TJ Walker argues that conservative media outlets like Fox News and Rush Limbaugh have created an echo chamber that hurt Republican electoral performance. He points out Republicans won five of six elections before 1992 but lost five of six popular votes since, and questions whether banning NBC from debates helps or harms the party.
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Republicans met yesterday to try to figure out what to do with their political debates. The most recent debate hosted by CNBC was considered an unmitigated disaster by everyone within the party. The Republican Party has decided not to let NBC host a debate next year as punishment for the behavior of the moderators and the questioners. At the most recent CNBC debate, the reporters were ruled and classified as rude, obnoxious, playing gotcha games. I want to hear what you think about that in a moment, but I do want to put out one theory. Ted Cruz, as I praised last week for getting the best soundbite, attacking the media is sort of leading the charge that Republicans should not have to deal with anyone who hasn't voted in a Republican primary as a questioner. And perhaps they should round up Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, other conservative talks, Sean Hannity to do the questioning. Here's my question. Does that genuinely help Republicans win presidential elections? Now, at first blush, it seems obvious that if you don't have reporters attacking you, putting you on the defensive, it'd be better off not to have that. It'd be better to have a friendly environment. That's the common accepted wisdom. But I want to remind you, since the rise of the conservative media, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, talk radio, the Drudge Report, if you pinpoint that as the early 90s, Rush was certainly very prominent by 1990 around the country and certainly by 92 since the rise of the conservative media establishment, Fox, Rush talk radio, Drudge, conservative Internet, Republican presidential candidates have lost five of the last six general election vote counts. Now I'm including 2,000 because Al Gore actually did get more votes. Popular election. He lost the Electoral College. The only time a Republican has won the majority, a plurality of voters in a general election was in 2004. We were at war. John Kerry was the Democratic nominee, who by all accounts was a horrible communicator, stiff, wooden, unlikable. So you have to ask if, if having a friendly pro conservative, pro Republican media establishment is so helpful, why is it that Republicans have lost five of the last six popular elections? And before you say, well, the mainstream media is time out a second, let's go back before 1992. Let's look at 1988 going back to 68, which you could say is sort of the big era of the mainstream media. You had cbs, abc, NBC, the New York Times, Washington Post. Those four media outlets were all considered anathema to conservatives and Republicans. I mean, the Washington Post destroyed the Nixon administration. So that was sort of the golden era of the so called liberal mainstream media. And they were the only ones really allowed to ask Republicans questions in primaries, in debates, general elections. So how did Republicans do in that era, the supposedly bad old era before Fox News and Rush and the conservative media? Well, they actually won five out of six elections, general elections for President. The only one they lost was in 1976 with Jimmy Carter. He narrowly lost. And this was after Watergate when Nixon had really sullied the reputation of the Republican Party. So I'm not trying to be partisan here folks. I'm asking a genuine communication question. Are Republicans, are conservatives truly better off today with so many conservative media outlets or is it hurting them? There is a school of thought, and I'm sympathetic to this school of thought, that the worst thing that ever happened in the Republican Party is the rise of Fox and Rush and Drudge because it creates an insular echo chamber where they don't have to talk to independent, moderate and non aligned voters. That back in the bad old days of the mainstream media controlling everything, Republicans were forced to create messages that appealed to a much wider audience. So I toss this question out to you. Are Republicans being ill served by the conservative media establishment and by this rush to attack cnbc? You don't like CNBC calling Donald Trump a clown? Fine, maybe it was a poor choice of words. But my question is, will Republicans actually increase their odds of winning the White House by shunning mainstream media outlets like NBC, as you've no doubt deduced? I don't think that's a helpful strategy. That's my view. I'd like to hear your view. Are Republicans making a huge tactical blunder by cutting themselves off and essentially getting their candidates addicted to talking to narrower conservative media outlets? Post your opinions. I'd like to know also if you have any questions on political communication. I do work with candidates all over the world. Happy to share whatever insights I can offer to you. Post your questions on that. If you have general questions on public speaking speaking to the media, post your questions. You can always send them to infoediatrainingworldwide.com or post them here on YouTube, Facebook, any forum where you're seeing this. Also, if you would like a free no obligation public speaking training course or media training course, if you're thinking of running for office yourself, go to my website, mediatrainingworldwide.com and sign up for the free online course today. Thanks.
