TRANSITION | Forming the next government
13 February 2008
Talk Radio Has Minimal Influence on U.S. Presidential Election
Radio hosts inflate their own importance, knowledgeable observers say
Washington -- Radio talk shows are having little or no influence on the 2008 U.S. presidential race, several observers of the radio business tell America.gov.
Tim Cuprisin, TV/radio columnist for Wisconsin’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, said the supposed political influence of talk radio has “always been inflated by the actual” talk radio hosts themselves. The talk show format consists of conversation between the radio host and listeners who call into the program.
Cuprisin said American talk radio, particularly shows with a politically conservative tone, “speaks to a niche within the Republican Party and it’s clear that” in the 2008 election that niche “doesn’t have the power it had before,” during periods like the mid-1990s.
Talk radio hosts, Cuprisin said, are in the “entertainment wing of broadcasting. They’re not part of news and anybody who takes their news from talk radio … is making a mistake because the shows are basically constructed around the personality” of their hosts.
The idea that the shows’ hosts have political sway, said Cuprisin, is belied by the results so far in the 2008 election cycle, in which three of America’s most popular conservative radio hosts -- Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Michael Savage -- all criticized Arizona Senator John McCain, the likely Republican Party presidential nominee.
Cuprisin said conservative talk radio, led by Limbaugh, reached its “high-water mark” during the 1994 congressional elections when it spoke in favor of the Republican Party’s drafting of the “Contract With America.” In that document, Republican legislators such as former Representatives Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay detailed a set of actions the Republicans would take if elected as the majority party in Congress.
Many people pointed to talk radio as the reason the Republicans won control of Congress in 1994, said Cuprisin. But since then, the power of talk radio has waned, he said.
One indicator of that diminished power, Cuprisin said, was that radio talk show conservatives did not convince a majority of Americans and members of Congress that then-President Bill Clinton should be removed from office in the late 1990s because of the fallout from his affair with a White House intern. Despite being denounced by conservatives such as Limbaugh and Hannity, Clinton maintained a more than 60 percent job-approval rating with the American public.
Cuprisin said conservative talk radio did resurge temporarily following the September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. Limbaugh, Hannity and other conservative talk show hosts became “the voice of patriotism on the radio.”
But the talk show hosts again have seen their influence diminish, with McCain’s success demonstrating that trend, said Cuprisin.
The talk shows’ loss in influence is due, he said, to the fact most people “evolve” and have changing tastes and political attitudes, while radio hosts “don’t generally change their opinions.”
Talk radio hosts are “still saying many of the same things they were saying in the 1990s,” said Cuprisin.
PUBLISHER CALLS RUSH LIMBAUGH CLEVER ENTERTAINER
Michael Harrison, publisher of the Massachusetts-based Talkers Magazine, considered the “bible” of American talk radio, said he has been asked for 20 years about the influence of talk radio on American politics and he always gives the same answer.
“It’s an absurd concept,” he said.
The only way a radio host “could have influence on anything” in politics would be if the election were very close, he said. The amount of people it takes to create a mass movement in politics, Harrison added, “is far larger” than the number of listeners to a particular talk show.
Harrison said talk radio is not a “monolithic entity,” but rather a “whole variety of people, shows, stations and networks -- some of which have a lot of influence, some of which don’t.”
He dismissed the notion that talk radio was a major reason why the Republicans won control of Congress in 1994.
Radio talk show hosts were at the front of a “parade” that year and Republicans would have won the majority in Congress “with or without talk radio,” Harrison said.
“What led the charge was the Republican leadership, [and] the Republican candidates running for election,” not talk show hosts, Harrison said.
He said he considers talk radio “entertainment and information.” Rush Limbaugh, Harrison said, is a “very clever entertainer” who also makes many political points.
The publisher indicated that even radio “shock jocks” who titillate their listeners, often with irreverent humor, are simply another form of radio host who mix entertainment and information.
Harrison said “there’s nothing shocking about what’s going on in radio other than the fact that the public actually believes” talk show hosts “are in the political business. I find that shocking.”
