugh when he first came on because he was trul funny and blasted both Democrats and Republicans (establishment types), But once then-President George H.W. Bush invited his onetime critic Limbaugh to sleep over in the Lincoln bedroom, Limbaugh changed and became a party person and as his influence gained from his growing impact on Republican listeners and their voting, he mushroomed, stopped being funny and became a party power, agenda setter and kingmaker whose negative focus is almost exclusively on Democrats and moderates.
Over the next 9 or 10 months I will be traveling the country extensively — and thank God for XM satellite radio, where I can listen to CNN, CSPAN, and other channels but particularly XM’s GREAT, serious political talk show POTUS (Politics of the United States) –which is worth the subscription alone. Most AM talk is hard right or (if you can find it) left. And a lot of it is entertaining. But I have a problem after a while listening to talk show hosts on the left and right who feel moderates and independents are a)too stupid to immediately agree to see things through their viewpoint b)easy to manipulate c)what is dragging the country down. And you can drive from market to market to market and get nothing but Limbaugh and Sean Hannity (who is Rush Limbaugh without the wit and broadcast talent) in market after market. MORE:
It’s a vicious cycle that robs us of substantive dialogue at a time when it is desperately needed, and political deal-making has been replaced with deadlock. There are even fights over which night the president will speak to Congress.
Substance need not equal boredom. I did not ask the NAB membership to sacrifice their business objective – namely, attracting listeners. Rather, I asked the broadcast executives to allow hosts to build an audience without being compelled to construct a political clubhouse in which every member must agree on every issue. Provide a platform to entertaining, compelling voices that might not fit the current mold.
For the sake of your stations, and the nation.
His points are well taken, but I am not optimistic.
Unless shows such as his and other radio and cable shows that don’t only use the anger-polarization models thrive, we are moving into the 21st century where entertainment political talk has defined the language of our politics and some of its values.
Compromise? It’s selling out.
The middle? They’re uniformed voters who can’t make up their mind or squishy.
A discussion? You’ve got to get left and right or D or R.
Yes, you can find an oasis: CNN (which has John Avlon as a commentator and the great David Gergen). And you can now find two serious political talk shows on MSNBC: Morning Joe with Joe Scarborough and Up with Chris Hayes have opted for smart, witty, issue oriented talk versus red faces and yelling political spinners from each party.
The print newspaper at the turn of the century….silent movies…talking movies..the launching of AM radio…the birth of television…talk radio…the web…all have had impacts on our culture.
Talk radio most assuredly has — but rather than come in the form of broadcasting it’s more like narrowcasting, dividing American into pockets that see the other side as an enemy. And he or she who works with the side or — even worse — does not belong to one side or the other is an enemy. The marketplace will change it but right now people are enjoying the strident market place offerings so don’t look for big changes (just yet).
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Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.