The Divided Dial: Episode 1 - The True Believers

On the Media

WNYC Studios

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4.6 • 8.7K Ratings

🗓️ 15 November 2022

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Episode 1: The True Believers

In 2016, Christian talk radio host Eric Metaxas begrudgingly encouraged his listeners to vote for then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. By 2020, he pledged his life to fighting the “stolen election” while talking with Trump on the air. Ahead of the midterm elections, Metaxas and many of his fellow talk radio hosts made sure the falsehood of massive 2020 election fraud was top of mind — on the airwaves and beyond. And while election-denying candidates didn't do as well as many on the right had hoped, at least 170 such candidates have been elected to state and national offices, some of whom will be in charge of future elections. We meet the company whose hosts never backed down from the lies of the stolen 2020 election: Salem Media Group, the largest Christian, conservative multimedia company in the country – and perhaps the most influential media company you’ve never heard of.

The Divided Dial is hosted by journalist and Fulbright Fellow Katie Thornton. Her written articles and audio stories have appeared in The Atlantic, 99% Invisible, The Washington Post, BBC, NPR, WNYC, Minnesota Public Radio, The Guardian, Bloomberg’s CityLab, National Geographic, and others. She is a lifelong radio nerd who got her start in media as a teenager, volunteering and working behind the scenes at radio stations for many years. You can follow her work on Instagram or on her website. The Divided Dial was edited by On the Media's executive producer, Katya Rogers. With production support from Max Balton and fact-checking by Tom Colligan, Sona Avakian, and Graham Hacia. Music and sound design by Jared Paul. Jennifer Munson is our technical director. Art by Michael Brennan. With support from the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone, it's me Katya, executive producer of On The Media.
0:03.8	Today and for the next five weeks we have an extra podcast extra in the feed for you.
0:08.7	It's a brand new reported series we're calling The Divided Dial.
0:13.2	It touches on the things you, OTM Lister, are drawn to,
0:17.0	namely getting a deeper, more nuanced understanding about the intersection of media and politics.
0:23.0	And it's about radio too. Thanks for listening.
0:25.9	There's Dave Muffley.
0:46.0	A few weeks after the 2020 election, radio host Eric Mataxis had one of his frequent guests
0:52.9	back on the air. Colonel Doug Mastriano. This man is an American hero.
1:00.1	Doug Mastriano, freshman Pennsylvania State Senator and recently defeated 2022 Republican nominee
1:06.2	for governor, was at the fan guard promoting allegations of widespread fraud right after the 2020
1:12.3	election. And so was conservative Christian talk show host Eric Mataxis. So this was familiar
1:19.9	fair to his listeners. What happens if these people don't join you in this?
1:26.2	You could kiss fair and free elections goodbye.
1:30.3	Mastriano had a plan to get the state's general assembly to intervene in the election results.
1:36.0	It was a legal long shot or more accurately and impossibility. Even the plans creator,
1:42.2	Trump lawyer John Eastman said it wouldn't hold up in court. But Mataxis and Mastriano begged
1:48.7	listeners to get their senators on board. I just want to say to my audience, if you live in
1:55.9	Pennsylvania and you don't do this, when things go to hell, which they will, I want you to know
2:02.1	you're responsible. But right before this interview with Mastriano, something unexpected happened,
2:12.0	something that Eric Mataxis called divine intervention. Mastriano got a call.
2:19.6	Hey, sir, I'm here with Eric Mataxis. He wants to know if you want any message you go out on
	...

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