If you're a regular listener of Glenn Beck's radio show and you wanted to contribute to a political group that would advance the populist conservative ideals he touts on his show, you’d have plenty of reason to think that FreedomWorks was your best investment.There's something important to keep in mind when it comes to for-profit media you get for free, like radio and television (other than premium cable): You're not the customer, you're the product. Radio doesn't sell its content (music, news), it sells your ears and eyes to advertisers. The advertisers are the customers. "Programming," as a top executive at radio behemoth Clear Channel used to say, "is the shit we run between the commercials." Or in this case, commercials are the shit they run between the commercials. Is there something dishonest about what Limbaugh and Hannity are doing? Of course. The whole idea of the embedding these kinds of endorsements within the discussion on the program, as opposed to in separate commercial messages, is that listeners won't know they're being advertised to. Without any of the skepticism with which we greet advertising, all the host's moral and intellectual authority (and to their audiences, they have plenty of both) can be transferred to the advertised product. As a listener, you're supposed to assume that your beloved host is just giving you his honest judgment about how terrific this institution is. If you knew he'd been paid to do so, you would hear that message differently. It's true that the hosts genuinely believe in the work these institutions do; no one doubts that Limbaugh or Hannity are conservatives in their hearts. But whether they find the work of the Heritage Foundation superior to that of the American Enterprise Institute is another matter. It may be a bit better than a host telling you, "Friends, last night I used McSnivelson's Wart-A-Way, and today my feet are as smooth as a baby's bottom," when in fact he never had any warts in the first place. But not by much. David Frum floats a few theories about why conservatives find this kind of thing acceptable: conservative media don't consider themselves part of "the media" and therefore don't feel they need to adhere to anything like journalistic standards; conservatives think mainstream media are corrupt in a hundred ways, and "these practices not only justify but virtually require conservatives to match their non-conservative adversaries bias for bias, payoff for payoff"; and that the hunt for revenue in an increasingly competitive environment results in declining standards. These all may be part of the picture. But the most important factor may be that to someone like Limbaugh, the audience isn't a group of compatriots engaged in a common political enterprise. They're the product.But if you’re a fan of Mark Levin's radio show, you'd have just as much cause to believe that Americans for Prosperity, a FreedomWorks rival, was the most effective conservative advocacy group. And, if Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity are who you listen to, you'd be hearing a steady stream of entreaties to support the important work of the Heritage Foundation.
That's not coincidence. In search of donations and influence, the three prominent conservative groups are paying hefty sponsorship fees to the popular talk show hosts. Those fees buy them a variety of promotional tie-ins, as well as regular on-air plugs – praising or sometimes defending the groups, while urging listeners to donate – often woven seamlessly into programming in ways that do not seem like paid advertising.
