Posted on 08/20/2007 9:46:46 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Talk radio helped sink immigration reform
By: Mike Allen Aug 20, 2007 09:19 AM EST
Opposition from key talk radio and cable TV hosts helped kill the immigration bill in Congress, a study out today concludes.
“What listeners of the conservative talk radio media were hearing, in large part, was that the legislation itself was little more than an ‘amnesty bill’ for illegal immigrants, a phrase loaded with political baggage,” it says.
The study by the nonpartisan Project for Excellence in Journalism quantifies what White House and Capitol Hill phone lines and e-mail inboxes already indicated: Talk radio focused on the immigration debate more intensely than the mainstream media did from April to June.
Conservative hosts touched off a brushfire in the Republican base that President Bush and other party leaders were helpless to contain.
"If media attention translates into political pressure, the argument that talk radio helped kill the immigration bill in Congress has some support in the data," the study says. "Thanks to energetic opposition from Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Michael Savage, immigration was the biggest topic, at 16%, on conservative talk radio in the second quarter."
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
When your lies are exposed to the people it is depressing, isn’t it Congressman?
Life can get tough when a legislator can’t out talk a Conservative radio host.
I also understand that it you plan on walking on the sun, you should do it at night.
Never mind that it was the truth.
Geez, this guy is REALLY sharp! (sarc)
These people have no clue how talk radio works.
PEOPLE TALKED!
People expressed their opinion and knew that opinion was a majority opinion across the fruited plain.
The MSM shuts down opinion. The MSM pushed the myth the majority wanted amnesty. THAT was the lie.
Talk radio was a truest expression of first amendment of the citizens.
Talk radio did not tell people what to think, listeners told talk radio what they thought and THEN they told congress.
(congress then bough industrial depends diapers and tried to blame someone else)
“Life can get tough when a legislator can’t out talk a Conservative radio host.”
LMBO!
Many people objected to the fast-track secretive nature of this bill, given it's potential massive impact on the nation, and talk-radio exposed that aspect as well.
-PJ
“If media attention translates into political pressure, the argument that talk radio helped kill the immigration bill in Congress has some support in the data,” the study says. “Thanks to energetic opposition from Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Michael Savage, immigration was the biggest topic, at 16%, on conservative talk radio in the second quarter.”
80% of the country was against the immigration bill. If conservative talk show was to blame for sinking the bill then 80% of the audience is conservative. That means that there are only 20% liberals in the United States. That’s the best news I have heard in a long time! s/
I’ve heard from several folks in the know that Kit Bond was genuinely surprised at the number of phone calls and letters on the subject. This tells me that Kit really needs to come home.
Talk Radio is only explaining what we are seeing with our own eyes in our own cities and towns.......sheeeeeesh!
Thank God for that!
Ref post #5.
Thank you.
I was thinking the same exact thing, but you beat me to it.
According to the article, we as individuals are too stupid to think for ourselves.
On a slightly deeper level, I believe most talk radio hosts log onto Free Republic. We started a brush fire here, and they picked up on it to carry the torch. Way to go!
That's a hoot. What was their old name, Idiots United?
Wonder who's under this rock?
Rosenstiel, a former media critic for the Los Angeles Times and chief congressional correspondent for Newsweek...
Yep, if I were non-partisan, I'd work for the LA Times and Newsweek too!
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