Radio Execs Pressured Hosts to Cover Trump Positively

[RandySF]

Executives at Salem Media Group, a conservative media company that syndicates some of the country's most recognized talk radio hosts and operates a batch of popular commentary websites, pressured some of their radio talent to cover Donald Trump more favorably during the 2016 presidential campaign, emails obtained by CNNMoney show.

One former radio host employed by Salem is now speaking out on the record, claiming the company fired her because of her refusal to play along.

It might not be unusual that a conservative-minded media organization would aim to support the Republican nominee. But the former host, Elisha Krauss, said she feels it's disingenuous to ostensibly hire hosts to be open about their views, only to pressure them behind the scenes to change.

For months, Krauss said, Salem executives explicitly pressured her to change how she treated Trump. Though Krauss said she praised Trump when she felt he deserved it, it ultimately wasn't enough. In January 2017, Krauss said, she was shell-shocked when a casual meeting with a company executive turned into her dismissal.

Krauss declined to discuss the details of her severance, but said the rest of her contract had been settled.

The emails obtained by CNNMoney were sent in the summer of 2016 to Krauss and Ben Shapiro, both former co-hosts of KRLA's "The Morning Answer," and both conservative Trump critics. Krauss and Shapiro co-hosted the show along with Brian Whitman, an anti-Trump liberal, and later Jennifer Horn, a pro-Trump conservative.

"What I have been hearing on TMA... has not been in the spirit of 'supporting the GOP nominee,'" one Salem executive, Terry Fahy, general manager at Salem, wrote in an email to Shapiro and Krauss on July 19, 2016. "In fact, it seems that the show gets into negative minutiae of the Trump campaign and the GOP convention (e.g. criticizing Trump for having his kids speak at the convention.) Do we really need a side by side audio comparison of Trump's wife's speech with Michelle Obama's? How is that ultimately relevant to the big picture and advance the cause?"



http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/09/media/salem-radio-executives-trump/index.html

[Scurrilous]

1. K&R

[Exotica]

2. Fairness Doctrine needed NOW

[BigmanPigman]

3. A journalist was on MSNBC and was talking about her experiences covering the moron's campaign.

It was SCARY! They were threatening and serious. They really want to control the press.

[jrthin]

4. And when they cannot control the press they simple put

simpletons, fools, and sycophants as anchors and pundits on the air and that takes care of the control issue.

[democratisphere]

5. Soon we will need the Propaganda Free Radio Network to counter all of this RW

propaganda, lies, corruption and malfeasance on the radio airwaves.