WASHINGTON - When the White House wanted to talk to its political base about a Supreme Court nominee this week, there was no doubt where to go: talk radio.
Vice President Dick Cheney took the administration's case to the Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity programs, speaking simultaneously to the normally sympathetic hosts and their audiences of like-minded Republicans.
A decade after Republicans credited Limbaugh with helping them win control of Congress - they called him the Majority Maker - they still look to his conservative-dominated medium for a lopsided communications edge over Democrats. Today, they count on talk radio to rally support for President Bush, attack those who criticize or question him, and stir passions leading into the 2006 midterm congressional elections.
There are signs that the Republicans could be losing some of their overwhelming edge, however. Ratings for Limbaugh and Hannity slipped this spring in some markets. Liberals such as Ed Schultz, Stephanie Miller and Al Franken are carving out their own radio niche. And Democrats argue that they have an edge on the Internet, where explosive growth could dwarf the political impact of radio.
Some of that could be just wishful thinking by Democrats. The slip in ratings, for example, could be a normal drop in political interest after an election year. They also could be untrue - radio ratings are difficult to measure. And even if Limbaugh and Hannity have fewer listeners than they did in the past, they still have millions more than liberal talk show hosts.
The Republicans are slipping from their advantage in talk radio? Now that's interesting. The Republicans have always had the advantage in the talk radio business, since they were the ones who started on presenting their message through the radio, back in the 80s with the introduction of Limbaugh's program. But talk radio isn't as powerful as it was back in the 80s. Today, an individual can get their news and opinions through a variety of sources--talk radio, television, satellite radio, blogs. Even better yet, an individual can become their own programmer, creating blogs to convey their opinions and including in their blogs photos, videos, and MP3s. Instead of listening to opinions, or calling into a radio station to present their opinion--subjected to the station guidelines, an individual is presenting their own opinion through their own medium without censorship.
Still, I wonder--with the president's poll numbers dropping, and almost 2/3rds of Americans thinking the country is heading in the wrong direction, how many people are starting to tune out of the Republican-propaganda-talk-radio-machine, where Rush and Hannity are spouting the same White-House-approved-fantasy-land talking points, while they're looking out the window and seeing the real truth of the issues?
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