Yesterday, there was a story which turned up on WWL Radio’s website which was either stupid or evil or both, but without question it showed off a partisan Democrat bias marking the station as hostile territory for conservatives.
We’ll explain. Here’s an excerpt…
Republican leaders are beginning to sound the alarm that former president Donald Trump is losing the presidential election. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) sent an email to his supporters on Monday, saying that Trump is in danger of torpedoing his own campaign by sticking to his usual plan of attacking his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, with insults instead of attacking her policy stances. “Fellow Conservative, (w)e can’t deny it any longer: Kamala Harris is SURGING in the polls,” Johnson wrote in the email paid for by Mike Johnson for Louisiana. “And if we don’t change our strategy NOW, we could be referring to her as ‘President’ next year.”
And then WWL found pollster Ron Faucheux, a Democrat who calls himself nonpartisan, to run off at the mouth about how this is an example of division inside the GOP…
“I think that sense has slowly developed of the last several weeks because the polls are continuing to show Kamala Harris’s position against Donald Trump has been slowly improving,” Ron Faucheaux said, noting that the latest round of polls shows Harris with a slight lead over Trump. According to Faucheaux, Speaker Johnson’s email may be an attempt to rally Trump’s base to show their support and to donate to Trump’s campaign. “I think he’s trying to get the Republican Party and Donald Trump and Trump’s campaign activated to deal with this challenge,” Faucheaux said. However, Faucheaux says the bigger message in Johnson’s email is that Trump and his inner circle need to change their campaign tactics–specifically, staying on script–if they want any hope of winning back the White House. “The Republicans in Washington have been urging the Trump campaign for at least a week or two now to change their tact, to go after Kamala Harris and the Democrats on issues and policy issues to make her a symbol of the status quo of the Biden Administration and to push the Harris/Walz ticket far to the left,” Faucheaux said. “He tends to get easily distracted on other things, so I think Republicans around the country are increasingly concerned about this.”
But here was the actual email – and it’s your standard online fundraising ploy, where you scare the hell out of the reader and then solicit their participation by asking them to vote in a poll, or sign a petition, or in this case “take an audit,” which inevitably amounts to an opt-in for future fundraising emails and solicitations. Everybody in politics does this, and here’s a very standard example which happens to be the source of this article…
Fellow Conservative, We can’t deny it any longer: Kamala Harris is SURGING in the polls. And if we don’t change our strategy NOW, we could be referring to her as “President” next year. I know I’ve asked for your opinion before, but it’s never been as important as it is now. I need you to take my new Updated Speaker’s Election Year Audit and help us make sure we have a plan laid out for us to take on the Democrats this November! TAKE THE AUDIT This is unlike anything I’ve ever asked you. Just one minute could make the difference between victory and a total wipeout for America First Republicans. Can you take the Updated Speaker’s Audit today? RESPOND NOW Paid for by Mike Johnson for Louisiana
This doesn’t mention Trump, and it doesn’t complain about Trump. It’s a very ordinary email solicitation which screeches that “we’re gonna lose unless you get involved.”
Ian Auzenne, the author of the WWL piece, is either a 20-something who’s never seen a campaign fundraising email before, or he’s a partisan Democrat trying to drive wedges inside the GOP.
But apparently somebody at WWL decided to clip Auzenne’s wings, because not long after it was published the piece was totally rewritten. Go to the page it was published on and now it says this…
Hours after his campaign sent an email to fellow Republicans that his party is in danger of losing the presidential election, House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office is saying the email is not about Trump. Rather, Johnson’s spokesperson says the email is about helping Fourth Congressional District representative craft a plan to help the GOP sink Harris’s presidential bid. … Greg Steele, Speaker Johnson’s political communications director, said Johnson is not “sounding an alarm” regarding the Trump Campaign. He also notes that Trump is not mentioned in either the email or the survey attached to it. “Speaker Johnson’s campaign is asking supporters to help build the Speaker’s updated strategy to define the Democrats’ new candidate, VP Kamala Harris, as well as raise the resources needed to defeat Democrats’ up and down the ballot in November,” Steele said in an email. “This month, Speaker Johnson is in top swing districts across 20 states from coast to coast as he works closely with President Trump to grow the House majority, flip the Senate, and win the White House.”
All of this is ridiculous, you know. There was never any news here, unless you think it’s news that fundraising emails scream about how the side in question is about to lose and catastrophe is about to strike. Even John Kennedy, who is quite possibly the safest political candidate in the whole Republican Party, sends out fundraising emails daily whining about how the Democrats are gunning for him and he’s desperate for money.
And while WWL’s reporters and producers might be clueless about how this works you’d think their editors aren’t. But maybe this isn’t about ignorance at all. Maybe it’s about WWL being just about the only major talk radio station in America without a conservative local host.
And maybe that’s a damn shame.