As has been repeated over and over in the comments section, the radio airwaves belong to us, the public...not conservatives. It frustrates me that we, the public, allow conservatives to use our airwaves, seemingly exclusively, to undermine us with lies and hate speech. It's one thing to have a point-of-view, but it's quite another to support that point of view with make-believe "facts" and statistics while simultaneously arguing that anybody who disagrees with them are traiters, etc.

I don't know what the solution is, but we shouldn't allow this to continue unabated.

Sean Hannity, the second highest-rated host, quickly cast his afternoon show as the home of "conservatism in exile."

I'm guessing an editor somewhere changed this from " Hannity cast his afternoon shadow on the deep hole of conservatism in exile."

I understand that conservatives like to hear what they already believe, but isn't there a saturation point?

I'd say Thompson will soon grow tired of hosting a two-hour daily program -- let's just say his strengths lie elsewhere

I never really thought of "napping" as a strength, but fair enough.

I don't think it's a sign of conservative radio resurgence.

More like personal desperation to me.

Why?

With the collapse of the financial markets along with the eelights and riches (see Madoff) there is considerably less money for wingnut welfare. Who is going to pay $25-50K to hear Rudy sputter? No one if Hedge Funds keep dying at the rate they are now. Who is going to keep Fred Thompson in the lifestyle he has grown accustomed to? Nobody.

No one is going to ask these clowns to run again. Both Rudy and Fred were spectacular failures as candidates.

This is why I suspect these guys are all running to the radio. They're hoping for a slice of now rapidly shrinking ad money lifeline. I suspect that that money won't be there very shortly and a lot of media companies are going to regret throwing their money at Limbaugh et al.

Nobody puts Bob Grant in a corner!

Who listens to radio?

CJ said:
I don't know what the solution is, but we shouldn't allow this to continue unabated.

I don't know either but two doable things that would help:
1) local content rules requiring x number of hours a day be produced locally, not just bought up syndicated stuff.

2) Revert back to the original rules that no person or company can own more than 8 radio stations in the country, and may not own more than one AM and one FM in any given market.

3)Make all for profit radio stations pay royalties for the use of the airwaves based on their profit.

It may not change things, but would at least add some fun.

My guess is they will be slicing up the same pie. Hannity and Rush's market share haven't increased much, they get their 20 million, which is quite a few. But they aren't getting new listeners. They absolutely turn off a large portion of the population, even the conservative population. If the Fascist Michaeal Savage can get air time, anyone can get air time.

Steve Benen wrote: "... far-right blowhards are disappointed with the outcome of the elections, but they're thrilled about having new targets for their rage ..."

Of course they are thrilled.

The fake, phony, trumped-up, corporate-sponsored, pseudo-ideological cult of hatred known as "conservatism" -- which these "blowhards" are very, very, very well-paid to promote to their weak-minded, ignorant, dittohead followers -- has no actual content except hatred of "liberals", just as the fake, phony pseudo-ideology of mid-1930s brownshirts had no actual content except hatred of "Jews".

Rank-and-file "conservative" mental slaves will be thrilled because, let's face it, obligatory hero-worship of George W. Bush was just never as fulfilling as the Cult Of Clinton Hatred that most of them grew up with in the 1990s. Now the Obama presidency offers them the thrilling prospect of wallowing in an orgy of hate once again for the next four to eight years.

And Limbaugh and his lying, hate-mongering corporate-mouthpiece clones are thrilled with the dollar signs dancing in their eyes.

Oh how those hot gas-bags love their industrial hate! -Kevo

Is it too much to hope that Right Wing Radio's unparalleled ability to detach itself from reality is slowly dooming it to obscurity?

Seems to me they are not about conservatism but trying to make a profit off the gullible flock.

Don't make the same mistake Clinton did. Keep these fuckers on defense. Senate hearing at the very least into torture and corruption, call out their ideology time and time again. It's insane hearing free market Chicago School devotees on radio and in print STILL able to push their idiotic talking points never mind that low life simps like Hannity and Limbaugh can just morph away from defense of their crimes into attack dogs.

When Good Morning America, CNN, Today, the NBC Evening News and the other MSM outlets restore political balance, talk radio will lose its unique appeal for conservatives. I don't expect that anytime soon. None of you listen so I know you don't know why conservatives listen. It's amazing the news you hear that is covered nowhere else. That's why Air America is such a failure. It's redundant.

Nice to see CJ express the leftist urge for totalitarianism so clearly.

I hope they schedule Fred Thompson's show for the bedtime hour.

I always thought that the motive for private-equity purchase of Clear Channel was not to make money off it, but to cross-subsidize it until some deep-pocketed ideologue takes it off their hands.

None of you listen so I know you don't know why conservatives listen. It's amazing the news you hear that is covered nowhere else.

That "news" you hear that is covered nowhere else? It's covered nowhere else because it never happened.

The conservative thirst for fairy tales never ceases to amaze me. "If Rush said it, it must be true! Why isn't the MSM covering it!?!!?"

It's amazing the news you hear that is covered nowhere else.

Some of us do listen, and your definition of News must include horseshit, because if you throw out the liberal bashing, there's not much else left.

I mean think about it: once you're done selling the rubes on corporate pseudoscience, republican talking points, you've still got to stoke their most insane conspiracy theories and their hatred for 50% of their fellow countrymen.

Who's got time for the news?

It's just so easy to run this country from behind the safety of a microphone and a well-paid job.

Anyone for a Limbaugh/Hannity ticket in 2012, just to show the boys how badly they would loose, when it comes down to the actual hard reality of having the knowledge and vision to run this country from behind the presidential desk. Neither of these men have either of those vital elements.

Maybe its time to listen to hope instead of hate?

Bush the Decider was short of same and look at the condition of the country now. Go ahead, conservatives, keep Limbaugh and Hannity as your mouth piece poster boys for political intelligence. They are a large part of what's put the Republican Party in exile with their continual suspension of reality. I would like to hear what either of these men have had a hand in fixing in our nation besides their own contracts and paychecks.

Some people don't work on the computer at the "office."
And you don't have to stand around in front of a radio,
You can even be working under a car or carry a box.

Atrios says: "Dying business. Good riddance."

Sometimes even Duncan Black is an idiot.

"It's amazing the news you hear that is covered nowhere else"

I know, right? Rupert Murdock and his liberal media totally have the news all sewn up.

Lisa Bonnices has news that isn't covered anywhere else either. Same venue.

Mike K - Surely you must be insulted by SecularAnimist's description of you, the audience for Rush, Sean, etc. But as a fellow listener of these guys, I have to say that SecularAnimist is correct.

I would prefer to listen to balance, I do listen to NPR (who give much more airtime to Cato Institute & AEI spokespersons than they give to outright liberals). I am sure that you think of NPR as a hotbed of socialists, godless communists, liberals, and all of us liberal worshipers of Baal. And that's a symptom of you being an idiot.

Sean can't stop talking about how Al Franken is trying to "steal the election," as I'm sure that you know. No proof for this insult to the Minn. electoral officers, but that does not stop him from spewing his horseshit.

I really feel sorry for pathetic rubes like you.

Oh, and you LOST. You lost because the people you put your trust in were (and are) con men. You've been conned, robbed, duped, and exposed as the brain-dead mark that Republicans love. Does it feel good?

the rush for microphones looks a bit like conservatives playing an odd game of musical chairs.

What's more interesting is the rush to hire them. So much for the "liberal media."

Oh, and there's a name for anyone who believes that Good Morning America, CNN, Today, the NBC Evening News and the other MSM outlets are "liberal": conspiracy nut.

Mike K: thanks for publicly reveling in your ignorance and celebrating the fact you are a mouth-breathing moron. It's always nice to know what Homo Sap looks like. FWIW, Mike, everything Rush Limpdick says can be proven for the lie it is, but you need to keep sending him money, since he needs it for that lifetime supply of Viagra so he can get it on with the 10-year old Dominican girls he loves to fuck. (the only "females" one of you braindead dipshits can deal with, which is why so many of you get arrested for child abuse and incest.)

The fascists (they're not "conservatives" any more than Hitler was a "conservative," though he campaigned as one) always do better in their self-appointed role of persecuted minority, which they kept trying to say they were for the past 14 years, which demonstrates how far into "cloud cuckoo land" they live.

Mike K wrote: "When Good Morning America, CNN, Today, the NBC Evening News and the other MSM outlets restore political balance, talk radio will lose its unique appeal for conservatives."

All of the media outlets you mention are part the wholly-owned propaganda machine of America's Ultra-Rich Ruling Class, Inc.

Their concept of "political balance" is to do what they are paid to do, namely to propagandize and brainwash their audience in furtherance of the corporate oligarchy's ruthless, rapacious, reactionary class warfare against everyone else.

The only difference between the corporate-owned so-called "mainstream" mass media and the corporate-owned openly partisan Republican right-wing extremist media is that they have different target audiences, and the content of their propaganda is correspondingly different, the result of sophisticated research on what type of propaganda will work best on different audiences.

The particular type of propaganda that the corporate-owned, openly partisan Republican right-wing extremist media uses is targeted at a particular type of person, i.e. the "dittohead" -- weak-minded, ignorant, gullible dupes who can be easily manipulated with preposterous lies, a sense of victimhood, and hatred directed towards "powerful liberal (or 'Jewish') elites".

The propaganda of the corporate-owned, so-called "mainstream" media is targeted towards a different sort of person, who is better informed and more intelligent, so it uses somewhat more subtle and sophisticated propaganda techniques, but it is nonetheless corporate propaganda that furthers the corporate agenda.

When you say that you want "Good Morning America, CNN, Today, the NBC Evening News and the other MSM outlets" to "restore political balance", what you are really looking for, though you may not realize it, is for them to use the same type of propaganda techniques as the openly-partisan Republican right-wing extremist media -- because those are the techniques from which you and other so-called "conservative" dittoheads have been brainwashed to derive comfort.

But the so-called "MSM" won't use those techniques, at least not to the same degree, because they would be less effective on the MSM's target audience.

But none of this has anything to do with "political balance." There is no "political balance" to be found anywhere in the corporate-owned media, only propaganda that promotes the agenda of America's Ultra-Rich Ruling Class, Inc.

Guys like Thompson and Guiliani don't come cheap, so who is putting up the money for them? Somebody out there is writing the checks, and I for one would very much like to know who that is.

The day after Clinton was elected, Rush Limbaugh declared himself happy with the result, because it would give him at least four years of something to complain about. I'm sure he's just as happy now as he was November, 1991.

Or as he put it when a caller said his show was "just a big game to you" while taking him to task for denigrating women: "Shhhh.....that's the secret."

"Back on offense" ?

They've always been offensive.

Mike K: When Good Morning America, CNN, Today, the NBC Evening News and the other MSM outlets restore political balance, talk radio will lose its unique appeal for conservatives.

It's nice to see one of you guys admit outright that facts don't interest you so much as being told what you want to hear.

Nice to see CJ express the leftist urge for totalitarianism so clearly.

Dammit! My irony-meters keep exploding.

I'm long convinced they work most comfortably from the viewpoint of victim, so the current situation--Democratic president and congress and majority governorships--suits them and their...er..."philosophy" to a tee.

Look at the NRA. They scream about being victimized and under assault, all while being that segment of the population armed to the teeth.

The concept of irony is completely lost on these folks. Makes it difficult to have a conversation, that's for sure. All those clenched teeth.

Buzz: I would prefer to listen to balance, I do listen to NPR (who give much more airtime to Cato Institute & AEI spokespersons than they give to outright liberals). I am sure that you think of NPR as a hotbed of socialists, godless communists, liberals, and all of us liberal worshipers of Baal. And that's a symptom of you being an idiot.

Exactly. Why people think that one is only well-informed via "balancing" facts and expert analysis with outright bullshit is beyond me. Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly and the rest are all graduates of the "just make shit up" school of political punditry. You have to be pretty f'ing stupid to think that anything they say is remotely worthwhile.

My inner 14 year old is already plotting ways to make Giuliani crazy by bombarding him with calls about ferrets, minks, ermine, otters, skunks, wolverines and every other member of the weasel family you can think of. Giuliani, as you may recall, had a massive on-air meltdown once about ferret-owners who like "little weasels." Well, we all know there's no feud more bitter than a family feud.

Thompson is not the kind of actor who learned his skills in improvisation. Without a script he will be deemed a fool, even by right wing radio listeners.

T-Rex:

If you can get through. How many calls about loofahs do you think O'Reilly's screeners let through? :)

I posted a link so folks who read Patterico could see you folks in action. They won't be disappointed.

Mike K - Surely you must be insulted by SecularAnimist's description of you, the audience for Rush, Sean, etc. But as a fellow listener of these guys, I have to say that SecularAnimist is correct.

I would prefer to listen to balance, I do listen to NPR (who give much more airtime to Cato Institute & AEI spokespersons than they give to outright liberals).

I don't believe this but I don't mind NPR because they do have some worthwhile programming. It is full of liberal bias, of course.

I am sure that you think of NPR as a hotbed of socialists, godless communists, liberals, and all of us liberal worshipers of Baal. And that's a symptom of you being an idiot.

Now, you were just getting me interested in a discussion but you have to go ad hominem after two sentences. Have I insulted you ? The reason you folks go for the censorship as soon as you think you have a chance, is because you don't do debates well.

Sean can't stop talking about how Al Franken is trying to "steal the election," as I'm sure that you know. No proof for this insult to the Minn. electoral officers, but that does not stop him from spewing his horseshit.

I'm not a Hannity fan but the Franken team is dredging up some very questionable ballots. The answer for Minnesota is a runoff election. The third party candidate got 15% of the vote.

I really feel sorry for pathetic rubes like you.

More ad hominem. Is that the best you can do ?

Oh, and you LOST. You lost because the people you put your trust in were (and are) con men. You've been conned, robbed, duped, and exposed as the brain-dead mark that Republicans love. Does it feel good?

Posted by: BuzzMon

The interesting thing is the fact that your guy won and that should make you happy and at peace with the world. Instead you are still angry. We lost because the economy tanked and McCain was a weak candidate, although head and shoulders over your guy. We now will see how the presidency goes as an OJT project.

Lighten up. You won ! Remember ?

We lost because the economy tanked and McCain was a weak candidate, although head and shoulders over your guy

So which is it? You had a weak candidate, but he was better than Obama so that's why he lost?

Head and shoulders over Obama? Ha ha hardy ha ha! I love it.
Then he should have won, right?

Mike K:

1. An "ad hominem" is not an insult. It's a logical fallacy of the form "you're a bad person, therefore what you say is incorrect". It's a logical fallacy because the two things have nothing to do with one another. It's possible to say "you're wrong, and you're also a jerk", but then you run the risk of uneducated morons dismissing this as an "ad hominem" because they don't know what one is.

2. Do you really think that liberals should believe that all the evil in the world would evaporate as soon as Obama was elected? The entire point of this thread is that a lot of it has only been encouraged by it. Is the overwhelming point of what everyone's been saying too subtle for you to understand?

3. How does Franken's working with the court system to legitimize ballots support Hannity's claim of "stealing"? And if it doesn't (and here's a hint, it doesn't), then how is the assessment that Hannity is full of shit somehow inaccurate?

Mike K actually believes that the handful of giant corporations that own and control virtually all of the mass media in the USA are "liberal" and that they use the unparalleled propaganda power of the mass media that they own and control to advocate "liberal" policies that are against the economic interests of those corporations and their ultra-rich owners, CEOs and top management.

This demonstrates very clearly just how delusional the dittoheads are.

Mike K:

I forgot:

4. Do you really not understand the difference between being unable to make an argument, and being unwilling to make an argument to someone so arrogant and narrow-minded that they'll never listen to anything they don't want to hear?

Correction: I believe you meant to write that "conservative radio continues to be a major political ***farce***".

GE, owns NBC
Viacom owns CBS
Disney owns ABC
Newscorpse owns Fox and more.

All of them are tree hugging granola crunching liberals. Uh huh.

When are conservatives going to finally abandon this ridiculous notion that the media is somehow liberally biased? Do they really need to wake up every morning and feel threatened by someone or something?

It's the terrorists, or Mexicans, or gays, or people who say happy holidays, there's always some 'other' to be feared and battled with.

Amad: When are conservatives going to finally abandon this ridiculous notion that the media is somehow liberally biased?

You have to understand. Anything further to the right than Kim Jung-Il style fawning, syophantic praise for all the glory that is Our Great and Wonderful, All-Wise Noble Republican Masters is considered "liberal".

So, sure. The American media is absolutely riddled with this kind of liberal bias. Why, some in the press will dare to suggest that Bush is a mere human being. The blasphemy!

...er, I mean further to the left, of course. Visiting crazyland makes me confused sometimes. :)

Now the Obama presidency offers them the thrilling prospect of yelling "Nigger! Nigger! Nigger!" again for the next four to eight years.

Fixed.

Mike K: I'm not a Hannity fan but the Franken team is dredging up some very questionable ballots. The answer for Minnesota is a runoff election. The third party candidate got 15% of the vote.

Does Minnesota law allow for runoffs? If not, why would you advocate for something that their laws do not allow?

These people on the right are still cheering for bush despite the utter disaster it's been. They are a disease thats killing america.
Bring back the fairness doctrine.

I'm not a Hannity fan but the Franken team is dredging up some very questionable ballots. The answer for Minnesota is a runoff election. The third party candidate got 15% of the vote.

A runoff in Florida in 2000 certainly would have saved this country from eight years of the circus of clusterfucks that has been the Bush presidency, I'll grant you that.

You are so dumb, delusional, dense, and hypocritical it hurts.

"Conservatism" as a "philosophy" is dead because it has been a spectacular, flaming failure. It has brought us lawbreaking at the highest levels of our government and an ensuing constitutional crisis, erosion of our civil liberties, foolish wars in the Middle East in which we've strengthened our putative "enemies," cost us our standing in the world community, and bankrupted our nation while STILL continuing to hand over taxpayer money to its cronies as the economy collapses.

That's not to say there won't still be people who describe their own pathologies and fears as conservatism. As the man said, all "conservatism" is just an attempt to justify one's own selfishness. Being endemic to human nature, that proclivity will continue to manifest itself in the morally defective.

Somebody please fire the EMP for Jebus sake.

mike k: It's amazing the news you hear that is covered nowhere else.

yes...like obama is a muslim and a foreigner..

how's that working out?

oh right...

I don't believe this but I don't mind NPR because they do have some worthwhile programming. It is full of liberal bias, of course.

There's this thing people can do, called "counting", that can be applied to radio shows, to "count" the number of guests and commentators of, say, different political stripes.
Then, the "counters" can use this thing called "arithmetic", to get a total number.
Then, they can use "division" to establish a "ratio", which shows a relationship between the guests and commentators of different political stripes.

And guess what.
That ratio shows "conservatives" outnumbering "liberals" from any where from 2 to 1, up to 5 to 1.
Using that information, we can figure out whether there is a bias.
(Hint: bias is usually determined by which one has a higher ratio vs. the other).

You folks really don't get out of your bubble, do you ? OK. You can misrepresent what I write and pat yourselves on your little backs but that doesn't mean your world view is correct. I especially enjoy all the "moron" comments. Care to match IQs someday ?

Kenga, most polls show that Americans describe themselves as "conservative" far more often than as "liberal" so the fact that "your airwaves" carry talk radio that appeals to conservatives is an odd argument for censorship. You can listen to NPR all you want and I will defend your right to do so. That you don't offer me the same courtesy says more about you than about me.

Mike K wrote: "... talk radio that appeals to conservatives is an odd argument for censorship ..."

"Talk radio that appeals to conservatives" is an odd euphemism for corporate-programmed, focus-group-tested, scripted lies and hate-mongering designed to keep listeners ignorant, impair their cognitive functioning (i.e. make them stupid), and fill them with anger, resentment and hate that can then be used to manipulate them into voting for Republican white collar crooks, who will use the power of the State to steal from them and enrich the kleptocratic corporate fascists who laugh and sneer at the stupid little dittoheads while they sign Rush Limbaugh's big fat paycheck.

Care to match IQs someday ?

That's really not necessary, as your many sub-par performances here are sufficient to show that you are neither skilled nor intelligent enough to compete intellectually with the commentators at this blog.

It is only a psychological block from an impossibly inflated ego that prevents you from seeing it.

Shall I begin reposting your brilliant analysis from 2006 and 2007 about how well the economy was doing? How about your viagra-induced observation that the Israeli-Lebanon war was a defining moment in history? Your smug failed predictions concerning the last two elections?

How about your racist remarks concerning Arabs and Persians?

You are an addle-minded old boob whose first and last resort is to appeal to your own authority absent any substantial argument. Yes, you've read books. That just means that you successfully passed the third grade. Toddle off now.

Nobody puts Bob Grant in a corner!

Posted by: Culture of Truth

Now, that is funny!!! LOL! Thanks, I really needed the laugh today!

"When Good Morning America, CNN, Today, the NBC Evening News and the other MSM outlets restore political balance, talk radio will lose its unique appeal for conservatives."

ROFL.... Since the supposed "liberal" MSM is anything but, forgive me if I treat this bit of silliness with the contempt it deserves. In any case, your statement is wrong either way.

"None of you listen"

That's because you never write anything listening to. This post of yours is a classic example -- wholly devoid of content, mindless partisan drivel -- what's there to listen to?

"Now, you were just getting me interested in a discussion but you have to go ad hominem after two sentences."

So did you, dear, and in your very first post, no less. Still, we expect no less from you, given your track record here.

"Have I insulted you?"

Why yes, dear, you did.

"The reason you folks go for the censorship as soon as you think you have a chance, is because you don't do debates well."

ROFL... Says the guy who has contributed nothing but endless whining about censorship here. Anytime you'd like to actually debate, Mike, we'll be right here. We're not holding our breaths, though; you love playing the victim too much.

"I'm not a Hannity fan but the Franken team is dredging up some very questionable ballots."

No, Mike, they're not, which is why you cannot substantiate this particular bit of drivel any more than you can the other partisan drivel you spew here.

"The answer for Minnesota is a runoff election."

The answer for Minnesota is to count the votes, which is precisely what they're doing.

"You folks really don't get out of your bubble, do you?"

ROFL.... Oh, the irony, coming from this particular poster. Yes, in fact we do, Mike; you, alas, do not.

"I especially enjoy all the 'moron' comments. Care to match IQs someday?"

If you don't want to be called a moron, dear, then don't write moronic posts. Oh, and I absolutely love that you think matching IQs would prove anything. How clueless can you get?

"That you don't offer me the same courtesy says more about you than about me."

Dear heart, who on earth has said that you should not be allowed to listen to what you want? We're just pointing out that the people you listen to are full of shit and that you are so idiotic and blindly partisan that you cannot recognize that.

"You are an addle-minded old boob whose first and last resort is to appeal to your own authority absent any substantial argument."

Don't forget his incessant whining about "echo chambers," "censorship," and how nobody here "listens." What's hilarious is that he exhibited *all* of these traits in his very first post here, years ago, and has spent the intervening time singing the same old tired song, blissfully unaware that his dozens of posts here are all just variations on a theme, wholly devoid of thought, data, content, and, most importantly, self-awareness.

As has been repeated over and over in the comments section, the radio airwaves belong to us, the public...not conservatives.
You guys got the mainstream TV network news and 93% of the Washington reporters. We can't have a couple of scraps, like 1920's radio technology? What a selfish pig.

Don't forget his incessant whining about "echo chambers

Paul, you rightly point out that, if nothing, else, Mike is suffering from a massive case of chronic projection.

Case in point: what did he do after his party and his candidate got absolutely creamed in the last election? He drowned his sorrows by insulating himself in the most comforting possible echo chamber ever for a right-winger: he went on the National Review cruise with the likes of Fred Thompson, Michelle Malkin, Kathryn Lopez, Mitt Romney, Mark Steyn, and a host of other right-wing crazies.

I mean, he stayed on a boat with these characters twenty-four hours a day for a week! You could not dream up a more parochial, close-minded ideologically homogeneous group if you tried. And yet he has the gall to complain that this blog is an echo chamber, where people disagree with each other half the time and where we certainly don't take our meals together or bunk together or play shuffleboard on the Lido deck while bitching about Al Gore.

What Mike doesn't realize is just because it's beyond all empirical argument at this point that George Bush and his party have been an utter failure and disaster for this country over the last eight years -- and that we were right about it all along, much to his chagrin -- does not mean that this is an echo chamber. There are plenty of disagreements here over plenty of things, some so severe that some people have unfortunately stopped posting over the past year. I, for one, would like to invite them back. We will certainly not all agree on everything, but at least our guiding principles are humanitarian and not based on avarice, xenophobia, or the capricious projection of power through waging war.

"he went on the National Review cruise

Wow.... Even for him, that's really something.