Think Progress
Last June, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) noted “hate radio” had hijacked the political discourse on immigration with “xenophobic, anti-immigrant” rhetoric. That same month, then-Sen. Trent Lott said, “Talk radio is ruining America.” An advisor to Mike Huckabee piled on late last year, stating “Rush [Limbaugh] doesn’t think for himself. That’s not necessarily a slap because he’s not paid to be a thinker–he’s an entertainer.”
While right-wing talkers like Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, and Melanie Morgan continue to spew inflammatory rhetoric to incite their base, there are increasing signs that their influence in the conservative movement is temporarily evaporating. Conservative radio host Michael Medved — who got his start guest-hosting Limbaugh’s show — wrote this recently:
The big loser in South Carolina was, in fact, talk radio: a medium that has unmistakably collapsed in terms of impact, influence and credibility because of its hysterical and one-dimensional involvement in the GOP nomination fight.
For more than a month, the leading conservative talkers in the country have broadcast identical messages in an effort to demonize Mike Huckabee and John McCain. If you’ve tuned in at all to Rush, Sean, Savage, Glenn Beck, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin, Hugh Hewitt, Dennis Prager, and two dozen others you’ve heard a consistent drum beat of hostility toward Mac and Huck. […]
In other words, the talk radio jihad against Mac and Huck hasn’t destroyed or even visibly damaged those candidates. But it has damaged, and may help destroy, talk radio.
Medved’s observation can be witnessed in Limbaugh’s recent discourse about the leading Republican presidential candidates. Yesterday, Limbaugh said, “I can see possibly not supporting a Republican nominee,” adding that “it’s gonna come down to which guy do we dislike the least. And that’s not necessarily good.”
After hearing Limbaugh recently denounce the candidates as “not true conservatives,” Tom Brokaw said, “It’ s one of the few times I’ve ever heard…Rush Limbaugh kind of temporarily at a loss for words.”
UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan notes this photo on Limbaugh’s site as evidence of the “internecine war” going on among some right-wingers:
