Front Burner - Front Burner Presents: The Flamethrowers Ep. 5

Episode Date: October 26, 2024

Right-wing radio finds their greatest foe in Barack Obama: As they try to take him down at every turn, they find the perfect formula to manufacture outrage.This is episode 5 of The Flamethrowers, the story of how radio energized and then radicalized a conservative base. Hosted by Justin Ling. More episodes are available here.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, it's Jamie. We're nearing the end of our journey with The Flamethrowers, a CBC podcast series we've been featuring over the last few weeks leading up to the U.S. presidential election. Hosted by award-winning reporter and podcaster Justin Ling, The Flamethrowers

takes us through the rise of right-wing radio and how it reshaped American politics. In today's episode, the series takes us into the Obama years and a time when right-wing radio found its greatest target in the new president. As they attacked him in every turn, they perfected a formula of manufactured outrage, giving rise to a whole new level of media frenzy. Just a reminder that this podcast was first released in 2021. It doesn't touch on the current U.S. presidential election. Here is episode five, The Rage Industry. This podcast tells the story of how right-wing radio radicalized America.

We use examples of what was actually said on the radio, and some of it is offensive. But it's an important part of understanding this story. Just a heads up. If there's one thing I've learned from working on this podcast, it is this. Right-wing radio is most effective when there is a focus for all of that rage. Because what it boils down to is that these guys are in the rage business. Billy James Hargis was angry at the National Council of Churches. The National Council of Churches is an instrument of Satan. For Carl McIntyre, the enemy was...

Creeping socialism that ties us all up in some collectivistic knot. Rush Limbaugh's brand was denouncing Bill and Hillary Clinton as evil schemers, possibly even murderers. Vince Foster was murdered in an apartment owned by Hillary Clinton. Then, after 9-11, Sean Hannity. Is it true that radical Islamic jihadists won a worldwide caliphate and as the 9-11 commission report said, they are at war with us. And then there's Glenn Beck, who's dishing out heaping spoonfuls of war fever and xenophobia.

We went into Iraq three years ago to prevent World War III, as nuts as this might sound, to prevent the evil Iranian ideology from spreading across the region. And Alex Jones, well... Most of the American Hitler and all these other famous guys, well, you can look at them and tell, but it comes out that they're Jewish. But by 2005, Americans were tired and frustrated. The economy was slowing down. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were increasingly

unpopular despite the cheerleading from right-wing radio. And then nature strikes another blow. We're like under nine feet of water here. We're trying to get out. We have a baby. There's five of us. We're very frightened. On August 29th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina, a Category 5 storm, makes landfall in Louisiana. running a high fever. We're sitting on the porch looking at the water rising up. We never had no flood. The cause is on the water completely, and we don't have no way to get out or nothing. It's just coming up. Things go from bad to worse very quickly. That break, as you know, in the 17th Street Canal levee

in New Orleans, now 200 feet wide, and it is slowly flooding the city. This is the kind of situation where local radio shines. A lot of you on the phones trying to help me out here, to help the people out there. New Orleans station WWL keeps broadcasting straight through the storm, connecting directly to the people most affected. Earlene in Mid-City, you're on WWL. This whole area is flooded back here, and it happened after the storm.

And giving them crucial information about the rescue effort. Stay with us. We're your lighthouse, gang, in this moment of darkness. But they're also picking up on just how badly the government is handling the crisis. The Bush administration in particular is incredibly slow to get aid to the people of New Orleans. Ray Nagin, the city's mayor, calls into WWL. Excuse my French everybody in America, but I am pissed. Now get off your asses and let's do something and let's fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country. And let's fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country.

People are dying. They don't have homes. The city of New Orleans will never be the same. We're both pretty speechless here. Yeah, I don't know what to say. I gotta go. Okay. Keep in touch.

Keep in touch. Okay. Can we take a break? I was appalled by this mayor putting out his SOS. Mayor, they're dying because your police force is more interested in looting than they are in protecting people. They're more interested in not confronting the looters and the thugs

that you know have taken over your city. That was Rush Limbaugh fill-in host Roger Hedgecock. In the weeks after Katrina hits, right-wing radio is dominated by the narrative that New Orleans is overrun with looters, murderers, and rapists. That there are snipers on the rooftops. That people are firing assault weapons at rescue helicopters. Let's just see if the liberals will be as upset with the looters in Mississippi and New Orleans as they were with the looters in Iraq. Many of these reports are overblown.

Some are outright lies. And all that misinformation, it has a real impact. These false reports actually hinder efforts to get aid to the hardest hit areas of New Orleans. But if you're listening to radio host Neil Bortz. That wasn't the cries of the downtrodden, that's the cries of the useless, the worthless. This was all in service of a larger point, that the suffering that was plainly visible in New Orleans

wasn't real, or that they were faking it, or that people had created their own misfortune, or that they didn't even deserve help. New Orleans was a welfare city, a city of parasites, a city of people who could not and had no desire to fend for themselves. You have a hurricane descending on them and they sit on their fat asses and wait for somebody else to come rescue them. The images of devastation and people in need, well, that's just the media lying to you. The real problem is big government. We have the census figures. We know who lived in New Orleans. We know who ran New Orleans. We knew who ran Louisiana. We know that it was liberal Democrats running it for 60 years. If anybody died down there, or if anybody was in poverty down there, you can't blame a federal government with spending

more and more money giving it to New Orleans and Louisiana. They siphon it off. They use it for things other than what it's intended, including avoiding repairs to levees. But still, folks, the amazing thing is that you have on display the utter, total failure of liberalism. To some degree, this was about protecting George W. Bush. But in many ways, it was irrelevant who occupied the White House. When these hosts went after the victims of Hurricane Katrina, they weren't worrying about winning elections. They were worried about winning the air war, winning new listeners, winning ad dollars. And the way to do that is by ginning up controversy and outrage. These hosts are not in the Republican business.

They're in the rage business. It's hard to ignore the role that race played in this. Just listen to Limbaugh compare flooding in Midwestern states just a couple of years later with the devastation in New Orleans after Katrina. I look at Iowa. I look at Illinois. I want to see the murders. I want to see the looting. I want to see all the stuff that happened in New Orleans. I see devastation in Iowa and Illinois that dwarfs what happened in New Orleans. I see people working together. I see people trying to save their property and save their reputation. I don't see a bunch of people running around waving guns and helicopters. I don't see a bunch of people shooting cops. I don't see a bunch of people raping people on the street. As aid workers tried to help, right-wing radio told stories of snipers

on rooftops. As the media tried to bring the realities of the situation home to other Americans, they were called liars. And as the poorest people in New Orleans suffered, right-wing radio painted them as lazy and dishonest at best, murderers and rapists at worst. They'd given listeners plenty to be angry about. The Flamethrowers, how right-wing radio took over American democracy with Justin Ling. If you can turn a hurricane victim into a target of rage, Barack Obama is going to be a piece of cake. He's black.

He went to an elite liberal college. He started as a community organizer. His name is different. His middle name is Hussein. Did I mention that he's black? Right-wing radio couldn't have found a more ideal enemy. As Obama gains momentum in the 2008 presidential campaign, radio host Bill Cunningham tells his listeners they should be worried. Well, now, my fellow Americans, this is the day we've been waiting for.

Much like Castro took over Cuba, Mao Zedong took over Red China, and the communists took over Russia, Obama now is poised, according to many of my good friends on the left, like Paul Mason and others, to seize power in America, and I hope to be a bloodless coup. Have you heard Obama say he wants to create a civilian police force that's as large as the U.S. military? Shouldn't that concern you as well? In the final weeks of the 2008 presidential campaign, Michael Savage, he's freaking out too. But I can guarantee you that if you read beyond the seventh grade, you'd understand that the first thing Adolf Hitler did was create a civilian security force called the SA. And they reported only to Adolf Hitler. And they were loyal only to Adolf Hitler.

And that was because the German military didn't like Adolf Hitler. You are an ignorant man. You are exactly the type Obama needs to bring about the Marxist revolution. Racist dog whistles were a recurring feature of right-wing radio during the election. Can't use his middle name Hussein. Well, guess what? You were born with a dude. Barack Hussein Obama. Muslim names all. Your papa was a Muslim. your stepfather was a Muslim, all of your siblings are Muslims. What's wrong with that, buddy? Embrace it. Embrace it, man. But often they dropped all pretense and just used a bullhorn. Imagine at the age of one or two seeing your father for the last time. See, his father was a typical

black father who right after the birth, left the baby. That's what black fathers do. They simply leave. This stuff, I know, is really hard to hear. But a lot of people, they enjoyed hearing it. It reinforced their racist beliefs. It gave them permission to say this stuff out loud. And in some cases, it even changed people's thinking. There's this incredible documentary called The Brainwashing of My Dad by Jen Sanko.

In the 1960s, Jen Sanko's dad never had a bad word to say about any race or people or person. Then in the 80s, after my dad discovered talk radio during a long commute to work, he suddenly didn't like black people, poor people, gay people, feminists, Hispanics, and especially Democrats. After he discovered Fox News, they became the enemy. G. Gordon Liddy goes on the air to suggest that Obama's childhood makes him a threat to America. Obama was in a, in Indonesia, in a public school and in a Catholic school. And in the Catholic school, he was listed as a Muslim. And he was over in Indonesia, which is a Muslim country, until the age of 10.

How much of that Muslim indoctrination would carry over? Let me ask you, Mr. Shobat, would you consider Barack Hussein Obama dangerous if he were the commander-in-chief of all the power and might of the armed forces of the United States. He would be extremely dangerous. None of this was new to Obama. This kind of smear had dogged him throughout his political career. It had dogged him throughout his life.

And it wasn't going away. Because these right-wing radio hosts were peddling anger. Anger was their business. And as author Matt Leshak points out, Obama was great for business. The arrival of Barack Obama as president of the United States meant a sea of green for Rush Limbaugh and Matt Raj. Because conservatives do best when they can talk about all the things that are going wrong. Where often they don't do as well with the public is when they're in control and have to govern. When Obama first runs for the nomination, an email circulates among some of Clinton's supporters.

It dredges up some old, baseless allegations. Barack Obama's mother was living in Kenya with his Arab-African father late in her pregnancy. She was not allowed to travel by plane there, so Barack Obama was born there. And his mother then took him to Hawaii to register his birth. You see, the U.S. has some particular rules about who gets to be president. For starters, you must be 35 years old and you have to have been born in the U.S. So if this were all true, which it wasn't, Obama would be disqualified from being president. To be clear, the Clinton campaign dismissed the volunteer who spread this lie, and there's no evidence that her campaign had anything more to do with pushing the

birther conspiracy theory. But the story just hangs in the air. In June 2008, the Obama campaign releases his short-form birth certificate, hoping it will quash the online rumors. But on right-wing radio, hosts can smell blood in the water. The Daily Kos, which is a blog, a leftist blog, published a certificate of live birth. Right. Giving a date, but having the serial number redacted, blocked out. Exactly. And from what we're told, it's heavily photoshopped. It's not a birth certificate. It's something that is issued after there has been a birth. That's right.

This is from G. Gordon Liddy's show. His guest is an author named Jerome Corsi. He becomes kind of a birth certificate guru on talk radio. Obama's father and mother went back to Kenya before Obama was born. And evidently the pregnancy was so advanced that Ann Dunham was not allowed to return to the United States. And Obama was born in Kenya. That's the argument. And it would seem to be, you have some credibility to it, because the Obama campaign refuses to release the original birth certificate.

And why would that, the birth certificate, you know, Mr. Liddy, should be a mundane document. Yeah. Corsi starts a campaign demanding Obama release the full birth certificate. Release it. Release it. It would solve the issue. It would indeed. And as the election draws near, Corsi actually goes to Kenya on some kind of scooby-doo mission to find the real birth certificate. The last time you were on this show, I said, how about you and I going over to Nairobi and finding the brother?

Well, I'll tell you, I'm here now. And we were going to do a press conference today at 10 o'clock. And then, of course, the immigration showed up. So now you're going to get a real opportunity. We were being detained by the immigration of Kenya because they lost our entry papers. Because he didn't have a valid visa, he gets deported from Kenya. And obviously he finds no proof that Obama was born there. But that doesn't stop the questions. We've been hearing and reading for at

least three days now that Obama's grandmother is deathly ill and that he's going to rush to her side in Hawaii. Why hasn't he already gone to Hawaii? Why is he not already there? What's he waiting for? If she's deathly ill, this is this. I'm just I'm pretending to be a reporter here. He needs to get to that house, the grandma's house. Those documents, the Kenyan documents are in that house. The other thing is that he has had four identities. Jerome Corsi must be racking up the frequent flyer miles. I'm headed out to Honolulu. I'm not was illegitimate, foreign, not one of us. If it's true what I'm alleging now, that he's not even, that he's an illegal alien, and not only not able to be president,

but not able to be U.S. Senator for the past three years, he should actually be arrested and deported. Well, guess who jumps on the birther bandwagon at this point? Remember that failed presidential candidate from 2000, Donald Trump? The real estate developer, fake university chancellor, purveyor of stakes, reality TV star?

Yeah, that guy? Well, he's back. What are we talking about? His favorite vehicle is Fox News, but he spreads the word to anyone who will listen. I'm telling you. I think that's the biggest pile of dog mess I've heard in ages. Like the time he showed up on The View. At one point, he claims he sent some of his own people to Hawaii to figure out just what the hell was going on. This guy either has a birth certificate or he doesn't. And I didn't think this was such a big deal, but I will tell you, it's turning out to be a very big deal

because people now are calling me from all over saying, please don't give up on this issue. Suddenly, Trump jammed himself into the middle of a national political conversation. Call it what you will, a meaningless diversion, a pernicious racist conspiracy theory with no basis in fact, whatever it was, Donald Trump was now the head of it. And the President of the United States felt compelled to respond. As many of you have been briefed, we provided additional information today about the site of my birth.

Now I know that there's going to be a segment of people for which no matter what we put out this issue will not be put to rest. But I'm speaking to the vast majority of the American people, as well as to the press. We do not have time for this kind of silliness. We got better stuff to do. I've got better stuff to do. We will get back to Donald Trump and how right-wing radio made him president in the next episode. But before we go, there's one more little thing. A populist uprising. Hi, it's Ramit Sethi here.

You may have seen my money show on Netflix. I've been talking about money for 20 years. I've talked to millions of people, and I have some startling numbers to share with you. Did you know that of the people I speak to, 50% of them do not know their own household income? That's not a typo. 50%. That's because money is confusing. In my new book and podcast, Money for Couples, I help you and your partner create a financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples.

When Obama takes office, he inherits a financial calamity. This market is as volatile as you'll ever see. Traders saying this is the craziest day they have ever seen in these markets. Veteran traders saying they've never seen anything like it. The movement in oil prices so fast. Seconds ago until the start of trading at the New York Stock Exchange and stocks are set to kick off lower, a whole lot lower. eBay is down six and a half percent. And really you're seeing just broad based declines across all of the major technology sectors.

Apple's under pressure, Yahoo down 8.5%, Cisco 6.5%, Research in Motion 10%. This could be the most serious recession in decades, and that means life, as most Americans know it, is about to change, in some cases dramatically. Of course, Obama immediately sets to work dealing with the economic crisis. His response includes massive bailouts for the very institutions that tanked the market. And in terms of modifications, I'll tell you what, I have an idea. And then in February 2009, just a month after Obama's inauguration, there's a small spontaneous moment that really resonates.

The new administration is big on computers and technology. How about this, President and new administration? An analyst named Rick Santelli is live on CNBC, the financial news network. He's standing on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Why don't you put up a website to have people vote on the Internet as a referendum to see if we really want to subsidize the losers' mortgages, or would we like to at least buy cars and buy houses in foreclosure and give them to people that might have a chance to actually prosper down the road

and reward people that could carry the water instead of drink the water. It's a novel idea. We're thinking of having a Chicago tea party in July. All you capitalists that want to show up to Lake Michigan, I'm going to start organizing. What are you dumping in this time? A tea party. Just like the old days when colonists in Boston dumped tea into the harbor to protest taxation. It's an idea that actually catches on.

A bunch of Republican activists get on a call and decide, maybe a tea party is exactly what we need. This is where Mark Williams comes in. Give me liberty or give me death did not mean give me death panels. Williams had been a conservative radio guy for years. He did Boston, Dayton, San Diego. Finally, he settles in Limbaugh's old stomping

ground, Sacramento. He quickly becomes a spokesperson and the de facto leader of the Tea Party. He helps plan a series of rallies across the country to protest tax day. For the general welfare does not mean welfare for everybody in general. Oh, and to get rid of all the Democrats in Congress. It's the first real grassroots uprising that the Republicans have seen in a long time. Tea Party protesters start dressing up like American revolutionaries. I'm talking breeches, tricorn hats, and muskets. And they're shouting about the founding fathers and the Constitution. They want lower taxes, they want smaller government,

and they want individual liberty. It's an invigorating force for the conservative movement. When Obama moves to expand health care access in America, the Tea Party comes out in force. I want to know if it's coming out of my paycheck. Yes or no? Your employer supports you. I want an answer to the question, is the money coming out of my paycheck?

I have a question for this young man. Go sit down and we'll take it. I want an answer to the question. Is the money coming out of my paycheck? I have a question for this young man. Go sit down and we'll take him. I have a question for this young man. The man refused to sit down, so he and his wheelchair-bound son were ejected by police. They're telling us we're a bunch of nuts out here. I'm a 20-year veteran in the Air Force. I coached wrestling in high school for five years. Glenn Beck leans in hard on this Tea Party populism. He leads a tax revolt march on Washington. He hosts another huge rally.

He starts something called the 9-12 Project. We can choose to be the Americans of September 10th with our heads buried in the sand. We could be the Americans of September 11th who were unprepared and then paralyzed by fear, despair, or anger. The answers have never come from Washington. We weren't told how to behave that day after 9-11. We just knew it was right. It was the opposite of what we feel today. The Tea Party, fueled by right-wing radio, starts thinking of themselves as actual revolutionaries. There's a civil war going on for control of the Republican Party right now, and for that matter, for the country, where the people are trying to seize control of their parties and of their government.

And the establishment on both sides is fighting back and fighting back hard. We're talking about taking away a lot of power from them and returning it to the people. This is when life gets messy for the establishment of the Republican Party. They're getting heckled at their own town halls. There's now a slate of uber-conservative candidates challenging moderate incumbents. And they're being celebrated on the radio. And according to Brian Rosenwald, that is changing the entire landscape. 2010 Delaware Senate race.

They've got Mike Castle running for the Republican nomination. He is the incumbent statewide elected House member. I think he's been elected like nine times. He's a former governor. He's been elected a lot. He's very popular in Delaware. And his primary opponent is Christine O'Donnell, former Senator Joe Biden,

had beaten her in 2008 by 20-something points. And she's challenging Castle in this primary. And most people think Castle is a shoe in to take Biden's seat but talk radio jumps heavily on O'Donnell's bandwagon it doesn't matter that she's a terrible candidate that this is a woman who gets caught on camera saying I am not a witch I'm not a witch but the problem with Castle is he's a Republican in name only. He's a rhino. And local talk radio down in southern Delaware beats up on Castle as being impure. And you see all these hosts kind of jumping in on this.

Mike Castle's one of the seven or eight Republicans in the House that voted for cap and trade. He's not pro-life. You have the establishment over the years. They didn't support Rand Paul, Sharon Angle. There seems to be a schism here. Seems to be a divide. And Castle ends up losing a primary. And Limbaugh even raises like a million dollars for her in one day. Crashes her website. Well, I tried to go on Christine O'Donnell's website today to donate some money, and somehow I think you've crashed her website. Well, that always happens. Right-wing radio is directly encouraging Tea Party candidates to challenge moderate Republicans.

It doesn't matter because intensity from the base doesn't matter. You know, she doesn't fit the electorate there. And O'Donnell gets clocked in a general election. And over the next few years, they become a kind of third party. At its height, there were 60 members of the House Tea Party caucus and about another dozen in the Senate identified with the movement. become a kind of third party. At its height, there were 60 members of the House Tea Party Caucus, and about another dozen in the Senate identified with the movement.

Good evening, my name is Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann from Minnesota's 6th District. I want to thank the Tea Party Express and Tea Party HD for inviting me to speak this evening. I'm here at their request and not to compete with the official Republican remarks. The Tea Party is a dynamic force for good in our national conversation.

I've said a number of times that right-wing radio radicalized American politics. Well, here's the perfect example. Right-wing radio sent representatives to Washington who had no time for compromise with the Democrats or even the moderates in their own party. The Tea Party forced Republican politicians in safe districts to look over their right shoulder and fend off challenges from the conservative fringe.

It made the business of governing increasingly difficult. And that was partly the point. This antipathy to government and this all-or-nothing ideology, it would play a crucial role in fracturing American politics and fueling the insurrection of January 6th. That was Episode 5 of The Flamethrowers. If you'd like to listen ahead, search for The Flamethrowers wherever you get your podcasts. Next week, it all culminates in Episode 6, where we'll hear how Donald Trump leveraged the tactics of right-wing radio to climb all the way to the White House. Join us for the finale. That's next week. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.