PopPolitics: When Partisan Media Fans Become Addicts (Listen)
Jen Senko’s “The Brainwashing of My Dad,” released on home video last week, tells of how her father, Frank, once a Kennedy-era Democrat, shifted right during the Reagan revolution of the ’80s.
But it was more than a mere shift of parties. Her father became consumed with talk radio, email screeds and Fox News, to the point where it became part of his identity, she says.
On the latest “PopPolitics” on SiriusXM 124, Senko said she believes that Donald Trump’s campaign was fueled by the fervor of rightward media and its listeners and followers.
“He’s just only verbalizing what a lot of talk radio guys have been verbalizing for years and the Republicans kind of tread lightly around it,” she says.
In the movie, she talks to other family members whose relatives have been “consumed” by partisan media.
Is the same thing happening on the left?
“I do think that it can happen to anybody if you just stick to one type of media,” she says, adding that figures on the right were much more organized to establish think tanks and media outlets to counter what they saw as a left-ward media bias in the ’60s. Joining her was the movie’s producer, Adam Rackoff.
Also on “PopPolitics”:
Millennial Moment: Maegan Carberry talks about her novel, “Do I Have to Vote for Hillary Clinton?,” which delves into the the way that millennial women view the Democratic nominee.
Trump’s Trip: Mary Murphy of USC Annenberg and Brent Roske of “Roske on Politics” weigh in on why Trump had such a big change in tone on immigration from his visit to Mexico City to later in the day, when he spoke to supporters in Phoenix.
Listen below:
“PopPolitics,” hosted by Ted Johnson, airs at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT on SiriusXM’s political channel POTUS. It also is available on demand.
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