Posted on 01/28/2008 7:27:44 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
John McCain heads into Tuesday's Florida primary facing resistance from not only his fellow candidates, but also from the leaders of conservative talk radio, who some suggest have put their reputations on the line, as well.
Talk radio pioneer Rush Limbaugh said that if McCain or Mike Huckabee are nominated, "it's going to destroy the Republican Party." Mark Levin calls the senator "John McLame." On Monday, Laura Ingraham said she was "concerned about the mental stability of the McCain campaign" and had cuckoo-clock sound effects accompany his words.
"Sen. McCain is a great American, a lousy senator and a terrible Republican," Hugh Hewitt told The Associated Press. "He has a legislative record that is not conservative. In fact, it is anti-conservative."
Yet with McCain winning primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina, and in a virtual tie with Mitt Romney for the lead in polls in Florida, the top radio personalities are facing the possibility that their words are having little effect.
Radio host Michael Medved said that the big loser in South Carolina was talk radio, "a medium that has unmistakably collapsed in terms of impact, influence and credibility because of its hysterical and one-dimensional involvement in the GOP nomination fight."
Its continued resistance to McCain will be ineffective and will hurt both the Republican Party and the radio industry, Medved said.
The long-running hostility toward McCain stems from his failure to follow conservative orthodoxy on issues including immigration, global warming and money in politics, Hewitt said. McCain's endorsement by The New York Times _ the newspaper conservative talkers love to hate _ was just another indignity.
Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers magazine, warned against any conclusion that talk radio hosts would be diminished if McCain were to win the GOP nomination.
"It will give them an opportunity to reposition themselves in a more independent and populist way," Harrison said. Talk show hosts aren't judged on whom they pick as a candidate, any more than the jobs of football announcers are on the line with their Super Bowl predictions, he said.
They're judged on ratings and revenue, and every indication is that the election season will be a boon for talk radio, he said.
Limbaugh picked up on that point on the air last week when he rebutted any analysis by the "drive-by media" that McCain's strong showing had been a rebuke to him. He noted that a chapter in one of his books was titled "My Success is Not Determined by Who Wins Elections."
"You nominate the nominee; I don't," he said. "This notion ... that I've been overcome here, McCain's beaten me back, that's not the way to look at this, because that whole line of thinking relies on the fact that you people have to be perceived as mind-numbed robots and that you are all a bunch of sponges and you sit out there and you have no brain and you have no independent thoughts. You just listen to what I say and you go act on it.
"We know that's not the case," he said. "It's never been the case."
It's a reflection of the muddled primary race that radio talkers are more fixated on whom they don't like _ McCain _ than any candidate who wows them.
"The mood is that everyone offers something and nobody offers everything _ and that's why there is so much confusion," said L. Brent Bozell, founder of the conservative media watchdog Media Research Center.
Hewitt said he would vote for Mitt Romney "if I was voting today," but he's not. He also likes Rudy Giuliani.
If McCain were the Republican nominee running against either Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Obama, Hewitt said he would support McCain. So would most of his colleagues in talk radio, he said.
"It's not about taking your ball and going home," he said.
Their comments were cheap shots, vitriolic and clearly demonstrated all the tactics we blame the lib media types for.
It was cheap, tawdry and hugely disappointing. All day I asked myself, what would Reagan do???? and I knew it wasn’t what Limbaugh, Hannity and others were doing.
Obama/Hillary thank you.
I’m talking about how stinking lousy McCain is and that Romney looks better.
I don’t give a rip what a bunch of talkers on the radio say, nor who may be buying their contracts.
8 years of Bill and America is still here. 8 years of Hill and we'll still be here as well. Stop trying to use the same scare tactics that have been tried for the last 20 years.
If you can't give us a reason to vote for a conservative republican, how about stopping being a comedy act?
Thats why I am concerned with Mitt Romneys buying of the radio stations or being able to in any way sway what these hosts have to say
It is bordering on a dictatorship.
I don’t see how these radio hosts are putting their reputations on the line by speaking their mind. This must come from the Medvedian school of thought where if you don’t support the eventual winner, you must be a loser yourself. I have already lost all respect for Medved. If McCain somehow wins the presidency, I won’t suddenly respect Medved because he supported the guy.
Have you totally lost your mind?
McCain called me a bigot or was it racist? I will never ever vote for anyone who calls me those names, no matter what.
The bottom line is that ANY REPUBLICAN is better than ANY RAT.
Sorry but McCain would be just as bad, if not worse than Hillary or Obama.
That was the same story trotted out in 2000 with Clear Channel. Non-starter.
Get a grip...talk radio is a forum for ideas. Besides Rush and Hannity have not endorsed a candidate. Lots of info right here on Free Republic to make intelligent decisions on candidates issues and voting records.
I will be looking into this more I do feel it should be checked out too this is all I have to share for now though.
Clear Channel Communications is a media giant by any definition of the word. This behemoth owns more than 1,200 radio stations as well as syndication companies and billboard advertising. The company owns Premier Radio Network which has the syndication rights to the Rush Limbaugh show, Glen Beck and a host of others. Premier boasts more than 90 radio shows in its stable and offers services to more than 4,600 affiliates. Clear channel also has a lucrative contract with Sean Hannity, which agrees to air his program on 80 of their stations through 2010. In addition, nearly every talk radio host in America relies on Clear Channel stations for a large portion of their audience. Talkers like Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham and Mike Gallagher would suffer greatly if they were cut out by Clear Channel.
In a deal that has been in the works for some time, Bain Capital is leading a consortium that has offered to buy Clear Channel for the tidy sum of 19.5 BILLION dollars. The FCC recently approved the acquisition and Clear Channel execs expect the transaction to be finalized sometime in the first quarter of 2008. The fact that Romney’s company is purchasing CCC isn’t a problem. The governor’s liberal past and the way it’s being covered up and explained away is another matter.
Quite the contrary. It's mindless drones like you that's the foundation of her voter base.
And unfortunately, the Freep is infested with them.
Time to come out of that rut and do your due diligence on candidate McCain. He’s been good on the War and on pro-life issues. He’s a disaster on Amnesty for illegals, tax cuts, holding up judicial appointments, McCain-Feingold, gang of 14 etc.... and the list goes on.
Some followup
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear_Channel_Communications#History
Clear Channel Communications purchased its first FM station in San Antonio in 1972. The company purchased the second “clear channel” AM station WOAI in 1975. In 1986, the company purchased its first stations outside of San Antonio. In 1992, the U.S. Congress relaxed radio ownership rules slightly, allowing the company to acquire more than 2 stations per market. By 1995, Clear Channel owned 43 radio stations and 16 television stations. In 1996, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 became law. This act deregulated media ownership, allowing a company to own more stations than previously. Clear Channel went on a buying spree, purchasing more than 70 other media companies, plus individual stations.
In a few cases, following purchase of a competitor, Clear Channel was forced to divest some of its stations, as it were above the legal thresholds in some cities. In 2005, the courts ruled that Clear Channel must also divest itself of some “border blaster” radio stations in international border cities. One such instance was that of the nation’s first alternative rock radio station, 91X in Tijuana, Baja California/San Diego.
In 1997 Clear Channel moved out of pure broadcasting when it purchased billboard firm Eller Media [1] which was led by Karl Eller.
In 1998 it made its first move outside of the United States when it acquired the leading UK outdoor advertising company More Group plc which was led by Roger Parry; Clear Channel went on to buy many other outdoor advertising, radio broadcasting, and live events companies around the world, which were then re-branded Clear Channel International. These included a 51% stake in Clear Media Ltd. in China [2].
In 2005 Clear Channel Communications split into three separate companies. Clear Channel Communications was a radio broadcaster; Clear Channel Outdoor was out-of-home advertising; and Live Nation was live events. The Mays family remained in effective control of all three, and held key executive roles in each (with Mark Mays as CEO of both radio and outdoor and Randall Mays as Chairman of Live Nation).
On November 16, 2006, Clear Channel announced plans to go private, being bought out by two private-equity firms, Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital Partners for $18.7 billion, which is just under a 10 percent premium above its closing price of $35.36 a share on November 16 (the deal values Clear Channel at $37.60 per share).[1][2] The new ownership of Clear Channel has also announced that all of its TV stations were for sale, as well as 448 radio stations that were outside of the top 100 markets.[3] All of the TV stations and 161 of the radio stations were sold to a Providence Equity Partners, a private-equity firm, on April 23, 2007, pending FCC approval.[4]
Sorry, you gotta be out of your mind to think it would be just as bad or worse to have a president with a lifetime ACU rating of 82 as one with an ACU rating in the single digits (Hillary! or Barama).
He was a lousy warrior in war; why would he be a supreme warrior as CIC? We just can’t figure that out. As CIC he will receive no favors because of his father and grandfather and his temperamental behavior does not make for a good warrior in any capacity.
“the top radio personalities are facing the possibility that their words are having little effect.” I don’t agree; I think that they are having a decided cumulative effect and are causing Senator McCain to display his well-known temper and temperamentalism to the point where it will harm his campaign increasingly as it continues and builds. We started out thinking we could stand by him if he became the nominee but he is making it increasingly difficult to hold that position.
Moreover, I think that the broadcasting of Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin and others creates waves that amplify through forae such as this and other alternative media so that it increases in effect because of what Rush Limbaugh calls the “drive-by” quality of the MSM.
Right. Conservative Talk Radio has had a big impact in recent years on who we elect and has helped squelch some awfully bad things, such as the Amnesty Bill. It’s just that there are a lot of mind-numbed robots out there in the general public who don’t listen to talk radio, who don’t get the message. These are the people Hannity will ask general questions to, such as “Who is our Vice President?” and they are unable to answer correctly. They know what Britney Spears did today, but they don’t know basic facts about their country and government.
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