If you are a fan or “lurker” of conservative talk radio, you’ve probably noted how some of the top hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity plug certain groups and encourage listeners to get on the groups’ bandwagons. Is it all political and/or intellectual solidarity? Hardly.
In fact, these talkers are making very big bucks to do a kind of ideological product placement.
The best take on this is from Republican David Frum in this must read on the great news weekly The Week HERE.
Here’s just a tiny bit from it. Frum first points to a report about the $2 million it pays to sponsor Limbaugh’s show and the $1.3 million it hands over to Hannity — money well spent. He writes:
Understand: We are not talking about commercials, separated from the main flow of editorial content. Heritage work is embedded and inserted directly into the editorial flow of the Limbaugh program, as if selected without regard to the money paid.
Also understand: It’s not just Limbaugh, and it’s not just Heritage.
Heritage pays for similar treatment on Sean Hannity’s radio program. FreedomWorks pays for mentions on the Glenn Beck show. Americans for Prosperity pays to be promoted on Mark Levin’s show. The endorsements often obscure the paid-for nature of the broadcaster’s endorsement.
Ditto for the relentless advocacy of gold purchases by almost every radio host.
Yes I recently heard a liberal talker talk about gold in this talkers “portfolio.” It’s interesting that all of these hosts talk about it in the same way in the same words — as if it really is in their “portfolio.” MORE:
Just imagine if the CBS Evening News were to accept $2 million from a pharmaceutical company, and then run news spots about the excellent benefits from taking that company’s medication. Imagine if the Los Angeles Times accepted $2 million from a company promoting a natural gas pipeline, and then published editorials advocating government approval of the pipeline route. Imagine if columnists at the Financial Times accepted money to tout British bonds or German stocks.
Shocking, right? Yet for millions of Americans, conservative talk radio is a news source much more trusted than CBS or the Los Angeles Times or the Financial Times.
The relationships between radio hosts and their ideological sponsors are not exactly secret. But they are habitually presented in ways that blur the bought-and-paid-for character of the promotion and endorsement.
Nor is radio unique.
There are conservative television personalities and staff writers on important conservative newspapers who operate consulting companies that can be hired by companies and individuals who might well have an interest in influencing what these personalities and staff writers have to say. So far, I’ve heard of no case of a politician buying such promotion. But as talk radio comes under increasing economic pressure due to dropping advertising rates and aging audience demographics, who knows what revenue-enhancing methods may be tried in the future?
Read his piece in full.
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.