Silence!

Has anyone but myself noticed the recent decline of talk radio?  Last week in Boston, the FM talk station, WTKK, went to an (atrocious) all-music format.  It had been almost exclusively talk and mostly right-leaning talk ... except for Margery Eagan and Jim Braude in the morning hours.  They had had a conservative Michael Graham filling up the drive-time slot and that occasional righty, Mike Smerconish in between … see: Gaulitics.com.  Even that power-mouth Rush Limbaugh, after a little over a twelve month move to AM’s WXKS Talk 1200 from the feeble-AM-signaled WRKO 680, recently was forced to move back … just a little humbled (see: Boston Radio Watch ).  WXKS then went to a silly all-comedy format.

Over the last year here in Boston we have seen quite a parcel of other silenced right-wing voices … Lara Ingraham disappeared (and, in her last months, pleading for more advertisers) as well as Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Jeff Katz, Jay Severin, and Michael Savage. And, as of now, the only oral oasis for us crypto-Nazis here in Boston is WRKO (whose signal fades fast after sundown … very annoying in the winter time) which carries just the few voices of right-reason remaining -- Jeff Kuhner, Howie Carr, Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin.  (Of course there is still FM-radio’s NPR here in Boston (WGBH 89.7) … on which one can hear how to make Nina Tottenberg’s cranberry sauce, listen to Terry Gross castigate conservatives and learn about All [Liberal] Things Considered.)

But the real reason for this blog entry is that I sense that this shrinkage is not happening by accident.  I strongly suspect that there is an invisible hand at work behind the scenes that is somehow convincing advertisers (and station managers) that it would be better if they were not abetting this brand of right-wing political talk radio.  And when Rush Limbaugh offered up a derogatory name for Sandra Fluke after she “testified” to Congress about her need for free contraceptives, even this ratings giant lost significant advertisers.  President Obama has not minced words about his disgust over conservative talk radio and the messages that it conveys (see: American Thinker).  And as Joe Biden says, President Obama carries a big stick and, as we have seen, he is not afraid to use it.

And so, at least in Boston, the pond for conservative talk radio is rapidly drying up.  This was one of the few alternatives to the mostly-liberal Main Stream Media ... but has drawn the ire of both it and the party currently in power. As long as they are going after the Second Amendment to the Constitution, why not scuttle the First Amendment also?

A Platform Too Far

The Republican Presidential Platform was criticized for endorsing a "radical" no-exception stand on right to life (which Mitt Romney doesn't support).  However, the Democrat Platform was approved yesterday in Charlotte and it contains lots of radical (is there a stronger word?) planks that cut across the grain of American traditionalism.  It no longer mentions God.  It endorses taxpayer-funded late-term abortions.  It no longer avers that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.  It unequivocally supports gay marriage.  It endorses the Dream Act on immigration.  See: Incomplete AP Story.  Only this time I suspect Obama enthusiastically stands behind all the planks of this belly-rubbing Democrat Platform.

Top this with the speaker lineup in Charlotte -- former President Jimmy Carter, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, La Raza champion Julian Castro, turncoat Charlie Crist, "give me my birth control" Sandra Fluke and that American Indian, Elizabeth Warren.  Is it any wonder that many "moderate" Democrats are distancing themselves from this convention.  Where is Hillary?  Where is Andrew Cuomo?  Where is Erskin Bowles?  Even Rahm Emanuel has flown the coop.  And, what was supposed to be the crescendo of this convention -- Obama's acceptance speech in front of 74,000 hysterical fans -- appears to be being diminished, see: Breitbart Story.

The National Sideshow

It is, to me, blatantly clear that the Obama administration is doing everything within its bully-pulpit power to distract the American public from the important issues of the upcoming election (the poor economy, high real unemployment, Iran's nuclear ambitions, Obamacare, etc.).  Now The Barry is on the sideshow stage with his straw hat, a megaphone and a bamboo cane ... barking out enticements to the secondary acts to keep us from noticing that the big-top tent has collapsed.

The performances he has been huckstering are:

Mitt Romney, the Dog Boy -- see how he puts himself on the roof of his station wagon

Faster-than-the-Eye Joe Biden -- see him catch the barker's gay-marriage bullet in his teeth

The Georgetown Teaser, Sandra Fluke -- watch free birth-control in action

Ann Romney, the Dilettante -- on a couch, the only woman who has never worked a day in her life

Hedgefunder, Warren Buffet -- the cuddly, fuzzy, lovable tax-avoider

Fundraiser Extraordinaire, George Clooney -- marvel at him spitting nickels and pooping thousand-dollar bills

George Zimmerman, sharpshooter -- gasp as he plugs the barker's make-believe son

The Archtypal Student -- watch him be bled dry by higher student loan rates

A Wall-Street Occupier -- see him smoke dope, deficate on a cop car and rape a co-ed


And the main stream media will have all the attendees believe that this sideshow is the only thing going ... "Ladies and Gentlemen, pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!"