Our free speech rights are very broad, which is one of the greatest things about America. Part of what that means, though, is that it’s legal for dishonest profiteers like Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, and Rush Limbaugh to lie every day and, thanks to our free market, get rich doing it.
But those same rights mean each of us is free to object. We can call on radio and TV stations not to carry these liars’ shows, we can tell advertisers we won’t buy their products if they advertise on these shows, and those advertisers can choose to stop.
Free speech and free market.
Would this be appropriate if the issue were simply that the shows are biased? No. I believe democracy works better if we hear opinions of all kinds — especially ones we disagree with.
But I’m not talking about bias, I’m talking about lying.
And not just lying. Flagrant, deeply irresponsible lying that stokes the fear and hatred that have now led to violent attacks on our democracy.
It may be legal, but it’s wrong. Everyone involved is protected by the law, but they should face the shame and rejection they have earned along with all that money.
A few examples, among countless others (many of which are tracked by Media Matters for America):
Glenn Beck claimed on his Oct. 12, 2020 show that the armed attackers of the Michigan state Capitol “are not on the right… are not Trump supporters,” but members of shadowy groups that want to “destroy capitalism, the free market, the United States, and the Western world.”
As these liars so often do, Beck claimed that “This is the story you’re not going hear anywhere else.” The reason you don’t hear stories like that in the mainstream media is because they’re lies.
On multiple shows, Sean Hannity helped spread the fantastical lie about Dominion voting machines supposedly being rigged, a lie which Fox News, along with other right wing outlets, was frightened into prominently correcting and apologizing for, after Dominion began legal actions over the undeserved damage to its reputation.
Even after the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, Mark Levin continues to profit from the Big Lie of a “stolen election.” On his Jan. 12 show he insisted there were “serious issues” in the election of Joe Biden, and that fellow liars Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley had raised “legitimate concerns” about it.
Levin has also denied ever receiving the memo sent by Cumulus Media to all its hosts, including him, to stop spreading the election Big Lie or face termination.
On Inauguration Day, Rush Limbaugh repeated the Big Lie that Biden “had not legitimately won” the election. Again: after people had died because of that lie.
People of the right, center, and left are and should be free to discuss a huge range of ideas. But if any of them chooses to participate in an attack on the democracy that gives them that freedom, they cross a moral line that we must defend.
And that doesn’t mean we have to take their freedom away, say by having the government crack down on them.
We can simply exercise our freedom.
Each of us can do that. And doing it locally often makes a bigger difference than doing it nationally.
For example, you can contact local talk radio stations that carry shows by people like Beck, Hannity, Levin, and Limbaugh. You can find those stations by doing a web search for say “sean hannity show salinas” or “rush limbaugh show santa cruz.”
You might tell the station manager that you support free speech, but it doesn’t mean you have to support the broadcasting of dangerous lies that put freedom at risk. You might also contact local companies that advertise on these shows.
And yes, if you can find media personalities on the left being equally irresponsible, I’d advocate doing the same things.
Will anyone care? Yes. You might be surprised at how quickly even national-scale enterprises notice when more than a few people contact them about a particular issue, especially when money’s at stake.
And money is all this is about. The constant appeals to patriotism are, of course, a con, and a particularly shameful one, given the damage these people have inflicted on their country.
Meanwhile, if the rest of us don’t speak up, it’s taken as a sign that we’re all OK with it.
We can’t be OK with it. Not if we actually do care about the country.
I heard Critchley pumping his new book on NPR last week. I’ve downloaded it and plan on listening to it next after I’m done with THE ROAD TO SERFDOM, my current listen. To be clear, Trump blew it. He took a stage, ripely set for a radical transformation of the American political process, and fucked it up. His final act, the “soft” coup attempt, should be dealt with in strict accordance with and accountability to the law. Insurrection and seditious behavior is treason against our country. He should answer for his role in the attack on our institutions.
That said, to call out, by names, those men and women who would defend conservative positions while not naming a single “talking head” on the liberal left, is just more of the same divisive rhetoric that has been scourging across our airwaves for the past 15 or 20 years. If Rachel Maddow rolls her eyes and closes each segment of her program with her condescending smirk one more time, I’ll throw up in my mask! Neil ODonnell and Chris Cuomo are every bit the immoral equivalents of the worst the “right” has to offer!
Let’s be fair and impartial as it relates to calling a spade a spade!
They’re all highly paid show clowns that just “make it up” if it doesn’t exist, and the fools that drink from their poison wells are none the wiser on any real issues of consequence. Sadly, truly amazing dumbing down of America.
Thanks for taking the time to lay out your thoughts — too rare these days.
I’m not sure which interview you heard, but in general I’d say I do critique voices on the left as well, especially when they come across as dismissive, condescending, or arrogant. At the same time, I think there are additional problems on the right at the moment that are far more serious than that, and which have little or nothing to do with conservatism as a political philosophy. Those problems are the outright dishonesty that has been mainstreamed and normalized by right wing media, and the emergence of Trumpism as third movement that has little to do with traditional conservatism but is instead a form of ethnonationalist authoritarianism combined with corruption — thugocracy, basically.
Regarding problem 1, yes, MSNBC is about as biased as say the news-oriented parts of the Fox News schedule, but it’s not equivalent to the dishonest opinion shows, which are given the prime time slots there.
As biased as they may be, MSNBC hosts’ opinions are based on facts, and if they get a fact wrong they will quickly and prominently correct it. But Fox opinion hosts will go on repeating debunked lies for months and years, up to the Big Lie of the “stolen election,” which I’d say has been one of the most irresponsible acts by any media outlet in our history, given that it amounts to a direct attack on democracy.
In contrast, I think that honest bias can be healthy on the left and the right — although I don’t think it does much good to have it presented in silos the way we do now, even if the presenters are honest, given that so much of the population only hears opinions from the left and so much only hears from the right. That fosters binary beliefs that one view is completely wrong and the other is completely correct, which is also bad for democracy.
Regarding problem 2, there’s no balanced and also honest way to report on Trumpism, assuming the journalists in question believe in democracy, because Trump is an autocratic demagogue, hostile to democracy. There’s no two sides to that, it’s just bad. He may now and then have done something that could be reported on in a balanced or even positive way, and it generally was, but overall, he was and is a catastrophe.
Well, first, thank you for your prompt reply and insightful comments, fair and balanced as it were. Trump was a disaster and his walk away shot at the “soft” coup must be seen as sedition and should be dealt with as such. It saddens me to see so many RINO’s shirking their oath to uphold the constitution of the United States and instead, taking the party line to just let it slide, after all, what the hell, he’s out of office and gone from the public eye. BULL! If I run a red light late at night, no traffic in any direction and only a block or two from my home, is a cop going to let me slide? NO, its still illegal, regardless of timing! Also just finished reading your interview in the February 2021 AMERICAN HISTORY magazine. Nice articulation of the challenges we face in our democracy. The only point I would argue comes up a bit short is your comment at the end, “It’s up to us, not just politicians”. I think its strictly up to us, period. The politicians are inherently conflicted, stepping through the cow patties of power, greed, corruption and influence peddling. They cannot and never will be able to help. It’s truly up to us. Thanks for indulging!
Yes just saw Spencer on RT “Crosstalk.” His comments were well thought out and made senses. So I jut purchased the book Patriots of Two Nations. Should be a good read based upon what I saw on RT. I like the way spencer zero’s in when they are using the Straw Mann argument.
Spencer I left the above comment because this was the first page I got to. However I just went through a bunch of others. All topics were very well analyzed by you. So I was wondering if you have any writings or thoughts on how to fix the current capitalist system in the U.S. Something is obviously wrong and has been wrong every since I have been participating in it. 1976 or so. Yes some markets are free markets. Like buying a hamburger or coffee. But many that really count, Health Care, Media (Your Cable Company), Energy, Skill Training (College or Tech School), are not. At least I think I am getting it right. Maybe not.
I haven’t written much about capitalism, but that’s a good idea, thanks. In general I’m in favor of the balanced free market, i.e. starting from a free market platform, regulate critical areas like public safety, cartels, etc, and develop alternative solutions where the free market fails, as in health insurance.
Thank you for these comments, and for reading the book!