Talk Radio Forced To Rethink Convention Strategy

HURRICANE MSM

Mainstream Media Undermines GOP's Convention





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Though the threat from Gustav may have passed, Hurricane MSM is now a category five, with further threats of gale force windbags and fact twisters likely through the end of the week.

Yes, with the mainstream media (MSM) determined to deny Republicans the same national spotlight enjoyed by Democrats last week, the already ugly political climate has taken a turn for the worse.

As one would expect from a political calamity of this nature, the party's own message is being rewritten by political foes who seek to shift the focus elsewhere.

So far, we've seen America's media foes attack Sarah Palin from every possible angle, including a particularly extreme response to news that her daughter is pregnant.

For talk radio, that means a quick shifting of gears to adapt to new circumstances. Some were caught off-guard, as this Dallas Morning News story indicates:

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Gustav not only has bedeviled Republican conventioneers but it also has tripped up conservative talk radio hosts eager to take on Barack Obama and Democrats.

"This is our infomercial," said Mark Davis, who is broadcasting his popular radio show from a media center connected to the Xcel Energy Center, site of the GOP meeting. "The story about talk radio is the same as the convention. It's muddled, but we have to be light on our feet because tomorrow we'll be back on message."

With two months before the election, Republicans have only a short time to rally the base around John McCain, locked in a tight race with Obama.

Just as liberal-leaning radio hosts pushed their cause at the Democrats' Denver convention, conservatives want to take advantage here of the convention and a tuned-in listening audience.

Gustav has cost them at least a day and a litany of speakers to play off of, including President Bush.

Still, many hosts along "radio row" Monday used Gustav as a way to highlight McCain's steady hand as a leader.

Though conservative talk radio shouldn't merely serve as an "informercial" for the GOP, the basic point is correct: extreme flexibility this week is a must.


Incensed by what he saw as NBC's far-left bias over McCain's Palin pick, Bill O'Reilly came out swinging late last week, blasting the network for coverage that made him "almost sick."
O'Reilly called particular attention to MSNBC's "smears", calling them "One of the most outrageous things I've ever seen in my 35 years in journalism."

Last night, O'Reilly also singled out left-wing bloggers for pushing a fake story about Palin's daughter:

BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "Unresolved Problem" segment tonight: Just about everybody expects this campaign to be dirty, because that's the climate in which we all live.

Internet hate sites have made it easy for emotionally disturbed individuals to say just about anything they want to the entire world, and some of these nuts even get mainstream media exposure. The Daily Kos is the absolute worse, routinely printing defamation and hatred at a level never before seen in the United States.

The latest from these guttersnipes is that Governor Palin did not give birth to a Down syndrome baby; her teenage daughter did. We can find no evidence to support that, and there are pictures of Mrs. Palin herself pregnant. But it doesn't matter to the Daily Kos.

And in kicking off today's show, Rush Limbaugh immediately denounced the MSM's antics: "it's the drive-by media, running around, wildly ruining people's lives."

"Sarah Palin is Clarence Thomas in 2008," Limbaugh said. "They tried to ruin Clarence Thomas's life. Sarah Palin is no different."

Pointing to what he sees as the left's hypocrisy on the role of women in politics, he added the observation that "she is exactly what they (liberals) have always said a woman should be."

Talk radio will have no shortage of topics during this convention week. Unfortunately, most of their airtime will be spent defending Sarah Palin against a barrage of attacks, the likes of which we have never before seen.




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