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I've been writing a lot about the role Fox News and the right wing noise machine played in getting Scott Brown elected in Massachusetts. Margery Eagan, a Boston Herald reporter (who supported Coakley) told Howard Kurtz that right-wing talk radio and sports talk radio demonized Martha Coakley endlessly. This was a big part of her fall after she held a 31-point lead in MA.

CNN's Reliable Sources:

On Boston newspapers’ coverage of the Massachusetts Senate race

EAGAN: Well, she got very good press from "The Boston Globe," not from my paper, "The Boston Herald." But you know something? People don't like -- TV journalists and newspaper journalists do not like to talk about the influence of talk radio. Let me tell you something. There was a nonstop hammering of Martha Coakley on the AM stations here, on the huge sports stations here. She was the evil incarnate and Scott Brown was the next coming. And, you know, the New England Patriots in the playoffs lost early on. It was as if there was this transference from Tom "Terrific" Brady, the quarterback of the Patriots, to Scott "Terrific" Brown. You look at the rallies for Scott Brown, they were very white, they were very suburban, they were Gillette Stadium fans, and there was almost this...

KURTZ: But just briefly, did you mean to say earlier that "The Boston Globe" tilted towards Democratic candidate Martha Coakley, and your paper, "The Boston Herald," tilted towards Scott Brown in the news coverage?

EAGAN: Well, I would say my paper was pretty much cheerleading for Scott Brown. We're the conservative paper in town, and The Globe, I think, was -- they were evenhanded somewhat, but I think that they were definitely cheerleading for Martha Coakley, absolutely. They're the liberal paper in town. That's the way it always is.

I cover the sports media on C&L all the time because I think it's important to show how they act like the Beltway media elite -- they have their own Village. And their political reach is greater than people think, because the sports talkers are uniformly right-wing and they love to bash liberals, just like their "opinion show" counterparts. Locally, AM right wing hate talk radio does play a major role in the GOP propaganda battles and it worked very well for them in Massachusetts.

Eagan names what the media elites will dare not: the actual influence right-wing talkers have in America. Good for her.

Yes. Really. Disgraced Republican, and former Florida Rep. Mark Foley has his own radio talk show! I thought this was a parody at first, but according to ABC, it's true and the name of his show will floor you -- "Inside The Mind of Mark Foley"

Nearly three years after then-Congressman Mark Foley, R-FLA, saw his political career crumble following the revelation of his sexually explicit emails with underage congressional pages, he's garnering the spotlight once again: as a radio talk show host.

Foley, who resigned after ABC News' The Blotter broke the story before going to rehab in Arizona, is set to debut his radio show entitled "Inside the Mind of Mark Foley" on Sept. 22 on West Palm Beach radio station WSVU 960am.

When the page scandal broke, Foley was the chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children. He resigned hours after ABC News questioned him about the instant messages with former congressional pages, some of whom were under the age of 18 at the time of the exchanges. Officials in Florida announced a year ago that Foley would not face criminal charges because of "insufficient evidence." Read on...

Yikes! I'm not sure many people really want to know what's going on "inside the mind of Mark Foley." Once you get past the fantasies of sipping chocolatinis with young boys in their underwear, it's a good bet that all that's left in Foley's mind that could possibly be worked into a radio show are the same old, worn out right wing talking points. Because we need another right wing talk show.

Laura Ingraham actually outdoes The Savage Nation and says Obama wants Americans to die younger, but this line about Sotomayor is pretty awful too: "She's got ovaries, and she's Puerto Rican."

Right winger talkers are just losing their minds over the fact that Obama is now President. I know they lack humor so could it be that they actually think this is funny?

Discussing President Obama's signing of the economic recovery bill at a ceremony in Denver, 630 KHOW-AM's Peter Boyles on his February 18 program repeatedly referred to one of the ceremony attendees, U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Denver), as "Vagina DeJet" and "Vagina DeGette."

And a Republican state Sen joins in the conversation like it's no big deal. He should apologize immediately.

CALDARA: When Schultheis speaks, it's a real room-clearer.

BOYLES: As soon as Schultheis spoke, I said, "It's time to fire up the bike." But then I went out to the museum. And, you know, I went over to Fox News, and all the media trucks were over there on the north side. Guys, there wasn't 75 people there.

SCHULTHEIS: That's what I hear. Hardly anybody.

BOYLES: I mean, now there were 250 of, like, Vagina DeJet was in there, and other people, they were the 250 selected, hand-picked -- Federico Peña was in the front row. I was shocked to see that.

[...]

BOYLES: Well, you know, just -- it is what it is. But I thought you guys had, like, a pretty remarkable turnout.

[crosstalk]

CALDARA: I thought it'd be a handful of guys, but people are genuinely angry, and you could tell that they wanted to do something, but there was nothing to do, that our Colorado delegation, by a --

BOYLES: Vagina DeGette.

I think we need to take a look at the fairness doctrine. Not to change the rules per se, but so we can have equal time on the air to yell either racist or sexist remarks about Republicans. Well since there aren't any African Americans in their party outside of Michael Steele, I guess that wouldn't work. No, I wouldn't go for that really, but I like bringing up the fairness doctrine because it scares the heck out of these talking head freaks and FOX News in particular.

Poor Hugh Hewitt and the rest of right wing talk radio. They are very upset by McCain and are trying to torpedo his candidacy.

Conservative talk radio is ganging up on presidential candidate John McCain, attacking him for joining Democrats to push liberal legislation and opposing bedrock Republican positions from tax cuts to immigration.

I guess Hewitt was hoping his Mitt book would have landed him the lead position of "The Department of Right Wing Blogger Noise," in Romney's administration.

(please have a barf bag ready: via Clif)

What's this, you say? War-supporting bloggers in the Oval Office? It's not like Bush needs to give them tips since the Pentagon already feeds them propaganda. I guess it's a good old fashioned pat on the back for a job well done. Here's some of the hilarity that ensued:

My question focused on how national political reconciliation will affect progress in the Anbar Province and Fallujah specifically, and the President’s answer honestly surprised me in its length, level of detail and grasp of events on the ground.

He's surprised that the President has information about his immoral war! What's that WC Fields line about suckers? I like the new term they are using: New Media. A nice way for Bush fool the MSM. Sadly, No! takes a look at one of these Mil-Bloggers vlog report on the NY Times. Uncle Jimbo is so excited that Malkin mentioned his name on FOX! TREX has some new material to work with for sure...

Will Bill O'Reilly tell us that the GOP has been hijacked by the right wing talk radio and the wingnutosphere who proudly helped torpedo the immigration bill?

Right Wing Talk radio had been chock full of vile for a long time now...(Read the full post)....Digby:

The discourse that everyone is so shocked to see is now uncivil and "nasty" was polluted decades ago by a bunch of rich, white businessmen who saw that they could make a very nice profit at exploiting the lizard brain of the American rightwing and help their political cause at the same time. The media thought it was all in good fun (and good for their bosses) just as they do today.

read on

I almost forgot about the laughable Hugh Hewitt's claim with Blitzer:

HEWITT: "No, that's not right, because talk radio, when you look at Rush, at Sean, at myself, at Laura Ingraham, Michael Medved, Dennis Prager, we all conduct ourselves appropriately on the air, or the FCC will smack -- smite -- smack us down.---So, I think what we have got is basically a monopoly on responsible new media on the center-right side, and talk radio is responsible new media, even though that fever swamp on the left, the Michael Moore-disease-ridden Democrats on the left, they don't want to admit that, so they won't. But, in fact, talk radio is quite responsible."

Poor Melanie Morgan, Brian Sussman and Lee Rogers. They are so misunderstood. Wishing violence on the world isn't so bad, is it? I think it was Hugh "the Cowardly lion" Hewitt who called right wing talk radio "quite responsible." Well listen to this and you tell me.

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Sussman asking a caller to prove that he is not a Muslim: "Say Allah is a whore. ... Say that you love eating pig. Morgan on Pelosi: "We've got a bull's-eye painted on her big, wide laughing eyes."

When advertisers actually listen to the hatred emanating from the mouths of these B level talking heads and pull their ads, what do they do? Threaten to sue the blogger who exposed them. Cowards---plain and simple. You're free to say what you like, but sometimes there are consequences Melanie. It's not Spocko's letters that are making the advertisers flee your station, it's your disgusting and vile wingnuttery.

Media Matters has a nice post that explains it all:

Summary: The mainstream media have yet to report on the story of a blogger whose website was shut down after he began spotlighting inflammatory rhetoric common to several talk radio hosts on KSFO, an ABC Radio-owned station in San Francisco...read on

These attacks on the legitimacy of the "Bush Docs" remind me of the Dream Team that represented O.J. Simpson in the trial of the century. You know the man is guilty so attack the messenger. The documents must have been planted like that glove. If we can only get Dan Rather to use the N-word we might have a chance. We don't need a Judge Ito, because we have Fox News Channel, Rush Limbaugh and the entire right wing talk Radio Empire to make rulings for us. I'm sure by the end of the week, someone will uncover the actual typewriter that Dan Rather used to type the memo's himself!

Following up on Hugh Hewitt's claim that right wing talk radio is : "But, in fact, talk radio is quite responsible, while Wolf Blitzer sat idly by. Check out what Rush Limbaugh called an alleged Duke rape victim.