
By The Early 1960s, And For The First Time In History, Most Americans Across The Nation Could Tune Their Radio To A Station That Aired Conservative Programming From Dawn To Dusk. People Listened To These Shows In Remarkable Numbers; For Example, The Broadcaster With The Largest Listening Audience, Carl Mcintire, Had A Weekly Audience Of Twenty Million, Or One In Nine American Households. For Sake Of Comparison, That Is A Higher Percentage Of The Country Than Would Listen To Conservative Talk Radio Host Rush Limbaugh Forty Years Later. As This Radio Right Phenomenon Grew, President John F. Kennedy Responded With The Most Successful Government Censorship Campaign Of The Last Half Century. Taking The Advice Of Union Leader Walter Reuther, The Kennedy Administration Used The Internal Revenue Service And The Federal Communications Commission To Pressure Stations Into Dropping Conservative Programs. This Book Reveals The Growing Power Of The Radio Right Through The Eyes Of Its Opponents Using Confidential Reports, Internal Correspondence, And Oval Office Tape Recordings. With The Help Of Other Liberal Organizations, Including The Democratic National Committee And The National Council Of Churches, The Censorship Campaign Muted The Radio Right. But By The Late 1970s, Technological Innovations And Regulatory Changes Fueled A Resurgence In Conservative Broadcasting. A New Generation Of Conservative Broadcasters, From Pat Robertson To Ronald Reagan, Harnessed The Power Of Conservative Mass Media And Transformed The Political Landscape Of America--
How did the Kennedy administration orchestrate a systematic campaign to suppress the rise of conservative talk radio in the early 1960s? Paul Matzko, a scholar of American political history, investigates the tension between the burgeoning conservative media landscape and federal regulatory power. By analyzing internal government documents, Oval Office recordings, and private correspondence, Matzko argues that the Kennedy administration utilized the IRS and FCC to effectively silence conservative voices, setting a precedent for future media regulation and political discourse.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Historians and political analysts recognize this work as a significant contribution to the study of media censorship and the evolution of the American conservative movement. Readers frequently note the meticulous use of primary source materials, which provides a clear view into the mechanics of mid-century political pressure campaigns.
Page Count:
0
Publication Date:
2020-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press,
ISBN-10:
019007325X
ISBN-13:
9780190073251
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