Fairness Doctrine repeal enabled talk radio that normalized white male supremacy

Evidence

The 1987 repeal of the FCC’s Fairness Doctrine, which had mandated honest and equitable on-air treatment of controversial issues, ushered in an era of talk radio that would change the tenor of American political conversation. Rush Limbaugh’s bombastic style set the tone. Each day, listeners could tune in to a world where white men still reigned supreme in the public and private spheres. … An enthusiastic supporter of the military, Limbaugh loved to deride Clinton as a draft dodger, even though he himself had secured a deferment to avoid serving in Vietnam. He also liked to talk football and smoke expensive cigars while ridiculing liberal men as the “new castrati.” Millions listened in, often on a daily basis. Blurring the line between news and entertainment, Limbaugh’s popularity was clear, but his influence was difficult to discern. A 1995 Time cover story, at least, warned that his “electronic populism” threatened to short-circuit representative democracy. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 340

Categorization

• XREF: Extends the book’s core claim that consumer media culture, not pulpit theology, transmitted the militant masculinity that defined white evangelical identity; talk radio is a commercial distribution channel in that same apparatus.
• SEED: Angle: the Fairness Doctrine repeal as a deregulatory act that functionally built a political media infrastructure — parallels to how the 1987 repeal maps forward to today’s podcast/streaming masculinist media.