Talk Radio De-platforming

[CaptUSA]

Talk-radio owner orders conservative hosts to temper election fraud rhetoric
https://www.thetelegraph.com/news/article/Talk-radio-owner-orders-conservative-hosts-to-15860720.php

Cumulus Media, which employs some of the most popular right-leaning talk-radio hosts in the United States, has told its on-air personalities to stop suggesting that the election was stolen from President Donald Trump - or else face termination.

"We need to help induce national calm NOW," Brian Philips, executive vice president of content for Cumulus, wrote in an internal memo, which was first reported by Inside Music Media. Cumulus and its program syndication arm, Westwood One, "will not tolerate any suggestion that the election has not ended. The election has been resolved and there are no alternate acceptable 'paths.' "

The memo adds: "If you transgress this policy, you can expect to separate from the company immediately."

 

[CaptUSA]

Before the, "It's-their-station-they-can-do-what-they-want" crowd chimes in... Yes, we know that. But that's not the point.

It's cancel-culture run amok. And since neither side can claim a moral high-ground WRT violent protests, these shut-downs represent a stark repression of the ideological speech of a large portion of the country.

 

[Brian4Liberty]

The Ministry of Truth will be a “private” organization.

Guess that’s hindsight at this point.

 

[CaptUSA]

The Ministry of Truth will be a “private” organization.

Guess that’s hindsight at this point.

It is awfully convenient. Much easier than dealing with that pesky Constitution. We can just pressure those companies to "do the right thing" with the threat of regulation of legal action and then the American public can't complain.

And if anyone tries to establish an alternative, we'll just go upstream and threaten the companies they depend upon. That'll keep the competition out.

 

[The Northbreather]

Talk radio is dead.

Just wait till they go after the podcasters at will.

 

[tod evans]

The narrative must prevail.

 

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

Libtards seem to think that talk radio is more effective for conservatives than progs. I didn't dig into the stats, but here is what The Nation has to say:

1,500 right-wing talk-radio stations that saturate every corner, no matter how remote or rural, of America.

---


The power of talk radio doesn’t come from the information it conveys; believing that is the number-one mistake beginner hosts make. At its most effective, listening to a talk host’s show should be like picking up the phone to talk with someone you know and care about, someone who’s become as familiar as a childhood friend.

---

While Democrats spend over a billion dollars on paid advertising every two years, and several billion every four years, Republicans use this model of long-term trusting relationships to get out the vote for the GOP.

---


Statista, notes, “During an average week in September 2020, radio reached 90.9 percent of all American men aged between 35 and 64 years of age.” It also reaches women, but the audience for the talk version of radio, according to the Radio Advertising Bureau, is 65.4 percent male to 34.6 percent female. And listenership is overwhelmingly white.



https://www.thenation.com/article/society/conservative-talk-radio/

 

[TomtheTinker]

"One of the laziest methods of political analysis is the claim that nothing ever changes.
Not only is this an uninformed take, it's simply untrue.
The post Cold War is a vastly different place in very many fundamental ways.
Something similar is happening in American politics.
For many years the dance went something like this:
The Nancy Pelosis go on tv and attack the evil Republicans,
she gets to raise money by claiming, truthfully, that she is leading the fight against them.
The Mitch McConnells go on tv and attack the evil Democrats.
He gets to raise money by claiming, truthfully, that he is leading the fight against them.
While the two engage in a pantomime, the Cathedral remains untouched and gets to lob grenades from safety.
There is now a broad and increasing understanding among the populace, especially on the right, that Nancy Pelosi is nowhere near as nefarious as the New York Times editorial board and the Harvard law faculty.
Any politician has to hobnob with the masses and will have support from some very trashy people. They aren't in a position, especially psychologically, to be as holier-than-thou as the Times and fair Harvard. It's there, but nowhere near to the extent.
Pelosi and McConnell might laugh at you and exploit you, but they don't despise you. By the nature of their jobs, they have to deal with the existence of the other party to some extent. Claims that Joe f'ing Biden is a communist or any other sort of totalitarian boggles the mind.
The Cathedral does not operate in that sense. They want you dead but will settle for your submission.
The fact that after election day Trump supporters pivoted their guns directly toward the corporate press instead of team Biden is a glorious thing.
It is also a historically unprecedented thing.
The Cathedral thought they'd be safe to lob their grenades while conservatives froth at the mouth at Joe Biden.
This is not at all what is happening, especially because "conservatives" are not driving much these days.
Cathedral operatives are rattled.
In many ways this is Hillary in 2008. She hadn't thought past New Hampshire, and when Obama proved his viability and won South Carolina not only did she not know what to do, she hadn't even laid out such a plan just in case.
It is my sincere belief that the Cathedral in 2020 is the Hillary 2008 campaign, and that there will be a reversion to greater strength at some point in the future. But that will be the last gasp.
We will never go back to only three networks for sitcoms, is the parallel.
To be the Cathedral it needs to maintain a near-monopoly. That's even just having Fox (!) was enough to cause years and years of meltdowns. Now the enemy class is wishing that Fox was the only place with anything close to an alternative POV is presented.
The Cathedral's win condition is hegemony.
Our win condition is an alternative to the Cathedral as a driver of culture and politics.
One of these seems easier to attain and maintain.
There's a long road ahead.
It's possible we will lose.
It's impossible that we must lose."

-Michael Malice

 

[TheCount]

Before the, "It's-their-station-they-can-do-what-they-want" crowd chimes in... Yes, we know that. But that's not the point.

It's cancel-culture run amok. And since neither side can claim a moral high-ground WRT violent protests, these shut-downs represent a stark repression of the ideological speech of a large portion of the country.

It's not just the station, Cumulus employs these talk show hosts.

It is in no way cancel culture for an employer to tell their employee what they can and cannot say in the course of their work.

 

[Philhelm]

It's not just the station, Cumulus employs these talk show hosts.

It is in no way cancel culture for an employer to tell their employee what they can and cannot say in the course of their work.

I do not think that most people here would disagree with that; however, the issue here is the collusion and coordination between the government and private monopolies or pseudo-monopolies to commit what amounts to the purging of political opposition via censorship.

 

[Anti Globalist]

If I had my own talk radio show I'd still be talking about election fraud. Those that don't like it can pound sand.

 

[CaptUSA]

It's not just the station, Cumulus employs these talk show hosts.

It is in no way cancel culture for an employer to tell their employee what they can and cannot say in the course of their work.

Again. That is NOT the point!

That's a strawman that is being used. Most of us are not questioning the businesses right to do this; we're questioning the ideological lopsidedness of the pressure they're succumbing to. This is clearly censoring of information.

 

[axiomata]

Again. That is NOT the point!

That's a strawman that is being used. Most of us are not questioning the businesses right to do this; we're questioning the ideological lopsidedness of the pressure they're succumbing to. This is clearly censoring of information.

I don't change my mind often, but I think perhaps the thick libertarians were right after all and thin libertarianism is insufficient.

 

[TheCount]

I do not think that most people here would disagree with that; however, the issue here is the collusion and coordination between the government and private monopolies or pseudo-monopolies to commit what amounts to the purging of political opposition via censorship.

Given the timing, I think what you are seeing is companies attempting to avoid legal liability rather than a desire for censorship. I also do not think that it is 'political opposition' that is being silenced.


I do find it concerning that right-leaning and right-wing media and social media has steadily consolidated into the monopolies and pseudo-monopolies that you referenced over a long period of time, but for whatever reason it didn't seem to cause too many complaints... in fact, I've seen celebration of the ownership of myriad conservative media companies by the same handful of billionaires.

 

[TheCount]

That's a strawman that is being used. Most of us are not questioning the businesses right to do this; we're questioning the ideological lopsidedness of the pressure they're succumbing to. This is clearly censoring of information.

What ideology is it that's being censored?

 

[CaptUSA]

I don't change my mind often, but I think perhaps the thick libertarians were right after all and thin libertarianism is insufficient.

I'd say you should withhold your judgment for a bit. I don't think we need to throw out the baby with the bathwater here. Freedom of association (which is what is happening here) is just as important as freedom of speech. We don't want to force people into exchanges that they don't want.

But what we've seen in the last 12 months is that there is a concerted effort to remove a certain viewpoint from existence. Our government (at different levels) has shut down businesses, closed church gatherings, stopped charity events, closed bars, implemented curfews, restricted travel, ended public entertainment, and now they're pressuring (and threatening) internet and media companies to limit communication between individuals that oppose the government line. This is simply unacceptable in the "Land of the Free".

I think we can fight back against this without shedding our principles.

 

[CaptUSA]

What ideology is it that's being censored?

This time? It seems the ideology that thinks this past election was illegitimate. Just so happens to be the Right.


That the rules were bent this election cycle and that the rule-bending benefitted Biden is incontrovertible. And yet, if you question this loudly enough or have too big of a reach, you will be silenced. Regardless of your particular point of view, this should trouble us all.

Imagine if Trump were doing this to his opponents. BLM riots? Threaten FB to ban them or face consequences. Antifa riots? Threaten legal action against employers. Biden rallies where he spoke his mind? Shut down his access to media.

This didn't happen this past summer. And if it had, the left would have rightly been upset and the right would be saying, "they're private businesses that can do what they want".

 

[GlennwaldSnowdenAssanged]

Does Rush really have cancer? Will they silence him?