Calls Grow for GOP to Break its Media Cocoon

[DemPGH]

Superb idea. Allowing Limbaugh and Hannity to be your policy center is a terrible idea, but it's seductive because they pack in a lot people, and a lot of suckers even buy what they peddle. So if the GOP cuts itself off from these people, which has become like a needy relationship, the GOP will have to come up with ideas rather than just try to stir up older white people into a frenzy.

Then there's the religious vote that Reagan largely secure with making deals with influential preachers on social issues. The GOP wants to keep these people too, even though the whole concept of a "moral majority" is really quickly becoming a thing of the past.

[DemPGH]

At least most liberal media uses facts and data and tries to understand the motives coming from the other side. And they're also not afraid to knock down one of their own if they screw up. MSNBC was probably the hardest on Obama after the first debate. Right wing media has become almost cult like, showing intense devotion to the Republican party and failing to tell the entire story

This is the most salient point. There is no equivalency between Rachel Maddow and Rush Limbaugh. The liberals on MSNBC are fact-driven. They are not in a fantasy world. Their arguments are made on the merits. Conservatives are delusional as has been so clearly illustrated by this election cycle.

That's right. Even the firebrands, Schultz and Matthews, check stuff, and they do not seek out disciples for whom they will create a reality in which there are death panels, FEMA-built concentration camps, terrorists taking over the Army, freeloaders everywhere seeking a living off the Gubment, Obamaphones, no birth certificate, every single vote in Cleveland being fudged for Obama (which can debunked by just looking it up!), and God knows what else.

The right wing entertainers on radio and TV are gimmicks (spinoffs of doomsday political fiction, I think), but sadly their audiences don't see them that way.