Media Matters does an outstanding job showing the trickle-down effect from Rush and Hannity really does work. It gives the conservative regional radio hosts justification (in their minds) for the misinformation that they spread to their listeners, who in turn post on the internet and send these lies or smears to their co-workers. Here is their summary:
Beyond the echelon of widely known conservative radio hosts with national audiences lies a vast network of lesser-known syndicated and regional radio hosts who have become key components of an echo chamber for conservative talking points and falsehoods. Like their better-known counterparts, these syndicated and regional radio hosts have played active roles this election season in promoting falsehoods and smears in an all-out effort to foment hate and distrust among their listeners for President-elect Barack Obama. While the hosts vary in the degree of vitriol they spew and in their ratio of rebuttable falsehoods to unbridled smears, Media Matters for America and Colorado Media Matters have identified common themes that many, if not all, have promoted over the past year.
The Project for Excellence in Journalism recently released a report, which garnered considerable media attention, concluding that Sen. John McCain received much more “negative” coverage than President-elect Barack Obama during the campaign. But in purporting to compare the media’s coverage of the two candidates, PEJ did not consider talk radio, saying: “Talk radio stories … were not included in this campaign study of tone.” But, beyond arguable flaws in PEJ’s methodology, no study of the “tone” in the media’s coverage of this presidential campaign is complete without inclusion of conservative talk radio. Several of the radio hosts monitored by Media Matters (their shows are described in detail below), as well as their guests, engaged in an all-out effort to foment hate and suspicion of Obama among their listeners, promoting the most baseless and farfetched of smears and advancing falsehoods — including about Obama’s religion and background — that have taken hold among a substantial percentage of the electorate.
The problem is that these regional talk show host’s actually convince their listeners that this is factual information. I know this to be true because, I had members of my family and friends that were receiving emails that were watered down versions of Limbaugh all the time. How I found out is, they would forward me these vile emails that I would respond to with facts and links to the actual truth of the matter. All of them were trying to find out the truth, so they could respond to what they had received by email. Here are some great examples of what Media Matters uncovered.
TheZoo 