{"id":90471,"date":"2008-01-17T00:00:01","date_gmt":"2008-01-17T05:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2008\/01\/17\/pej-talk-show-index-january-6-11-2008\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:12:31","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:12:31","slug":"pej-talk-show-index-january-6-11-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/01\/17\/pej-talk-show-index-january-6-11-2008\/","title":{"rendered":"PEJ Talk Show Index: January 6 \u2013 11, 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n

With the campaign primary season in full swing, the most popular conservative voices in talk radio last week seemed to take sides in the crowded Republican presidential field. <\/p>\n\n

And they both canted their opinions as a criticism, as they often do, of the mainstream media. <\/p>\n\n

[a]<\/p>\n\n\n

[by the media]<\/p>\n\n\n

If the influence of ideological talk show hosts is often mitigated by the fact that their listeners already share their political leanings, a wide open campaign for President offers a rare test. What impact could they have on the primary races? <\/p>\n\n

Last week, cable and radio talk hosts spent a whopping 75% of their time on the battle for the White House, as measured by PEJ\u2019s Talk Show Index from Jan. 6-11. And the two conservative radio talkers with the biggest audiences, (Limbaugh at 13.5 million and Hannity at 12.5 million, according to Talkers Magazine) seemed to be sending listeners clear messages.<\/p>\n\n

Hannity and Limbaugh may hardly be the only voices who have doubted McCain\u2019s conservative credentials, given his maverick positions on everything from immigration to campaign finance. The notion that the socially conservative Huckabee, who has some populist economic views, is a moderate or liberal, is far from unanimous.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve gotten sick and tired of this whole notion of change,\u201d Limbaugh asserted on Jan. 7. \u201cEven some of the Republican candidates now are picking up on this\u2026The kind of change Mike Huckabee would bring about\u2014not good change. The things that McCain would bring about\u2014not good change.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

[on the immigration bill]<\/p>\n\n\n

The No. 3 name in talk radio (according to Talkers audience figures), conservative contrarian Michael Savage, has touted his own presidential candidacy. (According to his \u201cweb poll,\u201d Savage has received about 52 million online votes urging him to run, a ratio of 91% to 9 %.) On his Jan. 8 program, Savage called the candidates \u201ca bunch of doddering old fools.\u201d But he specifically attacked Rudy Giuliani and the former Arkansas Governor he calls \u201cHucksterbee.\u201d Yet it was less clear what ideological differences he had with them. He largely criticized them because they would not appear on his show.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThey will not meet you,\u201d he told his listeners. \u201cFrankly, they\u2019re not welcome on this show. Don\u2019t think I need them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Virtually no other subject other than the campaign made air last week in the talk universe, at least in the hours monitored by the Talk Index. The second-biggest story (3%) was U.S. tensions with Iran after the close call in the Strait of Hormuz. The third-biggest, also at 3%, was the immigration debate, followed by case of the murdered pregnant Marine, Maria Lauterbach (1%) and domestic terrorism (1%). <\/p>\n\n

PEJ\u2019s Talk Show Index, released each week, is designed to provide news consumers, journalists and researchers with hard data about what stories and topics are most frequently dissected and discussed in the media universe of talk and opinion\u2014a segment of the media that spans across both prime time cable and radio. (See About the Talk Show Index<\/a>.) PEJ\u2019s Talk Show Index includes seven prime time cable shows and five radio talk hosts and is a subset of our News Coverage Index<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

Another major feature of the campaign conversation last week was how the media got their predictions wrong in New Hampshire. One popular theory among talkers was that the press simply doesn\u2019t like Hillary Clinton.<\/p>\n\n

On his Jan. 10 MSNBC show, Dan Abrams listed his \u201cfive reasons the \u2018inside Washington media\u2019 hate Hillary.\u201d They included everything from \u201cthe Clintons are old news\u201d to the theory that some on her staff have \u201cdeveloped a testy relationship with some of the media.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

[New Hampshire]<\/p>\n\n\n

[media]<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cAbsolutely,\u201d Bagley responded, echoing a line that the Clinton campaign had been pushing directly. \u201cI don\u2019t they they\u2019ve scrutinized Barack Obama. No, I don\u2019t think they\u2019ve done to Barack what they\u2019ve done to Hillary Clinton.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

And the same theme was more telegenically illustrated by Hillary Clinton herself in an encounter with Beltway pundit Chris Matthews. Matthews has been widely criticized as anti-Clinton, particularly online. On his Jan. 7 MSNBC program, he aired a clip of his asking a question at a Clinton press conference. The exchange got a bit testy.<\/p>\n\n

After Matthews asked Clinton to appear on his show, she responded by saying, \u201cI don\u2019t know what to do with men who are obsessed with me. Honestly, I\u2019ve never understood it.\u201d Later, she approached him and said, \u201cOh Christopher, baby,\u201d in a playful tone. He pinched her cheek and she returned a pat on the cheek, and then a light hug. The usually loquacious Matthews seemed a bit flustered, but he flogged it on his show.<\/p>\n\n

He was not the only cable talk host to have a close encounter with a candidate or a candidate\u2019s supporters on the campaign trail. And given that many hosts often cast themselves as newsmakers in their own right, such incidents tend to get a wide airing.
On his Jan. 7 Fox News Channel program, for instance, Bill O\u2019Reilly played a tape of himself engaged in a confrontation with one of Barack Obama\u2019s staffers who, according to O\u2019Reilly, had blocked his photographer\u2019s line of sight at an Obama rally.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a total violation of press freedom, so I had no choice, ladies and gentlemen, but to uphold the Constitution,\u201d a smiling O\u2019Reilly told viewers, explaining his role in the mini-fracas.<\/p>\n\n

That same night on his Fox show, Hannity aired video showing him being heckled in New Hampshire by Ron Paul supporters angry about Fox excluding Paul from a debate. Hannity told his viewers that he didn\u2019t back down from the unruly group. \u201cThey were rude and obnoxious,\u201d he declared. But \u201cwe stood right up to them and moved right past them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

A night later, in a segment captioned \u201cBill Blasts Lou,\u201d CNN host Lou Dobbs rather proudly broadcast footage of Bill Clinton criticizing him for attacking Hillary Clinton\u2019s immigration policy.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand why Lou Dobbs is against this and keeps calling this an amnesty,\u201d Clinton said. <\/p>\n\n

Dobbs\u2014a relentless advocate for tougher immigration laws who has generated some speculation about his own presidential ambitions\u2014responded by delivering a speech of sorts from the studio that he addressed to the former president. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cWe cannot reform our immigration laws if we can\u2019t control immigration,\u201d was how Dobbs closed his soliloquy. \u201cAnd we can\u2019t control immigration unless we control our borders and our ports. I invite you to consider that syllogism and show me where it\u2019s wrong.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Dobbs may not end up running for president in 2008. But as a talk show host, that doesn\u2019t mean he can\u2019t debate one.<\/p>\n\n

Mark Jurkowitz of PEJ<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n <\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

Top Ten Stories in the broader News Coverage Index<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n

1. 2008 Campaign – 49% <\/address>\n\n
2. Bush’s Trip to the Middle East – 4%
<\/address>\n\n
3. U.S. Economy – 3%<\/address>\n\n
4. Iran – 3% <\/address>\n\n
5. Events in Iraq – 3%<\/address>\n\n
6. Missing Marine – 3%
<\/address>\n\n
7. Pakistan – 2% <\/address>\n\n
8. Bank of America Buys Countrywide – 2%<\/address>\n\n
9. Tornadoes – 1%<\/address>\n\n
10. Sir Edmund Hillary Dies – 1% <\/address>\n\n
<\/address>\n\n

Click here<\/a> to read the methodology behind the Talk Show Index. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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