Talk Radio
Reading an essay from Consider the Lobster where David Foster Wallace, with his usual penetrating style, argues that "one of the more plausible comprehensive theories is that political talk radio is one of several important 'galvanzing venues' for the US right....a kind of electronic town hall meeting where passions can be inflamed and arguments honed under the loquacious tutelage of the hosts" (288). 

As DFW points out this lens has the advantage of not assuming what must be demonstrated.  Rather than define talk radio as systematic disinformation, effectively dismissing alternative perspectives and silencing debates, this frame defines it in a way that allows for us to examine it with an open mind.  I do not like Limbaugh or Hannity and their ilk, but (again, agreeing with DFW) I like less comparing them to Hitler.  In fact, that is one of their techniques I despise most because it undermines political communication and democratic deliberation needed to learn by observing the consequences of our actions and improve our polity.

DFW also argues that this frame helps us better understand why the "energy" in American politics is on the right today.  One option DFW considers, that I think worth considering, is that talk radio today is "a wildly successful strategy for bringing a large group of like-minded citizens together, uniting them in a coherent set of simple ideas, energizing them, and inciting them to political action."  He compares this to the energy-edge the US left enjoyed in the 1960s.

Wallace further argues (290) that "whatever the social effects of talk radio or the partisan agendas of certain hosts, it is a fallacy that political talk radio is motivated by ideology.  It is not.  Political talk radio is a business, and it is motivated by revenue."

My first thought was 'capitalism is an ideology,' but this dismisses his point without considering its analytical value.  DFW is pointing out that Air America failed because it did not produce revenue.  This is a very different conclusion than it failed because the right shouted it down or that citizens have been duped or that citizen perspectives have been gradually moved to the right. 

Talk radio is a product, designed to sell advertising, that also happens to sell the idea (the world view) that commerce is the unifying theory, the consumer is king, and the market free from government interference is the source of individual liberty.  But if it did not sell advertising by attracting audiences it could not also saturate communication channels with bullshit until the mere repetition of the bullshit compels mainstream media outlets to pick up the story. 

The addition of its commercial prowess to the explanation for talk radio matters and operates at least quasi-independently from the explanatory value of its selling of a particular perspective on the role of government.

After all these years, and with no disrespect to my disciplinary colleagues, I am still amazed and surprised and delighted when I experience again the joy of learning a lot about politics and power from English professors.  I have not finished this final essay in Consider the Lobster yet, but I both look forward to leanring more and I am sad that this will be the end of a great, great collection of essays.  Many thanks to my brother Tom, one of the most intelligent men I know, for recommending this collection and buying it for me.