With Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity leading the way, talk radio has become as indispensable to the Republican Right as frothy foam is to latts. And, frothy foam may not be restricted to coffee when we think of the rabid mouths of this group of glorified gabbers who use half-truths, selective phrasing, and bombastic innuendo like Lucy used Ethel in her schemes to get her way with Ricky.
Talk radio is the voice that hacks down the opposition like machete-wielding bushmen while promulgating a leave-us-alone agenda as austere and shameless as Jerry Lewis asking for help on his telethon. In the name of doing what's right not by admitting what parts of it are wrong and by calling it being consistent, following one's core values, and being committed not by admitting to being stubborn, unlistening and obstinate as others might more accurately call it the talk radio pundits have become an unchallenged flag waving glibly over our virtues. But, today's teenagers are used to this kind of aggressive assault on their values.
Still, one may ask how has this happened and what are some of the techniques that have made it so successful?
Slogans, Symbols, and Deceptive Names
The method of attracting listeners and swaying voters that is used most often in talk radio is to put forth grand, complicated ideas in the form of bumper sticker slogans, wrap them in the American flag, then to silence any opposition or criticism, insist that people who speak up against them are unpatriotic or undermining the effectiveness of the things that are being done.
Take, for example, the phrasing of such ideas as the War On Terror, the Patriot Act, and Homeland Security. These phrases capsulize the professed INTENT of these acts while neglecting or obscuring the MEANS by which they will be achieved. This is like inducting all 18 to 24 year old men and women into the military and calling it the Make America Safe initiative. The name implies a result that most will find desirable while never mentioning the means of achieving it and avoiding any reference to the compulsory nature of it, both of which may be highly undesirable.
The War On Terror, for instance, uses the term war so that it opens up the use of tactics and powers that would not otherwise be allowed if it were only called something like the Program to Investigate and End Subversion. By using the word war, the military can be used to implement tactics of interrogation, detention, killing, destruction, and even to rescind civil rights, as it sees fit, while the use of terms like terror and terrorists shields the military from the necessity for proof, definitions, and judicial or legislative oversight.
The brilliance of the strategy is that it allows the complete usurpation of terrorists rights without the need for evidence, explanations, or review. If you call them a terrorist, they can either be shot on the spot or detained indefinitely. Don't the police wish they had that same latitude with criminals they encounter? They wouldn't have to prove their case either before or after the arrest!
The Two-Step Troubadours
We're right, they're wrong... We're right, they're wrong... One, two... One, two... Thus goes the dance as the radio recidivists repeat their well worn message. Most of the time it isn't even supported by examples, just asserted by inference. First they find some quote or comment with which they are incensed, then they twist and distort it into some generalization they say implies the same thing while pouncing on it with all the gusto and exuberance of a cat wildly clawing at a bag of catnip!
An article in a paper some paper, any paper may have a headline about someone saying that we should get out of Iraq. This is immediately translated into a charge that they don't want to win in Iraq, they don't care about their country, that they want to surrender. Or, someone might say that they want to raise taxes on the rich and this is immediately translated into a charge that they are a socialist, that they don't care about the economy, that they want to shut down America. Someone else might say that they want to ban assault rifles and this is immediately translated into a charge that they are against the 2nd Amendment, that they want to take guns away from every American, that they don't want anyone to have the right to protect themselves.
The talk radio troubadours turn one argument into another, putting up weak, hyperbolated straw arguments for opposition, then knock them down faster than the Big Bad Wolf blew down the houses of the little pigs. You want to legalize gay marriage? What's next, marrying your cat? You don't want a Christmas Tree displayed in City Hall? What's next, the American flag will be banned? You want to provide a place for the homeless to live? What's next, buying a home for every homeless person?
In the dance of the two-step troubadours, wherever you move one foot, the talk radio host will take a following step - right on your toes! This is the way the talk radio superstars dance lots of bombast, very little substance, and absolutely no tolerance for the other side of issues at all.
The Sky Is Falling
You think sex sells products? Well, in the world of talk radio, hysteria attracts listeners like static cling attracts lint! All it takes is for one of those Henny Penny talk radio hosts to start yelling the sky is falling, the sky is falling, and suddenly everyone takes notice.
Take an innocent news report that a train has been derailed. It barely attracts any attention at all. However, speculate that it might have been a terrorist attack, and suddenly you've got more interest in that story than there is in who will be the next American Idol! Even if the train derailment wasn't caused by terrorists, it could have been.
That's the beauty of the Henny Penny method; it flanks both sides of the argument and insures that there is always a fallback position. If something happens, then you were told that it would. If nothing happens, however, then it just hasn't happened yet but it will... or it could!
This method of hysteria requires no proof, no time frame, no verification, not even any objectivity. All that is required is the possibility that something could happen. Then worry, doubt, anxiety, uncertainty, apprehension, suspicion, disbelief, dread, superstition, and fear take over, turning a supposition into a real possibility. This is the kind of scare tactic that gives talk radio the edge that it needs to hold interest.
But, today's teenagers are not impressed by this style of bludgeon and bloviation. They see it more as infotainment, and continue to make up their own minds about the direction of trends in the country.
But, long live talk radio where the right thinks it's never wrong!