r9etb wrote:
“In a way, Kondracke is right. And to be honest, I ‘fired’ Rush several years ago. Hannity, too. And talk radio in general, for that matter.
Why? Various reasons, but mostly because talk radio is ratings-driven, and because of that it is shallow and generally targets knee-jerk reactions.
What conservatives really need to do, is re-learn how to think. Talk radio is not helpful in that regard; in many respects, it prevents thinking. “
end quote
Limbaugh is a brilliant propagandist for our cause. While he has to be entertaining to be viable, he is unflinchingly committed to conservative principles and never fails to defend them. Sure, he oversimplifies things. (Gosh, our opponents on the left never do that!!) But his audience is much more informed on the issues and basics of our government than the general voting populace by a lot (and I believe there is a recent poll to support this). The assertion that Limbaugh prevents listeners from thinking is demonstrably false. And, I wouldn’t trade you one Limbaugh in exchange for 10 George Wills in terms of effectively promoting conservative ideas...
No, he's not. For propaganda to be effective, it has to reach the people whose minds and behavior you want to change. Rush's listeners are, by and large, members of the choir. For most of the rest of the voting public, Rush is either a non-entity, or an active bogey-man, and in either case he has at best no influence on their opinions.
I suppose one could say that Rush is good at stirring up the choir ... and he often does bring up important topics that might otherwise be missed. But the word "propaganda" in the context of "preaching to the choir" is a rather troubling one; and I suspect that in many cases it is unfortunately the correct word to use.