A few weeks ago, I added The New Majority to my feedreader. It was founded by former loyal Bushie David Frum, who has become a major pariah on the Right for telling the truth about the political perils of right wing extremism. His efforts advocating for the "modernization" of the GOP is, I think, a great service to our discourse.
At first, I thought his critiques of the right were just going to last the length of the post-election honeymoon, but he is committed to walking the GOP and the conservative movement back from the brink of crazy.
There are a number of conservatives who are frustrated with the ignorant extremism dominating discourse on the right that read this blog. I especially recommend The New Majority to them.
That's a lengthy way of introducing this interesting piece by TNM's Tim Mak that makes the case that the increasing craziness of right wing talk radio is fueled by rapidly declining revenues.
Conservative talk radio has never been more angry and extreme than today. You might think that’s a response to the Obama presidency. But even more, conservative talkers are responding to a collapse in advertising revenues.
According to Scott Fybush, the proprietor of North East Radio Watch, talk radio has lost 30-40% of its ad revenues over the past two years.
Further, in an interview with a talk radio trade publication, Talkers Magazine, late last year, Talk Radio Networks CEO Mark Masters said: “2008 will be known as the year that weak syndicated programs began dying off in droves,” adding that “it has only just begun.”
In this environment, radio hosts believe that anger is their only path to survival. “If you’re not the most extreme person on the radio or making the most outrageous headlines,” says Fybush, “there is going to be some portion of the base that is going to ignore you and move onto someone who is more extreme.”
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