The anger business

Posted by | April 26, 2016 15:32 | Filed under: Media/Show Business News Behaving Badly Politics

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Anger sells, and its a big part of the presidential campaign.

It is personality centered, with its ad hominem attacks dividing the political world into heroes and villains. Opponents are morons and idiots, not people meriting a civil response to their viewpoints. Outrage takes the form of political competition, political theater with a scorecard. It is ideologically selective, using a conservative or liberal frame to analyze the issues of the day. Finally, it is highly engaging — the vast audience would be absent if it wasn’t for the skill of hosts and writers to entice their viewers, listeners, and readers to keep coming back.

In less abstract terms, outrage is Rush Limbaugh saying that Obamacare “mirrors Nazi Germany’s” health care system, Martin Bashir saying someone should defecate in Sarah Palin’s mouth, Ann Coulter telling Sean Hannity that Ted Kennedy was a “piece of human excrement,” and Mark Levin calling Sen. Chuck Schumer “Schmucky.” These are not occasional transgressions—our measurements show that some hosts use this kind of language at the rate of once a minute.

Donald Trump fits perfectly into this world where his racist taunts reverberate across multiple platforms at a startling velocity. He’s turned political campaigning upside down, relying on interviews with the cable networks and largely eschewing TV commercials. Not coincidentally, he performs strongly among those who are regular cable viewers or talk radio listeners.

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Copyright 2016 Liberaland
By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.

15 responses to The anger business

  1. Mensa Member April 26th, 2016 at 15:36

    All the conservative “big ideas” have been fully tried and have spectacularly failed.

    So how do Republicans rally their base? Anger. Fear. Racism.

    • William April 26th, 2016 at 15:43

      You would think that with their limited supply of ideas they would soon be running out of things to be afraid of.

      • Mensa Member April 26th, 2016 at 21:20

        True dat.

        Just consider the Ebola thing. It was terrible for the handful of Americans who got it. But it was never a real threat to America.

        But the GOP cynically exploited Ebola for cheap political gains. They persecuted the few who had it.

        Who, besides sociopaths, are so consciousless?

        • William April 26th, 2016 at 23:01

          I distinctly remember this conversation. A Fox fed co worker explained to me that because Obama let Ebola into the country, this epidemic would claim so many lives, crematoriums would not be able to keep up with it, and the corpses alone would be a huge public health issue. Sensing my doubt he then shouted, “If you don’t believe me, you can ask my sister….she’s a nurse”. Yes these people actually exist.

  2. William April 26th, 2016 at 15:42

    Fear is how the GOP keeps their base motivated, loyal and stupid.

    • Marilyn Kujawski April 27th, 2016 at 04:13

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  3. Red Mann April 26th, 2016 at 16:34

    “saying someone should defecate in Sarah Palin’s mouth” is not what he said, he was talking about the treatment of slaves and wondered how she’d like to be treated like that. Bashir’s comments were in response to Sarah Palin’s comparing slavery to the national debt.

    • fahvel April 27th, 2016 at 03:51

      but, as to the first part of the comment about poo, why not?

      • Red Mann April 27th, 2016 at 16:26

        Sarah doesn’t have room for any more sh!t in her mouth.

      • Red Mann April 27th, 2016 at 16:27

        Sarah doesn’t have room for any more sh!t in her mouth.
        Caught by the silly word filter. You can’t say sh!t here.

  4. Red Mann April 26th, 2016 at 16:37

    This is the old, tired “both sides do it” argument. Actual evidence shows that the right is indeed populated by those that “are morons and idiots, not people meriting a civil response to their viewpoints”. We have all seen enough RW trolls to understand that.

  5. amersham46 April 26th, 2016 at 18:03

    One just has to read comments on Fox

  6. fahvel April 27th, 2016 at 03:50

    and all the physical and verbal anger is the product or a result of the fine entertainment industry with the expendables and bond and all the rest who resolve problems with unbridled violence. That’s the usa – no other society adulates violence as does the usa.

  7. bpollen April 27th, 2016 at 06:35

    GOP – if you’re not afraid, they lose elections.

  8. oldfart April 27th, 2016 at 12:34

    I blame the media. As soon as the networks changed from “the news” to “entertainment”
    it all went to hell from there.

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