Surprise! This just in — there’s “a push toward polarization” on cable TV and talk radio. How do I know? Michael Smerconish told me so, in the Washington Post.

Smerconish is one of the many nationally syndicated radio hosts (he’s also a columnist and MSNBC contributor) profiled in my recent book Shock Jocks. Now he’s suddenly reporting “from the front lines” that a quest for guaranteed “high ratings” has resulted in “a rapid escalation of extreme dialogue” The result, he says, has been a “climate in Washington…being shaped “by an artificial presentation of attitudes on cable TV and talk radio” as “politicians emulate the world of punditry.”

As one who has long argued that the real shock jock racket is the money racket – everyone but the victims makes millions, from national distributors and local stations to advertisers and sponsors to Rush ($50 million per year) Limbaugh et al — all I can say to Smerconish is, “Welcome to the Club!”