Media Matters does an outstanding job showing the trickle-down effect from Rush and Hannity really does work. It gives the conservative regional radio hosts justification (in their minds) for the misinformation that they spread to their listeners, who in turn post on the internet and send these lies or smears to their co-workers. Here is their summary:

Beyond the echelon of widely known conservative radio hosts with national audiences lies a vast network of lesser-known syndicated and regional radio hosts who have become key components of an echo chamber for conservative talking points and falsehoods. Like their better-known counterparts, these syndicated and regional radio hosts have played active roles this election season in promoting falsehoods and smears in an all-out effort to foment hate and distrust among their listeners for President-elect Barack Obama. While the hosts vary in the degree of vitriol they spew and in their ratio of rebuttable falsehoods to unbridled smears, Media Matters for America and Colorado Media Matters have identified common themes that many, if not all, have promoted over the past year. The Project for Excellence in Journalism recently released a report, which garnered considerable media attention, concluding that Sen. John McCain received much more “negative” coverage than President-elect Barack Obama during the campaign. But in purporting to compare the media’s coverage of the two candidates, PEJ did not consider talk radio, saying: “Talk radio stories … were not included in this campaign study of tone.” But, beyond arguable flaws in PEJ’s methodology, no study of the “tone” in the media’s coverage of this presidential campaign is complete without inclusion of conservative talk radio. Several of the radio hosts monitored by Media Matters (their shows are described in detail below), as well as their guests, engaged in an all-out effort to foment hate and suspicion of Obama among their listeners, promoting the most baseless and farfetched of smears and advancing falsehoods — including about Obama’s religion and background — that have taken hold among a substantial percentage of the electorate.

The problem is that these regional talk show host’s actually convince their listeners that this is factual information. I know this to be true because, I had members of my family and friends that were receiving emails that were watered down versions of Limbaugh all the time. How I found out is, they would forward me these vile emails that I would respond to with facts and links to the actual truth of the matter. All of them were trying to find out the truth, so they could respond to what they had received by email. Here are some great examples of what Media Matters uncovered.

General themes in 2008 election

Throughout the general election cycle, conservative talk radio hosts have repeatedly attempted to exploit ignorance about and distrust of Obama rooted in his heritage and upbringing, and have engaged in a relentless campaign to depict Obama as an untrustworthy outsider. In doing so, radio hosts have compared Obama to the Antichrist, as well as to Hitler and Mao and have suggested that his loyalties lie outside of the United States, including in the case of some radio hosts, with Kenya and Kenyan political figures. Attacks were also waged against those seen as supporters or beneficiaries of progressive candidates. For instance, several talk radio hosts and their guests suggested that demographic groups such as the poor or women should be denied the right to vote.

* Bill Cunningham

Cunningham alleged that “Obama wants to gas the Jews”

During the October 30 broadcast of his Cincinnati-based radio show, Bill Cunningham asked “Randy Furman,” a fictional Jewish character voiced by fellow WLW-AM host Scott Sloan: “Did you hear about this [Columbia University professor of Middle East studies Rashid] Khalidi tape where Obama is toasting a guy who wants to gas and fry Jews? … This Obama guy loves the PLO [Palestinian Liberation Organization]. Can’t you figure that out?” Cunningham later added, “Jews for McCain because Obama wants to gas the Jews, like the PLO wants to gas the Jews, like the Nazis gassed the Jews.

Cunningham invoked “[s]ix-six-six” and “the beast” in discussing “Barack Hussein Obama”

Stating that 666,000 new voters have registered in Ohio, Cunningham said on October 10: “Six-six-six. The mark of the beast. The great majority, of course, are registered by ACORN. … Who conducted ACORN seminars to tell ACORN employees and others how to cheat the system? Barack Hussein Obama. I may declare him to be the beast. Six-six-six. It could be the end of all days.” On the October 13 edition of Cunningham’s show, a caller said of Obama, “He may be the Antichrist.”

* Mark Levin

In the days before the election, media figures have repeatedly compared Obama to Hitler

On the October 29 edition of ABC Radio Networks’ The Mark Levin Show, Levin asserted that Obama is “really into these big German-like events that he creates in this country, isn’t he? Have you noticed that?” Curtis Sliwa, WABC radio host and CEO and founder of the community activist organization Guardian Angels, responded: “I am telling you, and he comes out and it’s almost as if the crowd stands in unison, and I’m saying to myself, ‘Oh my God, the Olympic Stadium, Berlin, 1938,’ ” to which Levin replied: “Yeah, we’ve seen this. It’s scary.” Sliwa then asserted: “And the only thing missing is he’s not standing up in an open car.”

Levin, MacCallum falsely accused Obama of inconsistency on whether Iranian Revolutionary Guard should be designated a terrorist group

On the June 4 broadcast of his radio show, Levin falsely asserted that Obama “lied to” the American Israel Public Affairs Committee when he “told them today that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards should be designated a terrorist group after voting against a bill designating them a terrorist group a year ago.” In fact, Obama has consistently supported designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization, having co-sponsored a bill in 2007 to do that.

* “Gunny” Bob Newman

Newman: “[T]here will be an invasion of Muslim terrorists” if Obama becomes president

On the July 10 broadcast of his radio show, responding to a caller’s statement that “we better start learning Arabic” if Obama is elected president, Newsradio 850 KOA’s “Gunny” Bob Newman stated that “there will be an invasion of Muslim terrorists” if Obama is elected. Further, after stating that he didn’t know whether Obama has “ever held a real job,” Newman falsely claimed that Obama has accomplished “[n]othing” in the U.S. Senate.

* Michael Savage

Savage: Obama was “hand-picked by some very powerful forces … to drag this country into a hell that it has not seen since the Civil War”

Savage stated of Obama on the March 13 broadcast of his radio show: “I think he was hand-picked by some very powerful forces both within and outside the United State of America to drag this country into a hell that it has not seen since the Civil War of the middle of the 19th century.”

Savage: “America’s not ready for an affirmative action presidency”

On the February 1 broadcast of his radio show, while referring to Sen. Clinton and Obama, Savage stated: “We have a woman and a multi-ethnic man running for office on the Democrat side. Is this not akin to a — an affirmative action election? Isn’t that why the libs are hysterical, tripping over themselves to say amen and yes to this affirmative election vote?” He later added, “America’s not ready for an affirmative action presidency.”

* Peter Boyles

Hosting Berg for the third time, Boyles again allowed Obama birth certificate smear

For the third time in three weeks, Boyles hosted Berg during the October 29 edition of his radio show and allowed him to repeat the discredited falsehood that Obama has not released a valid birth certificate establishing he was born in the United States and therefore could be ineligible to run for president.

Hosting Philip Berg, Boyles and Martino allowed further falsehoods about Obama’s birth certificate

On the October 22 broadcast of The Troubleshooter and the October 23 broadcast of The Peter Boyles Show, Boyles and Tom Martino, respectively, uncritically allowed Berg to repeat the discredited smear that Obama has not released a valid birth certificate establishing he was born in the United States and therefore could be ineligible to run for president. Berg further claimed on both broadcasts that the copy of Obama’s certification of live birth posted on his campaign website is a “forgery.”

The lists that they have compiled is very extensive. For the whole article of falsehoods, here is the link to Media Matters. Unfortunately, no matter how many times you prove this information to be inaccurate, some people choose to keep going back to these sources for their information. My sincere wish is that citizens who didn’t back Obama for any of these reasons, check out the facts. Here is the link to Barackopedia.org.