We’ve known Rory O’Connor for sometime and admire his work — and his determination.

A lot of liberals dismiss the right-wing shock jocks with disdain. O’Connor takes them seriously — and at their word. That is how he came to write this provocative book about the top ten purveyors of hate speech on the airwaves.

As our readers know, BuzzFlash has been a big supporter of progressive radio, which is slowly but surely finding an audience.

Meanwhile, however, we have a whole slew of right-wing beasts of the airwaves whipping up bigotry, intolerance, and hate. O’Connor explores their malicious and eroding impact on American society.

O’Connor is an award winning television and print journalist.

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BuzzFlash: Shock Jocks, Hate Speech & Talk Radio, America’s 10 Worst Hate Talkers and the Progressive Alternatives. Let’s start off with this as a devil’s advocate. If you take someone like Michael Savage, or, Michael Weiner, he’s got several million people listening to him. You and I and anyone who is probably reading this find him totally repulsive and obnoxious. But the owners of radio stations, will say: Hey, millions of listeners can’t be wrong. What’s your response to that?

Rory O’Connor: My response to that is that sometimes millions can be wrong. He’s the third most listened-to shock jock out there, but I also would say to the owners who are distributing him that they must be concerned about their sponsors and the advertisers opting out of Savage’s show as a result of the disgust on the part of some of his listeners and some of us who wish he would refrain from the type of vitriolic speech that he engages in.

I think, economically, there are reasons for the distributors to be concerned as well.

BuzzFlash: Do you think someone like Savage actually believes what he’s saying? He used to be a liberal, and now he just says outrageous things. I get the feeling sometimes when I read about what he says, that, like Ann Coulter, he premeditates these things to shock, and draw in more of an audience, to draw more publicity. How much is this him calculating that he can improve his paycheck by drawing the listeners, versus him really expressing a viewpoint? Continue Reading »