Back in the day, folks got their news from the same three networks, delivered with a straight face and a necktie. These days? Turn on the TV and you’ll get a sermon in the morning, a scare tactic by lunch, and a culture war bedtime story by sundown.
In this episode, we trace how the right-wing media machine came to be—not just Fox News, but the web of AM radio barkers, think tank talking points, and political operatives who figured out that facts don't sell like fear. From Roger Ailes' roots in Nixon's shadow cabinet to Frank Luntz's focus-grouped propaganda disguised as plain talk, we lay out how messaging was weaponized—and why so many working folks started voting against their own best interests. It ain’t brainwashing if you call it freedom, right?Further Reading:
Sherman, Gabriel. The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News—and Divided a Country. Random House, 2014.
A definitive biography on Ailes and the founding of Fox News.
Katz, Elihu. The Irony of Fox News: How the Right Created a Media Empire by Imitating the Left. Columbia Journalism Review, 2017.
An article exploring how the Right borrowed tactics from activist media to build a propaganda model.
Brock, David. The Republican Noise Machine: Right-Wing Media and How It Corrupts Democracy. Crown, 2004.
A former conservative insider explains the architecture of partisan media messaging.
Luntz, Frank. Words That Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear. Hyperion, 2007.
A revealing look into how political language is shaped to manipulate perception—by one of its leading architects.
Hemmer, Nicole. Messengers of the Right: Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politics. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016.
A scholarly but accessible look at how media built a new political reality from Goldwater to Trump.
The Ailes Papers (Hofstra University Special Collections)
Archival material on Ailes’ early work with Republican campaigns and media strategy.
PRWatch.org (Center for Media and Democracy)
Investigative reporting on the overlap between media, policy, and corporate messaging.
