As a general principle no conversations have involved more varied opinions than discussions about the supposed “conservative” media and their seeming cognitive dissonance when it comes to issues surrounding Senator Ted Cruz.
Some people think these voices were just hoodwinked by Cruz and now their ego won’t permit them to admit the falsehood. Others think the pundits are too close to the candidate to see the inherent issues and contradictions; some propose their punditry is connected to financial motives. Perhaps it’s a combination therein, but many people just can’t figure it out.
Whatever the reason, and personally I don’t care one way or the other, one of the realities is their collective influence is marginalized – common sense people, former viewers and listeners, just laugh at them now.
However, historically pundits don’t care so much about influence as they do about affluence. When the money lessens or dries up, that’s when the opinion shifts…. just watch – it’s a guaranteed truism.
Glenn Beck did not lose his Fox TV show because of bad ratings, he lost it because Fox News couldn’t find advertisers for his show. If sponsors were willing to pay for Beck’s 5:00pm News Hour, he’d still be on TV. It was the financial boycotting that drove him out.
The financing in/around political campaigns (consulting is a billion dollar industry) know the ideology of punditry can be retained so long as their affluence is maintained.
This has led to speculation that broadcast punditry is being funded in part by political campaigns. There is a considerable amount of evidence to support this, as FEC documents reveal tens of millions spent via LLC’s connected to media enterprises.
Salem Media Communications is the biggest recipient of the Super-PAC and campaign cash by far – look up who their voices are and you’ll see the most visible members of the #NeverTrump campaign. Salem is followed by iHeart (Limbaugh), Resurgent (Erickson) and many more. The chairman of Glenn Beck’s Mercury One Charity, David Barton, is also in charge of Keep The Promise, Ted Cruz’s Super-PAC – the same super-PAC that gave Carly Fiorina $500k last year.
The anticipated problem when political groups fund political punditry is obvious. Candidate Donald Trump being in the race merely shines a brighter spotlight upon the issue.
Trump has a massive impact on this issue because: a.) he doesn’t purchase their opinion or play the payola game. b.) he can generate his own publicity; and most importantly c.) Trump has a larger support base than the political groups that do play this scheme.
The problem for the punditry class is this dichotomy creates a disconnect between the pundit and the majority of their audience. The pundit is selling one thing, the audience is supporting something entirely different. Sound familiar?
However, all of that being said – we don’t believe these voices are entirely stupid. Some of them are close to stupid as a circumstance of their ideology, but they’re not stupid as a general disposition. This group is intellectually dishonest by intent, not mistake.
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