The Right Frequency: Is talk radio dividing America?

 In a Listening Post special, Flo Phillips travels across the US to ask what role conservative talk radio is playing in polarising American politics.

All day, every day, conservative talk radio hosts keep millions of Americans company as they commute, work and go about their daily lives.

The mix of opinionated, entertaining and unapologetically right-wing talk has proven a winning broadcast formula – a billion-dollar industry – one that has given a voice to an audience that long felt unheard.

Upset By Fauci's Message On COVID-19, Trump, Right-Wing Media Attack The Messenger

Dr. Anthony Fauci has found himself in the crosshairs of both President Donald Trump and networks like Fox News after he warned against opening the country too quickly. Trump claimed Fauci’s remarks about reopening schools, made during a Senate briefing on federal coronavirus response, contradicted what Fauci had told him privately. And several Fox News personalities have attacked Fauci’s credibility, and said his expertise should be dismissed because he is an unelected official.

Will 60% Get Coronavirus? w Stephen Fry.

Will coronavirus keep resurging until we reach herd immunity, with 60% of the population infected? Or can we hold it back until a vaccine is available?

“Misinformation spread through a rich network, crippling America’s defenses,” Fry said over clips of Fox News, radio host Rush Limbaugh and right-wing evangelicals.

You’re watching Fox News. You just don’t know it.

Fox News was created to push right-wing nonsense to the mainstream, and now there’s no escape.


We tend to assume that if a story is being covered by major news networks, it’s because journalists have decided that the story is important. But thanks to Fox News, that’s not always true. The network was specifically created to generate scandals that would hurt Democrats and help Republicans. And because most major networks pay attention to what happens in conservative media, those pseudoscandals end up creeping into mainstream coverage. The result is a media ecosystem that advantages Republicans by paying disproportionate attention to right-wing talking points.

Trump’s Election And The Power Of Fear

Donald Trump’s campaign for the presidency was defined by fear, paranoia, and a distrust of the government and mainstream media. And it succeeded thanks, at least in part, to right-wing media outlets, which have spent the past few years competing for Republican voters’ attention by terrifying them with increasingly apocalyptic horror stories about the state of the country.

This brand of right-wing paranoia poses a real threat to American democracy -- radicalizing voters and lawmakers alike. And if journalists can’t figure out how to effectively dispel that paranoia, Americans are going to keep seeing their government hijacked by hucksters who are more interested in profiting from a shtick than they are in actually improving lives.