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KINDER AND GENTLER" POLITICS
(We had planned this issue to celebrate the 50th birthday of our First Woman, however, your response to GenderGappers 1997-032 caused us to decide to address some of your questions and suggestions since they have a bearing on our Hillary Rodham article. Many thanks for your great feedback about your local hate radio.)
Anyone who was attentive to politics during the late 1980's will remember the chairperson of the Republican National Committee, Lee Atwater, who served during Bush's term. In his book, he tells how he started a plan that is still in effect, although GenderGappers quickly caught on to his trickery and more voters are getting it every day.
Atwater's plan was simple but very effective. He based it on a survey showing that a large majority of media reporters were Democrats. This is true since reporters, for the most part, are products of liberal college curriculums. What he did not reveal (nor has our "free" press) is that a large majority of the owners and editors of our media are Republican. It is at this level that editorial spins and slants are made, not by reporters.
So Atwater sent the word out to all the faithful by telephone, fax, mail and word of mouth: Whenever you write an article or call a talk show, talk up anything positive toward Republicans in the media and if there is any story detrimental toward Republicans, call it unfair and the result of "THE LIBERAL MEDIA."
We've written before concerning hate-radio, both the national and local. You'll hear "liberal media" mentioned whenever news reports show Republicans have just as many warts as Democrats.
However, when the news contains anti-Democrat reports, suddenly all the callers, and especially the hate-radio host, quote the various media reports with great glee (ignoring entirely their comments of the previous day when they dissed all media reports as liberal.)
Lee's plan worked better than he could ever have imagined and planted in the public mind a liberal bias that just does not exist. The key to his plan's success was repetition, the idea being that if people heard a lie often enough, they would come to believe it.
It also worked because Republicans own the hate/talk radio airways. Democrats have made attempts to challenge that supremacy but have failed in most media markets. There are many reasons for this such as sponsor preference for the business-favoring Republicans; the general political preference of the kind of person who calls in to a media market (local hate radio) to complain and a Republican penchant for being mean spirited. This talent put the "hate" in hate-radio and made for "interesting" radio.
Democrats did try to compete for the black hearts and angry minds of radio audiences but ended up completely outclassed since they failed to compete with the virulent and highly partisan Republican radio hosts and callers. They also failed to erase the Lee Atwater disinformation concerning the existence of a "liberal press."
Few who have listened can fathom how these callers, many who call themselves Christians, can, day after day, call in to trash any person who is not a Republican. They get their "facts" from such sources as Limbaugh (the voice of the R.N.C.), Leddy and Falwell, for example. Falwell has made millions with his tapes "proving" that the Clintons killed their good friend, Vince Foster, and "proving" that Hillary is a lesbian, as well as countless other accusations of impropriety on the part of anyone associated with the White House. Despite the millions that Starr spent as special counsel, there has been no indication that those "Falwell-facts" have a modicum of validity. Even Starr's announcement did not stop hate-radio fanatics from insisting with certainty, the vilest reports from Falwell just had to be true. They are still busily supporting Paula Jones, as are the other "religious/political" groups.
If caller venom cools down, the hate-radio host will provide interviews with authors, such as Martin Gross, that exhort listeners to hate and distrust women, racial minorities and emigrants. Gross gives new meaning to the words "mean spirited" as he goads callers to stamp out political correctness wherever they think it exists and use force to do it.
Why should we listen to these fanatics who deal in disinformation?
Hey, ya gotta be impressed with their single minded rage and persistence in the face of truth. In our locality, listening to hate radio is a favorite pastime among uncommitted (nonpartisan) voters. There is just nothing else in the media that is funnier than the daily venting of the acephalics.
1997-041
Copyright 1997 Renee T. Louise and Ruth M. Sprague, Ph.D. These articles may be republished for noncommercial use only, provided that they are copied intact, and that this copyright notice is attached. Address all queries to: TWANDA@ConnRiver.net.
G e n d e r G a p p e r s T M
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