Is Talk Radio To Blame For The Rise of Trump?

 

June 8, 2016

 

 

 

 

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The Washington Examiner has the details from the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who said the reason Republican base voters have unrealistic expectations is because of talk radio. And when politicians say talk radio, that usually means Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Glenn Beck and other conservative talkers. McConnell also said talk radio may have contributed to Donald Trump’s win in the party’s presidential primary.

Glenn Beck

While some talk radio hosts, such as Glenn Beck and others, have been dead set against Donald Trump, others such as Rush Limbaugh have not endorsed any candidate. That has been taken by some as a tacit endorsement of the long-time businessman, especially when there were other staunch conservatives in the field before Trump won the nomination and those conservative talkers did not come right out and support them, such as Ted Cruz.

Conservative talker Mark Levin

Here’s what McConnell had to say Tuesday, as reprinted in The Washington Examiner. “A lot of base voters have been really misled by a lot of talk show hosts and others about what’s achievable when you don’t have the White House. There is a president, the only one … who can sign something into law or veto a bill. The notion of shutting down government to defund Obamacare, even if that would achieve the result … is what my friend George Will would call the politics of futile gesture, or put another way, doing dumb things. I’m not in favor of futile gestures and doing dumb things. I think the reason people are unhappy is because of the condition of the country. And because they’ve been fed the notion that somehow a Republican Congress can overcome a Democratic president and somehow bring him to his knees when it’s not possible.”

While McConnell did not mention anyone by name, Limbaugh has repeatedly said Republicans should not be afraid to shut down the government. It’s also important to note that Limbaugh never endorses a candidate running for election in a primary despite being lobbied by many of them.

Report: Funny Business Going On In The Agency World

How much should your clients trust their advertising agencies. Well, according to a new report, not much. On Tuesday, the Association of National Advertisers released a very damaging 58-page report that hits advertising agencies hard in how they conduct business and look upon their clients.

Results of the study, conducted in conjunction with K2 Intelligence, state that there are many non-transparent business practices taking place, including “cash rebates to media agencies,” and other shenanigans.

The K2 study, conducted from October 2015 through May 2016, reveals “evidence of a fundamental disconnect in the advertising industry regarding the basic nature of the advertiser-agency relationship.” The report states that while advertisers expressed a belief that their agencies were duty-bound to act in their best interest, many agency executives said their relationship with advertisers was solely defined by the contract between the two parties.

Even more alarming was evidence in the report of agencies purchasing media on its own behalf and later reselling it to a client after a markup. The study also revealed that senior executives across the agency network were aware of, and mandated, some non-transparent business practices. Contracts for rebates and other non-transparent business practices were negotiated and sometimes signed by high-level agency executives. The study also found dual rate cards in which agencies and holding companies negotiated separate rates with media suppliers when acting as principals and as agents.

ANA Chairman Tony Pace said the report unearthed a “fundamental disconnect” between advertisers and their media agencies. “As media practices have become more complex, stewardship and oversight needs to become more precise, more thorough, and more fully transparent.”
The 4A’s, a trade association for agencies, responded to the findings in a statement that AdAge published: “A healthy and constructive debate about media buying can only happen with a bipartisan, engaged, industry-wide approach — and that is precisely the opposite of what the ANA has pursued. The immense shortcomings of the K2 report released today – anonymous, inconclusive, and one-sided – undercut the integrity of its findings. We call upon the ANA in the strongest terms to make available to specific agencies on a confidential basis all of the materials related to them.”