Avoid Getting Captured

Today is the second anniversary of Rush Limbaugh’s death.  He was both a personal friend and mentor.  We chatted often about how to do radio.  One of his pieces of advice was to avoid getting captured by the audience.  Do not allow them to set topics or force my views.  It is my show and I should be authentic and relatable and allow room for disagreement.

This gets me to Fox News and the case with Dominion.  It is very clear that Fox News personalities and executives thought the fraud claims about the 2020 election were not true.  But on air, for fear of losing their audience to Newsmax, they allowed the theories to fester.  Now they, like Newsmax and OAN, face multi-million dollar defamation lawsuits.  They did take an audience hit, but the audience has over time rebounded.  There are some real lessons here for all of us, particularly those with microphones, on how to build relationships with listeners that can last even in disagreement. Take a moment and watch: