The Most Influential Christian Talk Radio Network You've Probably Never Heard of

On the Media

WNYC Studios

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4.6 • 8.7K Ratings

🗓️ 10 March 2023

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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. This week, reporter Katie Thornton introduces us to 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. Thornton traces the company’s rise to power from its scrappy start in the 1970s to the present day — a growth that paralleled and eventually became inextricable from the growth of the Religious Right.

This episode is an adaptation of our latest series, The Divided Dial. You can listen to the full series here. The Divided Dial is reported and hosted by journalist and Fulbright Fellow Katie Thornton. 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	On this week's on the media, while engaged media consumers fret over who said what on Twitter or the latest Fox hosts outrages,
0:09.0	is anyone paying close attention to the radio waves?
0:13.0	I believe that this bottleneck is intentional to try to create an argument for mass immigration.
0:18.0	We're going to draw the connections between the environmentalist lobby, the Greta Thunbergs of the world, the AOCs, and COVID.
0:27.0	Nothing Americans could do would help this country as much as taking their kids out of the schools of America.
0:34.0	We disagree vehemently with the lie of transgenderism and the lie that marriage can be redefined.
0:41.0	You have to listen to it live in order to capture what's being said.
0:45.0	And so it just operates out of sight.
0:48.0	It would be nice any attention and it has so much power.
0:51.0	This week we're listening to talk radio. It's all coming up after this.
0:58.0	From WNYC in New York, this is on the media. I'm Brooke Gladstone.
1:05.0	Are you one of our millions something listeners a week who catch OTM on the radio?
1:10.0	Do you listen to any other stations on the dial other than public radio?
1:15.0	Because a lot of people are listening to the radio and they're tuning in in huge numbers.
1:22.0	And the content is almost all conservative.
1:25.0	The vast majority at this point of gender confusion is being driven by societal mania.
1:29.0	The racial profile is good for your health. It could save your lives. I know a lot of people.
1:33.0	Oh my god, this is racist. No, it's not. No, it's not.
1:35.0	Drill, build the Keystone pipeline, deport illegals, build the wall.
1:40.0	I don't want to hear about the EPA or the Department of Energy.
1:42.0	I don't want to hear about Biden's overreach. Defy the federal government.
1:47.0	While engaged media consumers may fret over who said what on Twitter or video clips of the latest Fox hosts outrages,
	...

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