The media is afraid to talk about how Right Wing Talk and Sports Radio 'Demonized' Matha Coakley

[meegbear]

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.

http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/margery-eagan-says-media-afraid-talk-ab

[FSogol]

1. They are also avoiding talking about how much out-of-state $$$ propped up

Brown.

[spanone]

2. it doesn't fit into their mandate-speak

[cleveramerican]

3. to win you have to run

She took a vacation in the middle of a short campaign.

Meanwhile Brown was running right at her,
Maybe she had never seen a genuine republican before.

She ran her primary strategy(keep your head down and issue frequent campaign press releases) in the general and got her ass handed to her as a result.

there is no mystery.

[Bill219]

4. I listen to Boston Sports radio on the internet

WEEI was the worst when it came to this. They carried water for Scott Brown everyday. It was like listening to FOX especially in the morning during D&C and in the afternoon during The Big Show.

I did not notice too much with 98.5 The Sports Hub. Scott Zolak would try to inject his right wing politics every now and then and Gary Tanguay would keep him in check. Felger and Mazz really do not discuss politics...mainly sports

[Nye Bevan]

5. When you run a campaign as bad as she did

you deserve to be demonized.

[reformist]

6. I don't think it's wise to try to explain away the vote.

Sure right-wing radio probably played a role. But I honestly think the race was decided mainly on the issues. Also, Brown did have more a lot more charisma than Coakley, and there's nothing that could have been done about that.

[Ganja Ninja]

7. Sports/Talk radio in Tampa is very right wing too.

Ever notice how when ever a liberal station is being taken off the air "because of ratings" it's almost always replaced by sports/talk?

[fascisthunter]

8. 98.5 Fm Sports Hub was pretty Neutral

I stopped listening to WEEI because they had a political agenda and still do. They are not as they seem... you should hear some of the people that call up that show.... you begin to understand how ignorant they are not only about politics, but in general, just dumb and angry. It's like listening to a bunch of idiot dry drunks blaming all their problems on a certain group of people.... while they get screwed by upper-middleclass republicans.

[tridim]

9. Being a baseball fan is apparently the only true qualification for office in MA.

I wonder if any of the talk radio stations discussed how stupid that is?