Two more mentions of Shock Jocks in the press this week, one from the left and one from the right:

Ian Williams at the Guardian UK:

Hell, if Father Coughlin, the anti-Semitic radio priest of the 1930s were around now, he would have an audience. And for many of the same reasons. There are indeed many people out there suffering financially who feel their plight is ignored and want to hit out at clear and identifiable targets.

“I’m not making this up,” is Limbaugh’s catchphrase. But, in fact, he often does just that. Rory O’Connor’s book Shock Jocks: Hate Speech and Talk Radio, details the right-wing talkshow univers,e and makes the point that it was not just Limbaugh’s native charm that got him launched on the airwaves. Rather, the concentration of media ownership, under a complaisant FCC, paved his way, along with the inspired political entrepreneurship of Fox CEO Roger Ailes, who offered the show free to local stations.

The right-leaning American Chronicle posts a review by Stephen Silver:

The surprising thing – and probably the best thing – about Rory O’Connor’s new book, Shock Jocks: Hate Speech and Talk Radio, is that the book is much more fair and analytical than its title suggests. The name, in addition to the subtitle America’s Ten Worst Hate Talkers and the Progressive Alternatives, implies that the book is just one long screed against right-wing talk radio, possibly even calling for its curtailment or outright banishment.

Instead, the book, which O’Connor co-wrote with Aaron Cutler under the AlterNet Books imprint, provides a fair look at the top conservative talkers and actually seems to understand why people like and listen to them.