Opinion: Column
Rumor-filled radio can’t save medium
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Also by Sean Kittridge:
- Newspapers due for change in mindset (January 27, 2010)
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Marconi may someday go down as society’s greatest monster, and it probably won’t have anything to do with his place on Italy’s Fascist Grand Council — although in retrospect, that’s not a strong resume builder. While the radio streamlined information and gave us Orson Welles’ inaugural episode of “Punk’d,” its current standing in our world is as a fledgling, near-obsolete medium.
Between television, iPods and the Internet, radio needs to work hard if it wants to get noticed, and too often, that means getting desperate. Across the AM dial, the fourth-string receiver managing to catch radio’s Hail Mary pass is the talk station, and whether it’s Limbaugh or Stern, politics or a morning zoo, talk excels in only one area: shooting itself in the foot.
The latest sonic marksman to pull an on-air Plaxico Burress is Green Bay’s own Jerry Bader. Bader, whose program on WTAQ is followed by Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity — the ‘27 Yankees have nothing on that line-up — is a conservative personality who tackles tough issues like Obama’s health care plan and whether children should still learn cursive in school.
On Oct. 26, following news that Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton was dropping out of the gubernatorial race due to personal reasons, Bader used “sources” to claim that a lesbian love affair forced the lieutenant governor to step away. It was a salacious story, inducing both gossip and a whirlwind of high-fives among conservatives and teenage boys. Yet once the initial noise died down, we were left with nothing more than a rumor spewed by a radio blowhard. Within a day, Bader backed down, stating he “lost confidence in the sources that provided information yesterday.” And naturally, Lawton dismissed it, suggesting it was an “outrageous lie.”
Uh oh. If you’re going to accuse a prominent public figure of being both a disloyal wife and a switch-hitter, you need to be sure your sources are accurate. Bader’s apparently weren’t, and now he’s on a two-week leave wondering whether his quick mouth will cost him his job.
Bader got what was coming and shouldn’t expect much sympathy — he shouldn’t expect another WTAQ paycheck, either. Unlike other notable radio controversies, such as Don Imus’ Rutgers fiasco or the Minnesota guys who said that Magic Johnson faked AIDS, Bader’s claim was not simply a glib, offensive lapse of rationality. He heard a story, reported it as a member of the media and was dead wrong. When it comes to disseminating information with a potentially damaging impact, you can’t be dead wrong.
But this isn’t all his fault. Ultimately, his actions are fairly predictable given the current state of radio. Like the kid on the playground whose 15 minutes of fame came courtesy of a short-term fascination with Crazy Bones, he’s going to step it up to get the schoolyard to appreciate him again. Maybe it’s eating rocks for money or swearing in front of teachers, but whatever the act, it’s going to be self-destructive.
This is where radio stands. Its days of dominating the market are long dead, and as new forms of media chip away at its dwindling influence, the last line of sound wave soldiers are going down in a firestorm of hyperbole and libel. When Limbaugh argues that he’s not part of the mainstream media, he’s right, but it’s not because of some liberal ideology; it’s because people no longer care about radio.
Of course, it’s not dead yet, and judging by the people whose voices saturate the airwaves, I doubt it’ll accept euthanasia any time soon. But even though it often represents nothing more than angry rambling and the same three Lil Wayne songs over and over again, it’s important not to tune out completely. After all, if no one were listening to Bader that day, we would’ve had a harder time substantiating what a half-wit he is. But try not to make a habit of it. We have TV for a reason.
Sean Kittridge (skittridge@badgerherald.com) is a senior majoring in journalism.
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One of the worst editorials I’ve read in the BH. Good work using one no name talk radio host making an outlandish claim to discredit the whole industry. If no one cares about talk radio why do 54+ million people listen to Rush, Hannity, Savage, and Beck on a daily basis?
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What do Limbaugh, Beck, and Hannity have in common? That’s right, none of them graduated from college.
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hahahahahahahaha
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Yeah, Billy Gates didn’t graduate from college either and now he’s not even the worlds richest person (anymore). He’s maybe in the top 5, but think how well he would have done if he’d just taken the time to graduate!
Tom Edison and Andrew Carnegie didn’t graduate from college either.
Graduating from college dosen’t mean much more than that you read some books and passed some tests - nothing more than that.
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Well, today it also usually means that you either have a rich family or big debts.
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Hm, you must be one of those college dropouts who continues to troll the Badger Herald.
Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard. And comparing Carnegie and Edison to modern times is absurd. Times have changed in the last two centuries - perhaps you should leave your parents’ basement once in a while.
And, why are you even attempting to defend assclowns like Hannity and Beck? Did you truly compare Sean Hannity to Thomas Edison? For shame.
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What do Limbaugh, Beck, and Hannity have in common? They’re all self-made successes who don’t beg for hand outs. Who cares if they didn’t graduate? If I drop out but find a way to make millions does that make me an unsuccessful idiot?
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Why are they successful? For being trolls.
They preach about the ‘American dream’ and meritocracy on their shows while lambasting the poor and “welfare queens.” Yet, they don’t even have college degrees and are making more than 90% of college graduates out there. How does that make sense? Have they worked harder? No, they failed out of college (and we’re not talking Ivy League here). Are they more talented? Absolutely not. Yet they will make more than 99% of us graduating this year. I don’t know how they can support a belief system that completely contradicts their very existence.
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The author uses one case of false reporting to smear all of talk radio. This is unfounded. His actual target seems to be conservatives, with whom he disagrees. No mention of Thom Hartmann, Democracy Now, etc., for example.
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How can you claim that if one guy in Green Bay, Wisconsin makes a mistake, that everyone in that industry is horrible? Also, a quick question…if no one cares about talk radio, why did you have to waste so much ink and paper to talk about it. Last time I checked, talk radio was a very important part of our society. I think the only reason you attacked these people on the radio is because there is no liberal talk radio. The probably reason for that: no one would listen!
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yeah. because liberals don’t waste our time listening to radio.
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yea you’re right, liberals just hear one thing, take it as absolute truth and preach it around like a bunch of idiots instead of listening and reading multiple mediums and making educated and informed proclamations to the world of “MADISON”
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Didn’t Senator Al Franken used to have a liberal talk radio show on the failed Air America network, where he said many controversial and incendiary things just like Limbaugh? I feel sorry for the people of Minnesota that this failed comedian/satirist author/disc jockey represents you people. I feel even worse for you given the way he was granted victory…almost puts Florida 2000 to shame, but not quite.
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Sean - you use the term “people” and actually think it refers to everyone in America. Perhaps “college students” may be more appropriate —- Limbaugh’s 20 million + listeners per week hardly qualifies as people who no longer care about radio. The appropriate statement would be that “people” don’t care about LIBERAL talk radio. You know, considering for it to even exist, it has to be publicly funded or subsidized (NPR, for example). Wonder why Air America is such a disaster? That’s bc of the liberal whack-jobs who are on the air…
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I agree with 12:43. This is a veiled attack against conservatives and republicans with is typical of most of the Badger Herald. What it all boils down to is the lefties and the liberals all jealous and annoyed that they can’t get their own Limbaugh on airwaves with 51 million listeners…they have tried, and failed everytime. So since they are all crybabies they just relentlessly attack Beck, Limbaugh, and Hannity because ‘its not fair’…wahhh wahh wahhh, go cry to Obama over it…oh wait you already did and tried to pass legislation on banning it. Typical lefties.
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Thom Hartmann cannot be compared with the “down the rabbit hole” conservative complainers like Bader, who use myths, lies, hate and fear like a dealer handing out free drug samples. Hartmann is one of the few talkers who engages conservatives in debate without ripping into them. You apparently have never listened. No surprise there.
Having been in radio for 25 years, and some of it as a political talk host, liberal radio is a “product” to major media owners, a product without a sales histoy so they are less likely to take a chance on it.
It’s not that it can’t work, but when 92 percent of the market now is radical conservative talk, why change the formula. While liberal talk does work and beats Hannity and Rush in some major markets, station owners still opt for something safer, like ESPN or Fox Sports radio. The Mic in Madison awhile back did just that, and got a lot of people angry.
As for Bader and the previous off topic fringers comments here, they see nothing wrong with getting mileage from the accusation that Lawton had a “lesbian” affair, while giving a pass to another bigoted hate mongering conservative racist. It’s okay, everyone makes mistakes. What you’re leaving out is the rest of the sentence…and gets fired.
The idea that listeners immediately forgave him, and have now welcomed him back, is proof of how exceptable it is to use gay bashing for a moment of political one-ups-manship.Talk about not having any moral or ethical standards.