WHERE THE GASBAGS STAND

Pew's Project for Excellence in Journalism does a weekly wrap-up of talk shows and Fats and Insannity have both taken sides against McCain and Huckabee. These are words to remember in the Fall.

PEJ Talk Show Index: January 6 - 11, 2008
Top Conservative Talkers Rap Huckabee and McCain

With the campaign primary season in full swing, the most popular conservative voices in talk radio last week seemed to take sides in the crowded Republican presidential field. And they both canted their opinions as a criticism, as they often do, of the mainstream media. “The drive-by media is doing everything it can to disqualify the true conservatives on the Republican side,” said Rush Limbaugh on his Jan. 11 show. And by his definition, that meant Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson. “What you’re being told is the only two candidates left that have any chance whatsoever are McCain and Huckabee, which is exactly what the drive-bys want. They want [a] liberal moderate nominee.”

Sean Hannity delivered the same message on the same day. “There is clearly an effort [by the media] underway, I think, to convince us, the voters, to go for either, say John McCain or Mike Huckabee,” he said. “If you ask me who are the two more liberal candidates in the Republican primary, I would say, it’s John McCain and Mike Huckabee.”