WEBVTT - Hush Rush 0:00:15.396 --> 0:00:23.196 Pushkin. There's a place in our world where the known 0:00:23.276 --> 0:00:29.276 things go, a corridor of the mind lined with shelves 0:00:29.476 --> 0:00:34.236 cluttered with proof. Inside. I've been cataloging my collection of 0:00:34.316 --> 0:00:40.396 evidence about propagandists, hypnotists and conspiracy theorists, labeling reels with 0:00:40.516 --> 0:00:45.356 masking tape and sharpies, organizing them by date, reel after 0:00:45.436 --> 0:00:48.516 reel of tape. It's like the Nixon Oval Office in here, 0:00:49.636 --> 0:00:51.716 recordings of the sorts of people we've been listening to 0:00:51.756 --> 0:00:57.916 all season, episode after episode, the whole light among the world, 0:00:57.956 --> 0:01:00.756 line on a man who makes his living by telling 0:01:00.756 --> 0:01:08.476 the truth. I want you to keep on going back, 0:01:09.116 --> 0:01:13.156 back and back, and your mindful of them wall of secrecy, 0:01:13.196 --> 0:01:16.956 the news media being silent, and the pants he's locked up, 0:01:17.036 --> 0:01:21.716 and the psychological profile Robert Ripley, actss Sally Maury Bernstein, 0:01:22.116 --> 0:01:31.796 May Brussel Valentin zor yeah, okay, each of them asking you, 0:01:31.836 --> 0:01:35.516 the listener, to doubt what you think you know, and 0:01:35.676 --> 0:01:38.796 very often that doubt is delivered through the medium of radio. 0:01:39.956 --> 0:01:42.836 I've got just one more of these voices. He's all 0:01:42.836 --> 0:01:47.076 the rest, all balled up together. You are, my friends, 0:01:47.076 --> 0:01:50.036 about to be exposed to the kind of bristling, cogent 0:01:50.116 --> 0:01:54.276 analysis available nowhere else. Because of this, your initial reaction 0:01:54.356 --> 0:01:57.636 may be shock and disbelief. That's the voice of mister 0:01:57.716 --> 0:02:01.076 Rush Limbaugh. And I'm Jillipoor, host of a show that 0:02:01.116 --> 0:02:03.876 could hardly be more different from the Rush Limbaugh Show. 0:02:04.316 --> 0:02:07.156 Welcome to the Last Archive, the show about how we know, 0:02:07.236 --> 0:02:10.316 what we know and why sometimes it seems lately as 0:02:10.316 --> 0:02:13.756 if we don't know anything at all. Step over the 0:02:13.836 --> 0:02:16.876 threshold and along the passage of time to the year 0:02:17.076 --> 0:02:23.436 nineteen eighty eight. Don't fight it, don't even try. Just 0:02:23.756 --> 0:02:29.236 surrender yourself. Surrender yourself. That's his mantra, It's not mine. 0:02:29.956 --> 0:02:37.276 My mantra is never surrender. What's the first thing you 0:02:37.356 --> 0:02:40.956 do when you get in the car, Click the seatbelt, 0:02:41.676 --> 0:02:46.436 switch on the ignition, turn on the radio. Yeah, find 0:02:46.476 --> 0:02:52.796 the right station here a little there, you want their 0:02:52.916 --> 0:03:09.036 dingle one Grace is Roman her car. Radios first became 0:03:09.196 --> 0:03:12.876 comment in the nineteen thirties. For decades, radio was AM radio, 0:03:13.316 --> 0:03:15.956 local stations, maybe with some top of the hour news 0:03:16.196 --> 0:03:21.236 in a lot of sports, red baseball is love. Do 0:03:21.356 --> 0:03:23.476 you buy the first bank of the Bank of Sintobaty 0:03:23.836 --> 0:03:26.836 or your money grows deeply in high return certificates of 0:03:26.876 --> 0:03:29.756 the populo. Something else that had long been popular on 0:03:29.876 --> 0:03:33.956 AM radio gospel shows, the voice of the Hour of Decision, 0:03:34.116 --> 0:03:37.996 Billy Graham, So for you, for the nation, this is 0:03:38.036 --> 0:03:46.876 the Hour of Decision. By the nineteen seventies, the most 0:03:46.956 --> 0:03:50.836 popular AM radio shows were drivetime shows, the ones that 0:03:50.916 --> 0:03:54.436 aired during your commute. Rock and Roll, hosted by fast 0:03:54.436 --> 0:03:59.756 talking DJs nine O three and fourteen k on the 0:03:59.796 --> 0:04:03.196 award winning a ridy rocky roll radio show with funny 0:04:03.196 --> 0:04:04.796 and probic for all some of you. No doubt you're 0:04:04.916 --> 0:04:07.876 wondering one award I am one. I'll tell you not 0:04:08.076 --> 0:04:13.956 other than the mark warning that young buckaroo, that's the 0:04:14.076 --> 0:04:19.476 young Rush Limbaugh Jeff Christie was a named radio back 0:04:19.516 --> 0:04:22.196 then boy could graduate our name and claim a winner. 0:04:22.236 --> 0:04:24.556 Jeff royan with a East bad and also Jeff almost 0:04:24.556 --> 0:04:27.236 think he's two six packs of carefree sugar list gun 0:04:27.236 --> 0:04:30.796 against it all day. Limbaugh was born in Missouri. He 0:04:30.836 --> 0:04:33.556 went to Southeast Missouri State University for a year, but 0:04:33.716 --> 0:04:37.236 dropped out to work in radio. In nineteen seventy one, 0:04:37.436 --> 0:04:39.356 he got a job as a disc jockey at an 0:04:39.356 --> 0:04:42.836 AM station outside Pittsburgh, He got fired after a year 0:04:42.836 --> 0:04:45.116 and a half and went to a station called KQUV 0:04:45.796 --> 0:04:48.236 and Elmin made the twelve more empreys for you in 0:04:48.316 --> 0:04:51.356 the Camprey Rock Conser contest. Even jack Box for tomorrow 0:04:51.436 --> 0:04:54.476 is two hundred and forty dollars and fourteen. Then he 0:04:54.556 --> 0:04:56.116 got the guys that you can remember it. Bob the 0:04:56.196 --> 0:04:58.236 Carnal makes the next call to one. Limbaugh died in 0:04:58.316 --> 0:05:01.716 twenty twenty one at the age of seventy. His obituaries 0:05:01.716 --> 0:05:05.396 head headlines like we're living in the world Rush Limbaugh created. 0:05:05.996 --> 0:05:08.636 And that's true. But even though you may think you 0:05:08.676 --> 0:05:11.436 know all ways, we now live in Rush Limbaugh's world. 0:05:12.036 --> 0:05:16.436 There's more to understand, and has to do with what 0:05:16.476 --> 0:05:19.036 a lot of this season has been exploring how we 0:05:19.156 --> 0:05:22.956 hear voices on the radio. There were lots of testimonials 0:05:22.956 --> 0:05:26.236 to Limbo after he died, but one comment really stuck 0:05:26.276 --> 0:05:29.676 with me. A guy wrote on YouTube his show was 0:05:29.716 --> 0:05:32.636 the only one that came in clearly, so I listened. 0:05:33.996 --> 0:05:43.036 People are slinkingly started sportive way to fail the Limbaugh 0:05:43.076 --> 0:05:45.436 Even when he was Jeff Christie, he was a big guy, 0:05:45.476 --> 0:05:49.276 wide grin waved his hands a lot, big personality, a 0:05:49.356 --> 0:05:53.756 little George Costanza meets Fred Flintstone. In nineteen seventy four, 0:05:53.796 --> 0:05:56.396 he lost yet another job. He moved back home with 0:05:56.436 --> 0:05:59.396 his parents in Missouri. He was twenty three. It was 0:05:59.436 --> 0:06:01.516 a very tough time to try to make a career 0:06:01.556 --> 0:06:06.196 in AM radio, mainly because FM radio was on the rise, 0:06:07.956 --> 0:06:11.316 a faith free start, a threem or FM stereo car 0:06:11.516 --> 0:06:18.436 radio sounds starting in the nineteen fifties, the era of 0:06:18.476 --> 0:06:22.036 Elvis Little Richard. People bought FM radios for their houses, 0:06:22.356 --> 0:06:25.916 but the FM dial only really exploded in the nineteen seventies, when, 0:06:25.916 --> 0:06:28.076 for the first time, you could get FM in your car. 0:06:28.756 --> 0:06:32.436 At this point, AM radio was mono, just one track. 0:06:34.276 --> 0:06:39.476 FM was stereo was immersive. Naturally, everyone wanted to switch 0:06:39.516 --> 0:06:42.956 from plain old mono to stereo. You'd bring your car 0:06:42.956 --> 0:06:45.356 into the shop and switch out your AM radio for 0:06:45.396 --> 0:06:54.196 an FM radio with stereo speakers. This change in the 0:06:54.236 --> 0:06:57.116 sound of radio from AM to FM would have vast 0:06:57.156 --> 0:07:01.676 repercussions for the history of knowledge. A very long reverb, 0:07:04.396 --> 0:07:08.796 AM radio suffered, listenership plummeted, and then so did AD revenue. 0:07:09.196 --> 0:07:12.236 By nineteen eighty seven, the majority of AM radio stations 0:07:12.236 --> 0:07:15.076 were no longer making a profit, and people who worked 0:07:15.076 --> 0:07:17.956 at AM radio stations in the nineteen seventies were losing 0:07:17.996 --> 0:07:22.196 their jobs, including in Kansas City, where Limbaugh, who'd been 0:07:22.236 --> 0:07:25.356 moving from job to job, had landed. All the DJs 0:07:25.396 --> 0:07:29.836 got fired. I was spared as assistant program director, and 0:07:29.836 --> 0:07:34.516 you know what that meant, programming the automation machine. Limbo 0:07:34.596 --> 0:07:37.716 didn't last long as an assistant program director. He took 0:07:37.716 --> 0:07:41.396 a job instead with the Kansas City Royals baseball team. Meanwhile, 0:07:41.476 --> 0:07:44.316 AM radio stations were beginning to figure out that if 0:07:44.356 --> 0:07:47.276 they could leave music to the FM band and concentrate 0:07:47.356 --> 0:07:50.636 on talk shows, they could start making money again. In 0:07:50.796 --> 0:07:53.676 mono talk sounds fine, even if you might not agree 0:07:53.676 --> 0:07:56.236 with what someone's saying. The simple fact matter is that 0:07:56.796 --> 0:07:59.956 the homeless advocacy in this country is, I think, based 0:08:00.036 --> 0:08:05.476 upon fraud. In nineteen eighty four, broadcasting under his own name, 0:08:05.916 --> 0:08:09.636 Limbaugh started a new kind of talk radio show, Incremento 0:08:09.956 --> 0:08:14.076 on KFBK. He pretty much invented a whole new format. 0:08:14.836 --> 0:08:18.796 Soon he had a deal for national syndication. The opinions 0:08:18.796 --> 0:08:22.276 expressed on the Rush Limbaugh program do not necessarily reflect 0:08:22.316 --> 0:08:26.556 those of WABC Radio or its management, and now here's 0:08:26.556 --> 0:08:31.276 a Rush Limbaugh. By the way, that's a gutlass disclaimer. 0:08:31.316 --> 0:08:32.996 The view is expressed by the host of this show 0:08:33.036 --> 0:08:35.716 ought to become federal law in the station and sponsors 0:08:35.996 --> 0:08:40.796 all who heartily endorsed them. The Rush Limbaugh Show was 0:08:40.836 --> 0:08:44.116 a one way wall of talk. Limbaugh was funny, he 0:08:44.236 --> 0:08:47.596 was angry. His program started with a news digest, then 0:08:47.596 --> 0:08:50.756 a series of opinions, mixed with calls from listeners who 0:08:50.836 --> 0:08:54.796 agreed with those opinions. Here's voice now, and it sounds 0:08:54.836 --> 0:08:58.396 so utterly familiar. That's because it's the voice of the 0:08:58.436 --> 0:09:03.876 political YouTuber, or of a certain sort of podcaster. Brash, annoying, 0:09:04.156 --> 0:09:06.836 no at all. But it was a new voice then, 0:09:07.156 --> 0:09:09.716 and it spoke to listeners for three hours a day, 0:09:10.276 --> 0:09:13.916 five days a week. So to give you just a 0:09:13.996 --> 0:09:17.996 bit of an idea about the show, there are no 0:09:18.156 --> 0:09:23.716 guests never. We don't talk about single issues or themes ever, 0:09:24.036 --> 0:09:28.556 unless they evolve as the program goes. It is pretty 0:09:28.596 --> 0:09:33.836 much an open line discussion each end, every day. Limba 0:09:34.076 --> 0:09:39.396 revolutionized radio open line. It was all him, even some 0:09:39.476 --> 0:09:42.876 of the ads. At a time when human resources departments 0:09:42.876 --> 0:09:46.996 were newly requiring sexual harassment training, Limbaugh spent a lot 0:09:47.036 --> 0:09:50.396 of his time on air attacking feminists, especially after Anita 0:09:50.476 --> 0:09:54.556 Hill accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. 0:09:55.236 --> 0:10:00.276 Limba made a fake ad about Feminazi trading cards. I'll 0:10:00.276 --> 0:10:02.796 give you two glorious items, mon Anita. Trading cards have 0:10:02.876 --> 0:10:05.436 always been for males only. It's just not fair, It's 0:10:05.476 --> 0:10:07.916 not right, ya. I still nail post. I'm Betty Freedom. 0:10:08.156 --> 0:10:13.036 Feminaz card are design the woman in mind. I remember 0:10:13.036 --> 0:10:15.716 in those years my dad listening to Limbaugh. I drove 0:10:15.716 --> 0:10:18.076 my mother nuts. I bet a lot of families had 0:10:18.116 --> 0:10:21.836 an experience like that Limbaugh. He'd say it seemed anything, 0:10:21.996 --> 0:10:24.916 so partly people tuned in for the thrill of it, 0:10:25.076 --> 0:10:28.116 to hear what he'd say next. For the rest of us, though, 0:10:28.116 --> 0:10:30.116 it was like getting kicked in the face every day. 0:10:30.476 --> 0:10:34.076 He went after feminists. He liked him mock environmentalists, gays 0:10:34.116 --> 0:10:36.756 and lesbians. He made a lot of jokes about AIDS. 0:10:37.916 --> 0:10:41.156 Despite or really because of all that, Limbaugh's audience just 0:10:41.276 --> 0:10:45.356 grew and grew. Mainly that audience was men, white men 0:10:45.676 --> 0:10:48.476 who are angry. His angry as rush seemed to be 0:10:49.276 --> 0:10:51.596 real wages for white men who had gone to college, 0:10:51.596 --> 0:10:54.916 were dropping. They're still dropping. Some of these guys really 0:10:54.916 --> 0:10:57.756 did have a lot to be angry about. Rush told 0:10:57.796 --> 0:11:01.356 him who to be angry at. The people who loved Rush. 0:11:01.396 --> 0:11:05.036 They called themselves ditto heads because they believed everything he 0:11:05.116 --> 0:11:11.196 said and would say it back. Ditto Limbo's format, the 0:11:11.236 --> 0:11:14.556 wall of talk push nearly everything else off talk radio, 0:11:15.156 --> 0:11:18.116 all the kookie chit chat and cooking shows and carpentry 0:11:18.116 --> 0:11:23.276 shows and community theater everything. Meanwhile, radio stations, which for 0:11:23.316 --> 0:11:26.196 a long time had been mom and pop operations, were 0:11:26.196 --> 0:11:30.916 getting bought out by giant, consolidated national and even global corporations. 0:11:31.796 --> 0:11:35.756 Here I've got to disclose something about that consolidation. The 0:11:35.836 --> 0:11:38.876 Rush Limbough Show was eventually syndicated by an outfit called 0:11:39.236 --> 0:11:44.396 clear Channel. More recently, clear Channel rebranded itself as iHeartMedia, 0:11:44.516 --> 0:11:47.716 and an arm of iHeart now sells ads for Pushkin Industries, 0:11:47.996 --> 0:11:50.596 which is the production house that makes the Last Archive. 0:11:51.436 --> 0:11:53.716 So this is like when the Washington Post reports on 0:11:53.756 --> 0:11:56.196 Amazon and then has to mention that the Post is 0:11:56.196 --> 0:11:59.236 owned by Jeff Bezos. Okay, the Last Archive is not 0:11:59.356 --> 0:12:03.756 the Washington Post, and iHeart doesn't own Pushkin. But still 0:12:03.796 --> 0:12:07.476 it's important to disclose these things. Limbough liked to present 0:12:07.556 --> 0:12:11.436 himself as a cowboy, a rick, bold, reckless, and unpredictable. 0:12:12.316 --> 0:12:14.836 In reality, he was more like the wonder bread of radio, 0:12:15.236 --> 0:12:18.156 the factory made white bread of radio. He was the 0:12:18.196 --> 0:12:21.836 same every goddamn day, rant, rant, rant, ad rant, rant, 0:12:21.876 --> 0:12:26.316 ad rant, rant, big rant, station break rant. What he 0:12:26.396 --> 0:12:29.516 was selling was his own predictability three hours a day, 0:12:30.276 --> 0:12:34.036 five days a week. But the forces that had to 0:12:34.036 --> 0:12:36.596 do with Limbaugh's success had to do with more than 0:12:36.636 --> 0:12:41.276 just radio formats. For years, Limbaugh's fortunes rose while other 0:12:41.356 --> 0:12:46.316 media's fell. Daily newspapers were going out of business. Limbaugh 0:12:46.396 --> 0:12:50.356 didn't seem to mind. If you listen to this show 0:12:50.356 --> 0:12:52.356 every day, you never need to read another newspaper again, 0:12:52.676 --> 0:12:54.916 never read another magazine. I do it for you. When 0:12:54.916 --> 0:12:56.756 you get a bonus, I tell you what to think 0:12:57.276 --> 0:13:02.516 about this incredibly complicated and controversial issue. I tell you 0:13:02.556 --> 0:13:06.836 what to think. And he wasn't joking. Limba presented himself 0:13:06.876 --> 0:13:10.276 as a prophet liberals and feminine sees. They were heretics. 0:13:10.716 --> 0:13:13.316 Limbaugh was talking politics, but his show was less like 0:13:13.356 --> 0:13:16.196 a news program than like those old radio gospel shows. 0:13:16.676 --> 0:13:21.676 Politics as preaching listening as worship conservatism as a new religion. 0:13:22.356 --> 0:13:27.316 Scholars call this political sectarianism, and in this era, sectarianism 0:13:27.356 --> 0:13:31.116 was headed to Washington at GOPACK. Our mission is to 0:13:31.156 --> 0:13:34.676 gain control of the US House of Representatives. We're developing 0:13:34.676 --> 0:13:38.276 a farm team of future congressional candidates. That's audio from 0:13:38.276 --> 0:13:41.476 what's known as a GOPACK tape, one of the thousands 0:13:41.476 --> 0:13:45.156 of tapes made by a GOP political action committee that 0:13:45.236 --> 0:13:49.076 had become the mouthpiece for just one man. This is 0:13:49.116 --> 0:13:51.996 congress In nud Gingrich. As a candidate. You've probably been 0:13:52.036 --> 0:13:54.076 listening to tapes from GOPAC all year, and you know 0:13:54.156 --> 0:13:58.116 that we've emphasized certain basic ideas and certain basic approaches. 0:13:58.836 --> 0:14:02.676 Newt Gingrich, then a Congressman from Georgia. Gingridge, heard what 0:14:02.756 --> 0:14:04.956 Limbaugh was doing on air and in the late nineteen 0:14:04.996 --> 0:14:08.076 eighties started to record his own version of that format 0:14:08.316 --> 0:14:11.916 through these GOP cassette tapes. If you were a Republican 0:14:11.996 --> 0:14:15.116 running for office or working on a campaign, he'd probably 0:14:15.116 --> 0:14:17.356 listen to these tapes in your car as cassette player. 0:14:18.036 --> 0:14:20.516 In this tape, we have a speech I gave to 0:14:20.556 --> 0:14:23.796 the Republicans in California. We decided to share with you 0:14:23.876 --> 0:14:26.356 as an example of how you can bring all the 0:14:26.436 --> 0:14:30.556 basic values together. This is the sound of modern political history, 0:14:30.676 --> 0:14:35.876 shifting gears and burning out the clutch. The tapes were 0:14:35.876 --> 0:14:39.356 mailed to thousands of people every month. One Republican from 0:14:39.356 --> 0:14:43.476 Minnesota told PBS's Frontline how crucial they were. When they 0:14:43.476 --> 0:14:45.916 would come. I mean, and you spend some time in 0:14:45.956 --> 0:14:48.356 a car, particularly going back and forth to the state legislature. 0:14:48.716 --> 0:14:50.116 When they would come in the mail, I mean, I 0:14:50.156 --> 0:14:52.916 would open them up right away, and I would put 0:14:52.956 --> 0:14:56.556 them in a cassette player within twenty four hours. The 0:14:56.556 --> 0:14:59.196 purpose of the tapes was to create a single national 0:14:59.276 --> 0:15:06.436 message for a conservative insurgency, to make newt dittoheads. There 0:15:06.436 --> 0:15:10.276 are two movements in America. There's a La Twing radical movement, 0:15:10.476 --> 0:15:14.676 and there's a common sense, practical, center right majority, the 0:15:14.756 --> 0:15:17.636 basic conservatives. Let me give you an example of how 0:15:17.676 --> 0:15:21.636 we think you can draw those lines. Kingridge proposed a 0:15:21.676 --> 0:15:25.156 set of dualisms for candidates to use in ads. You 0:15:25.236 --> 0:15:28.316 might think this kind of hyperpolarized rhetoric is more recent, 0:15:28.676 --> 0:15:31.836 a product of social media maybe, but you'd be wrong. 0:15:32.156 --> 0:15:35.996 We believe in locking up criminals, especially dangerous criminals, but 0:15:36.116 --> 0:15:39.476 allowing honest citizen stone guns. The radical left introduced to 0:15:39.476 --> 0:15:42.676 build a legalized sex with animals, but we oppose legal 0:15:42.676 --> 0:15:45.596 sex with animals. In fact, frankly, we oppose any kind 0:15:45.636 --> 0:15:51.156 of sex with animals. In the early nineteen nineties, and 0:15:51.196 --> 0:15:53.876 a memo sent out with the tapes Go Back supplied 0:15:53.916 --> 0:15:57.876 candidates with a vocabulary list. It suggested words to use 0:15:58.116 --> 0:16:06.756 to help to find your campaign change opportunity, legacy, challenge, control, truth, moral, courage, 0:16:06.836 --> 0:16:21.236 who form, prosperity, cruci, aid, movement, children, family, debate, compete, humane, pristine, provide, liberty, commitment, duty, fair, protect, confident, incentive, 0:16:21.436 --> 0:16:27.956 hard work, initiative, common sense. Gopeck also listed words to 0:16:28.076 --> 0:16:38.236 use to describe your political opponents, words like sick, pathetic, liberal, lie, shallow, traitors, sensationalists, 0:16:38.316 --> 0:16:48.876 in danger, coercion, hypocrisy, radical, threatened, devour, waste, corruption, incompetent, permissive, attitude, destructive, impose, 0:16:49.276 --> 0:16:58.156 self serving, greed, sheet steel, abuse of power, obsolete. This 0:16:58.236 --> 0:17:02.236 was political warfare on all fronts. Gingridge trained the officers, 0:17:02.636 --> 0:17:06.756 Limbaugh rallied the troops. Gingridge's political power grew, and so 0:17:06.876 --> 0:17:10.996 did Limbaugh's audience to round fifteen million listeners each week. 0:17:11.676 --> 0:17:15.516 In nineteen ninety one, Limbaugh appeared on CBS's sixty Minutes. 0:17:16.076 --> 0:17:18.316 What are you trying to do with this show? I'm 0:17:18.356 --> 0:17:21.916 trying to attract the largest audience I can and hold 0:17:21.956 --> 0:17:23.996 it for as long as I can so that I 0:17:24.036 --> 0:17:27.636 can charge advertisers confiscatory advertiser rates. This is a business. 0:17:27.796 --> 0:17:33.676 You're in it for the money. Sure, of course, I'm 0:17:33.676 --> 0:17:36.596 doing a lot of this for money. That's Limbaugh earning 0:17:36.596 --> 0:17:39.876 points for being honest. It's also a tactic. Donald Trump 0:17:39.916 --> 0:17:44.996 would adopt honesty about loving money. Listeners adored it. For 0:17:45.076 --> 0:17:47.596 talk radio, the money came rolling in, and not just 0:17:47.676 --> 0:17:50.996 for Limbaugh. Between nineteen eighty nine and nineteen ninety four, 0:17:51.196 --> 0:17:53.836 an average of twenty new talk radio stations went into 0:17:53.876 --> 0:17:59.116 business every month. Their shows weren't all conservative, at least 0:17:59.116 --> 0:18:02.316 not at first, but soon station owners discovered that if 0:18:02.356 --> 0:18:06.796 they ran only conservative talk, they had more listeners. No spots, 0:18:06.796 --> 0:18:12.796 no back, no information sat Kay BBL Talk Radio, and 0:18:12.916 --> 0:18:15.836 Al Springfield's favorite conservative and author of the well selling 0:18:15.836 --> 0:18:19.956 book Only Turkeys, Half Left Wings, Ladies and Gentlemen, Burch Barlow. 0:18:20.676 --> 0:18:22.916 You know you're in the zeitgeist when you're satirized on 0:18:22.956 --> 0:18:26.436 the Simpsons Good Morning, fellow freedomlikers, Burch Barlow, the fourth 0:18:26.436 --> 0:18:29.316 branch of government, the fifty first State. The more famous 0:18:29.396 --> 0:18:33.316 Limbaugh got, the more worried observers got, especially about how 0:18:33.316 --> 0:18:35.756 he talked about talk, how he talked about the freedom 0:18:35.796 --> 0:18:38.996 of speech, how he talked about fairness itself. This is 0:18:39.036 --> 0:18:43.196 also a benevolent dictatorship. I am the dictator. There is 0:18:43.236 --> 0:18:46.556 no First Amendment here except for me. Well right, The 0:18:46.556 --> 0:18:49.556 First Amendment only constrains the government, not a privately owned 0:18:49.636 --> 0:18:53.196 radio station. But for most of the twentieth century there'd 0:18:53.236 --> 0:18:56.036 been some rules in place. Rules the date to a 0:18:56.116 --> 0:18:59.396 time when people understood just how dangerous radio could be 0:18:59.956 --> 0:19:13.196 if broadcasters became dictators. In the nineteen forties, a guy 0:19:13.236 --> 0:19:16.476 named Clifford Dirr got a job offer from President Roosevelt. 0:19:17.356 --> 0:19:20.596 Dirr was a lawyer from Alabama. He's best known to 0:19:20.676 --> 0:19:23.796 history for something he did much later in the nineteen fifties, 0:19:24.036 --> 0:19:27.676 when he and his wife bailed Rosa Parks out of jail. Anyway, 0:19:27.716 --> 0:19:31.276 in nineteen forty one, Fdr appointed dir to the Federal 0:19:31.316 --> 0:19:35.196 Communications Commission the FCC. Point in the head of is 0:19:35.236 --> 0:19:39.156 that the FCC is the federal agency that regulates who 0:19:39.196 --> 0:19:42.636 can get broadcast licenses to use the airwaves, which after 0:19:42.676 --> 0:19:46.356 all belonged to the public. I want the FCC onknew 0:19:46.356 --> 0:19:50.276 absolutely nothing about it, but at the time we will 0:19:50.356 --> 0:19:54.596 mother fret all the actress broadcasts. I did an episode 0:19:54.596 --> 0:19:58.116 earlier this season called The Inner Front. It talks about 0:19:58.116 --> 0:20:01.916 how the US government monitored Radio Berlin and Radio Tokyo. 0:20:02.556 --> 0:20:04.916 That was part of the FCC's job during the Second 0:20:04.956 --> 0:20:09.076 World War, but the content of those enemy broadcasts really 0:20:09.316 --> 0:20:13.436 changed how dr and the FCC thought about the power 0:20:13.756 --> 0:20:17.596 of radio. Oh my god, this is a terrific medium. 0:20:17.636 --> 0:20:21.036 The other can be magnificent or it can completely ruin 0:20:21.156 --> 0:20:24.716 you if you get this thing in their long hands. 0:20:25.236 --> 0:20:27.836 So then add again to take a more closer look 0:20:27.876 --> 0:20:32.836 at an American broadcast. The FCC started enforcing some rules 0:20:32.836 --> 0:20:35.516 that were on the books but that have been mostly ignored, 0:20:36.036 --> 0:20:38.636 and Dur's influence would lead to a new rule to 0:20:38.676 --> 0:20:42.276 would shape broadcasting for the next half century. In nineteen 0:20:42.356 --> 0:20:46.436 forty nine, the FCC established what became known as the 0:20:46.476 --> 0:20:51.356 Fairness Doctrine. Under the American system of broadcasting, the individual 0:20:51.436 --> 0:20:54.996 licensees of radio stations have the responsibility for determining the 0:20:55.076 --> 0:20:59.516 specific program material to be broadcast over their stations, so 0:20:59.796 --> 0:21:03.796 you could broadcast whatever you wanted. Except This choice, however, 0:21:03.916 --> 0:21:06.636 must be exercised in a manner consistent with the basic 0:21:06.716 --> 0:21:09.916 policy of the Congress that radio being maintained as a 0:21:09.956 --> 0:21:12.716 medium of free speech for the general public as a whole, 0:21:13.116 --> 0:21:15.956 rather than as an outlet for the purely personal or 0:21:15.996 --> 0:21:19.556 private interests of the licensee. The fairness doctrine is about 0:21:19.556 --> 0:21:22.756 the public interest. It says the government has an interest 0:21:22.876 --> 0:21:25.916 in what radio stations broadcast. It says that on the 0:21:25.916 --> 0:21:29.196 issues of the day, radio stations have to broadcast more 0:21:29.236 --> 0:21:32.596 than one view. This requires that licensees to vote a 0:21:32.636 --> 0:21:35.636 reasonable percentage of their broadcast time to the discussion of 0:21:35.676 --> 0:21:38.996 public issues of interest in the community served by their stations, 0:21:39.236 --> 0:21:42.356 and that such programs be designed so that the public 0:21:42.396 --> 0:21:48.716 has a reasonable opportunity to hear different opposition positions. In 0:21:48.756 --> 0:21:51.916 the nineteen sixties, the fairness doctrine was strengthened by way 0:21:51.956 --> 0:21:56.516 of Congressional action, and the Johnson administration added a guarantee 0:21:56.676 --> 0:22:00.756 for a right of reply after a criticism during a broadcast. 0:22:03.156 --> 0:22:06.116 It wasn't often enforced, but it did happen sometimes like 0:22:06.236 --> 0:22:09.756 when Medgar Evers once got seventeen minutes of airtime to 0:22:09.876 --> 0:22:14.676 respond to criticism of the NAACP, or once when conservatives 0:22:14.716 --> 0:22:18.716 attacked Kennedy's proposed nuclear test band treaty, stations were required 0:22:18.756 --> 0:22:22.116 to play a protest band speech by the President himself. 0:22:23.116 --> 0:22:25.836 This was exactly the kind of thing that ticked conservatives off. 0:22:26.196 --> 0:22:28.956 Rules that required listeners to hear more from Edgar Evers 0:22:28.996 --> 0:22:34.276 hear more from President Kennedy. All mankind has been struggling 0:22:34.316 --> 0:22:39.476 to escape from the dokening prospect of mass destruction on Earth. 0:22:41.636 --> 0:22:44.516 In nineteen sixty nine, the Supreme Court affirmed much of 0:22:44.556 --> 0:22:47.716 the fairness doctrine, but conservatives are getting more and more 0:22:47.836 --> 0:22:51.916 peeved about it, believing that the fairness Doctrine suppressed conservative views. 0:22:52.516 --> 0:22:54.756 By the nineteen eighties, they really wanted to get rid 0:22:54.756 --> 0:22:57.716 of it, and it was vulnerable because it was a regulation, 0:22:57.916 --> 0:23:00.956 not a law. In nineteen eighty five, a new FCC 0:23:01.156 --> 0:23:04.116 head appointed by President Reagan said he would fight to 0:23:04.236 --> 0:23:08.316 end the fairness Doctrine. Two years later, in a bipartisan vote, 0:23:08.516 --> 0:23:11.636 Congress a bill that would have established the doctrine as law, 0:23:12.276 --> 0:23:15.196 but Reagan vetoed it and Congress didn't have the votes 0:23:15.276 --> 0:23:21.676 to override his veto. The doctrine was dead, and now 0:23:21.996 --> 0:23:28.996 here's Rice Limbaugh. Limbaugh could not have operated if the 0:23:29.036 --> 0:23:31.876 fairness doctrine had still been in place, at least not 0:23:31.916 --> 0:23:35.156 without worrying that the FCC might come after him because 0:23:35.156 --> 0:23:38.876 he used his airtime to promote partisanship. In fact, he 0:23:38.916 --> 0:23:42.196 was more than a partisan. Limbaugh wanted to be a kingmaker. 0:23:42.956 --> 0:23:46.356 In nineteen ninety two, after his preferred candidate, Pat Buchanan 0:23:46.516 --> 0:23:50.276 failed to win the nomination, Limbaugh stumped for George Bush, Senior. 0:23:50.876 --> 0:23:54.236 But when Bush lost to Bill Clinton, Limbaugh sounded a 0:23:54.276 --> 0:23:57.116 battle cry. He made it his mission to take down 0:23:57.156 --> 0:24:01.676 the Clintons, both of them. The Clintons are running around 0:24:01.716 --> 0:24:04.476 on this national tour. Now, you know, I don't know 0:24:04.516 --> 0:24:06.876 how else to say this. I mean, the president gets 0:24:06.876 --> 0:24:10.116 away when he says something it isn't true later being 0:24:10.116 --> 0:24:12.876 told about, Oh yeah, I was an inadvertent statement. The 0:24:12.876 --> 0:24:14.796 motto of this administration every day is what can we 0:24:14.836 --> 0:24:17.636 do to fool them today? Bill Clinton for sure did 0:24:17.676 --> 0:24:21.476 sometimes lie, no question, but fooling people was not the 0:24:21.516 --> 0:24:25.796 motto of his administration. Clinton got exasperated. You can hear 0:24:25.876 --> 0:24:28.556 him on Saint Louis am radio practically begging for a 0:24:28.716 --> 0:24:31.836 right of reply after I get off the radio today 0:24:32.156 --> 0:24:34.836 with you, Russ Lamball have three hours to say whatever 0:24:34.836 --> 0:24:37.556 he wants, and I won't have any opportunity to respond. 0:24:37.956 --> 0:24:40.716 And there's no truth detector. You won't get on afterward 0:24:40.796 --> 0:24:44.276 and say what was true and what was In nineteen 0:24:44.316 --> 0:24:47.276 ninety three, Democrats in Congress tried to bring back the 0:24:47.316 --> 0:24:51.076 fairness doctrine. Limbaugh like to call their effort the hush 0:24:51.156 --> 0:24:54.796 Rush Bill, but other people on talk radio didn't see 0:24:54.836 --> 0:24:58.076 it that way. I'm a proponent of the fairness doctrine. 0:24:58.516 --> 0:25:02.036 That's longtime radio and television host Larry King in nineteen 0:25:02.116 --> 0:25:04.916 ninety three. I like it. I like the fact that 0:25:04.956 --> 0:25:07.436 we as broadcasters have to be fair. It is not 0:25:07.476 --> 0:25:09.756 out to get any broadcast I know Rush Limbaugh thinks 0:25:09.796 --> 0:25:14.596 they're out to get them. All it means is that 0:25:14.676 --> 0:25:17.876 a station who has if you have eight right wing hosts, 0:25:18.076 --> 0:25:20.236 you better put some left wing hosts on. I don't 0:25:20.236 --> 0:25:23.836 know what's wrong with that, but the fairness doctrine was 0:25:23.916 --> 0:25:27.996 not reinstated, and in nineteen ninety four, in the midterm elections, 0:25:28.316 --> 0:25:32.116 Republicans flipped the Senate and the House. It was a wipeout. 0:25:32.316 --> 0:25:35.876 They took ten governorships, they won state legislatures. They elected 0:25:35.916 --> 0:25:39.676 Newt Kingbridge Speaker of the House. The Freshman Republicans in 0:25:39.716 --> 0:25:42.716 the House named Rush Limbaugh an honorary member of their class, 0:25:43.236 --> 0:25:46.036 and he went to Capitol Hill where he was besieged 0:25:46.076 --> 0:25:48.996 by reporters asking him how talk radio had led the 0:25:49.036 --> 0:25:52.636 Conservatives to victory. These reporters who asked me questions about 0:25:52.636 --> 0:25:55.956 talk radio were all trying to say, in a roundabout way, 0:25:56.236 --> 0:26:00.116 that I took a bunch of brainless people and converted 0:26:00.156 --> 0:26:04.396 them to mind numbed robots, and every day would send 0:26:04.436 --> 0:26:08.396 out code in my show that would force them to 0:26:08.556 --> 0:26:10.716 march to the polls on November the eighth of the 0:26:10.756 --> 0:26:14.676 poll the lever I wanted them to pull. Listening to 0:26:14.756 --> 0:26:17.396 Limbaugh's speech to the Freshman Republican members of the House, 0:26:17.916 --> 0:26:20.396 you can hear them giggling as Limbaugh turned to a 0:26:20.436 --> 0:26:24.276 new topic, reports of secret meetings that Bill and Hillary 0:26:24.276 --> 0:26:28.436 Clinton were holding in the White House about me. They're 0:26:28.436 --> 0:26:30.996 trying to come up with a liberal version of me. 0:26:32.036 --> 0:26:35.876