there's all back on the news and
and I'll and someone has to do with you
know the state the media and Michael
Smerconish has been
thinking about this a lot over the years
he's been in the middle of it
for for many many years now the new
novella novella politics the media is
titled
talk and Mike Michael Smerconish
course the posed up the Michael
Smerconish program on XM Sirius on the
Otis channel number 124
nine to noon eastern time Monday through
Friday he's the host its mark on a show
on CNN
and Saturdays at 9 a.m. either Eastern
Time and smirk on ish
SM eRCO nish dot com is his website
Michael welcome back to the program
become thanks for having make it's great
to have you with us you know your
you're one of the good guys and and in
to rate a helluva book
said 0 thank you for that I'm curious
you know first just in general your
thoughts
on the state love the business the UN
Iran
deplorable and I wanted to write a book
that drew attention to the fact that I
think
it has led Washington astray in taking
the country with it
because all this polarization the cause
is gridlock in Washington all the
options
I think grows out I love our business I
look back at the last
25 or 30 years that I didn't a
participant and paying attention
it's a time of increased polarization in
the media as well as in DC
and I think the two were causally
connected I think that that the media is
in large part driving the bus and I mean
the world of terrestrial talk radio and
cable television news
isn't that though me I
I don't I don't recall when you started
in radio I started in radio in nineteen
sixty
7 and in commercial radio and I was
working W i TL
AM and FM Lansing Michigan and
it was the number one station in town it
was in a country western
but we had a talk show in the afternoon
the truck drag show check my for the
on the three guys was the honors at the
station and
it was super it was kinda miss work on a
show
revenues the truck was a conservative
kinda Chamber of Commerce conservative
republican businessman but you know he
the to call
you know conversations that wasn't
highly partisan arm
but what was interesting was that there
were similar shows and other stations
are like five or six stations in Lansing
I worked at at least four of them
over the next ten years and all of them
were owned by local people
to the best my knowledge there's no
longer any locally on stations in
Lansing Michigan
there might be one and isn't
it couldn't be is now possible that in
1982 when reagan stopped enforcing the
Sherman Act and we had this explosion
we had the the mergers and acquisitions
mania and this whole
so new category job opportunity am in a
specialist in on
michael milken's the world and this from
credible consolidation of our media
began
that and and the and along with the
vertical integration afar media we saw
this broken up in television with the
prime time but we chose broken up in the
movie industry back in nineteen thirties
or forties
for the studios couldn't on the retail
outlets arm
this is not happen in the radio business
could it not be that
there are business models that are
driving this and it's not like
you know evil talk show hosts are bad
producers or anything else it's just
the way that the business is structured
well
baby I mean your experience in Lansing
sounds a lot like my experience
years later in philadelphia it's funny
how we remember I my station was
ninety 6.5 FM WWD be or as we call that
the talk station but when I think about
the lineup
on that station in the early 1990s there
was a guy named her homework
he was a libertarian before the rest of
us had ever heard a Ron Paul
we had an unabashed liberal named Frank
four he was married to the Democratic
district attorney in Philadelphia for
many years
there was a a conservative named Dominic
win but he was best known for his
command of the English language not
ideology
and Tom the guy that I've been thinking
a great deal about recently as bernie
Herman
because he did the tender one slot at
night and his moniker his schtick is
brand
was the gentleman a broadcasting and I
used to come in and and guest host for
him when he would go away on vacation
today if you knock at the door a program
director and they said will
what are you all about and you said I'm
the gentleman to the gentlewoman a
broadcasting
you not getting across the threshold now
and I don't ascribe it primarily the
change to
ownership changes although that's a
reality it was still owned by a family
when I was getting started but I look at
the rise over rush limbaugh in the early
out nineties at a time in the first Gulf
War
and that really set the stage because
and I would argue conservatives
rightfully believed they didn't have a
place to take a call home
they established talk radio as their
their clubhouse
the shock is that here we are these many
years later people have never had the
amount of choice that they
that they can exercise but they don't
they gravitate toward the like-minded
in the usual clubhouses but they don't
have to if they don't have it raise
awareness of the danger that that
possesses
I mean they they don't have the choice
you getting a clear Channel Islands
about half the major stakes in the
United States about half the minor
sticks
and they on Limbaugh Show Hannity show
bench bakso
and just pay these guys a salary so
there they're making all the money
from their own programming I'm Sirius XM
is moving to that model
cumulus you know has just recently
become the major competitor
for for a for Clear Channel
are cumulus controls you know the boss
would once they bought are showing all
the other
you know they don't on the show i or
independently owned it but
you know a lot of some of them are and
but they distributed
and we're not on a single cumulus
station and which
makes me scratch my head wonder about
the future and
and its but they're developing a me %uh
they just they just hired Mike Rogers
out a congress right-wing
you republican conservative to come up
with a new kind of
you know they're developing their own
line up to go up against Premier on the
right
and I think that there's some truth to
what Limbaugh used to say
and that is that on the left there's
just as much demand for
intelligent conversation about the
issues but on the left is largely
satisfied by NPR
and so on the right they come up with
this thus this reactionary stuff
as a as a counter-balance to could not
be that my biggest from you know
problem and competitors actually NPR
I believe that when I say there's
there's at tremendous amount of choice I
don't mean simply in
radioed I like I mean internet I mean
cable television I mean satellite radio
and I'm always shocked by people who and
I have friends like this where
conservatives and they rely
entirely on Fox drudge and talk radio
rent I similarly have friends who
gravitate toward liberal outlets and
it's like never the two
shall meet my argument is you open your
mind listen to some alternative points
of view it reminds me of an issue Thomas
playing itself out
this week relative to commencement
speakers I don't understand the
Millennials who are unwilling to sit
there and entertain for 20 minutes
a point of view that that might not be
in sync with their own if you can't do
it on a college kid term a county right
yeah i i would argue that there's a
qualitative difference between Condi
Rice and William F Buckley there's a
difference between a
a principled I'll turn a point of view
and a war criminal
but that's a whole separate argument to
and paste to have that another time
well Oct why I'm curious we just have to
manage we have a minute have left
Michael
I'm curious are 111 I'm curious if you'd
like to talk back
to lars Larson he's his is is
same to you that you are you know it but
you can characterize it harry wants not
I haven't read it tall okay I haven't I
have it by basically says that you know
hey read it so you have to some
conservatives conservatives don't lie
ever well this and i cant believe
that the talking points that I hear day
in and day out from talk radio hosts on
the right
where the only changes the intonation
over the voice
I can't believe that's the way they see
the world I don't know people
to see the world entirely true liberal
or conservative lenses
they don't comport with those that I
interact with in my real life they only
exist
in a media-driven world because when I'm
interacting with folks
for liberal on some things usually
social issues the conservative on things
usually financial issues
and there's a heckuva lot Tom that they
just haven't figured out and they're not
afraid to say so
out the certainty that exists in the
media world is an aberration
I think you're right and that's one of
the reasons why almost every single day
we have conservatism this program and I
wish for my colleagues to do it
are Michael Smerconish host Michael
Smerconish program on XM Sirius part is
channel 124
and smoke on a show on CNN on Saturdays
at 9 a.m. in his new book
really worth checking out a novel
politics the media
Bob of smoke honest I cannot thank you
Michael thank you tom
keep up the great work my friend thank
you we'll be right back
