But the story Talk Radio told was of a philandering President taking advantage of a young girl.
So Starr hauled Clinton in front of the Grand Jury, where he testified, "There is no sexual relationship with Miss Lewinsky." One semen-stained dress later proved there had been such a relationship. The President defended his testimony statement by stating, "It depends on what the meaning of 'is' is."
And the Talkers went nuts. Boom. Impeached.
At the time, and ever since, I spoke with Democrat after Democrat about reversing the one-sided media-ownership rules that refused to provide We the People with any relevant facts or context about political issues (a law aided by Reagan's dismissal of the Fairness Doctrine, which had, for decades, provided both sides an opportunity to be heard.) One after another, they told me it didn't matter, that Rush et al had an older audience that was dying off, and not to worry about it. I still did.
Fast forward to 2020, when the Hollywood Reporter interviewed Hillary Clinton about a documentary of her 2016 Presidential race, they asked her, "How can the left combat Fox News?" Her response: "We do have some well-off people who support Democratic candidates, there's no doubt about that, but they've never bought a TV station. They've never gobbled up radio stations."
Apparently the former First Lady, Senator and Secretary of State still does not understand that the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which her husband signed into law, literally prevented Democrats from buying stations! Once those stations were sold, they were gone.
She should also know that from 2005 to 2009, I made a documentary film, Broadcast Blues, which revealed that the entire midsection of these United States was then dominated by right-wing rhetoric, by a factor of 10:1 conservative to liberal. Today, according to Jen Senko's documentary The Brainwashing of My Dad, right-wing radio dominates by a factor of 10: .2 (yes, ten to point two).
[Brad Friedman's 2016 BradCast interview with Jen Senko is here.]
And Nielsen research is finally confirming that right-wing talk radio is the dominant media source of our time. How many people watch Fox News? 2.5 million in prime time.
How many listen to right-wing talk radio? Talkers Magazine says more than 80 MILLION. Every day. Roughly the same number of Trump supporters.
Radio propagandists on hundreds of radio stations nationwide tell 80 million people every day that Trump is a hero, that he does nothing wrong, that he is a victim, that the Democrats simply lie about him. Once upon a time, those stations would at least have been obligated to provide those 80 million people with a different point of view and revealed the countless lies told by this POTUS. But, for a generation, Democrats have refused to stand up for facts and truth.
Now the nation has suffered through another impeachment, one that has divided us in a way not seen since the Civil War. The division is driven by half-truths, lies and confusion intentionally broadcast over our airwaves with an intent to deceive for political gain. The deception worked, just as planned, and the radio deceiver-in-chief was just awarded the Medal of Freedom.
But do not blame Donald Trump; he is merely the beneficiary of a corrosive law the Democrats have willfully ignored. When will they acknowledge the real elephant in the room is not the GOP? It is a Democratic Party that unwittingly aided and abetted the propaganda machine, then turned blind eyes and closed ears to a medium that is destroying us from within. Open your eyes and especially your ears, Democrats, and take action now. Our democracy is literally at stake.
* * *Sue Wilson is an Emmy and AP award-winning broadcast journalist turned media reform activist, director of the media reform documentary Broadcast Blues, and founder of the Media Action Center. You can reach her at sue@mediaactioncenter.net or on Twitter at @sueblueswilson.
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