Adventures in dark free speech: AM radio poison

The New York Times writes:

On Conservative Radio, Misleading Message Is Clear: ‘Democrats Cheat’

Election fraud claims from 2020 are widespread on talk radio, contributing to the belief that the midterm results cannot be trusted.

November’s midterm elections are still months away, but to many conservative commentators, the fix is already in. Democrats have cheated before, they say, and they will cheat again.

Never mind that the claims are false. [False is an unreasonably deferential way to say a lie.]

In Lafayette, La., Carol Ross, host of “The Ross Report,” questioned how Democrats could win a presidential election again after a tumultuous few years in power. “They’re going to have to cheat again,” she said. “You know that. There will be rampant cheating.”

In Greenville, S.C., Charlie James, a host on 106.3 WORD, read from a blog post arguing that “the Democrats are going to lose a majority during the midterm elections unless they’re able to cheat in a massive wide-scale way.”

And on WJFN in Virginia, Stephen K. Bannon, the erstwhile adviser to former President Donald J. Trump who was indicted for refusing to comply with subpoenas issued by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, summed it up this way: “If Democrats don’t cheat, they don’t win.”

Mentions of “Democrats cheating” and similar ideas were raised more than 5,000 times on syndicated radio shows and local broadcasts this year, according to an analysis of data from Critical Mention, a media monitoring service. Similar ideas were mentioned a few hundred times on television shows and podcasts tracked by Critical Mention during the same period.

Radio remains perhaps the most influential conduit for right-wing thought, despite the rise of podcasts and social media. Tens of millions of people nationwide, especially older Americans and blue-collar workers, listen to it regularly. Misinformation experts warn that talk radio channels, many of which air political commentary 24 hours a day, receive far too little scrutiny compared with other mass media. Talk radio is also uniquely difficult to analyze and harder to moderate, because the on-air musings from hosts usually disappear over the airwaves in an instant.

Well, there we have it, the gigantic fascist Republican lie: If Democrats don’t cheat, they don’t win.

Guess Bannon is saying that we have to vote for the Green Party. No, wait. The Republican Party. 

Yeah, there we go, we have to vote for the Republicans because they do not cheat. Right?[1]

Qs: Is there a left wing dark free speech propaganda & lies equivalent to the radical right's propaganda & lies Leviathan? If so, what is it, MSNBC, Free Speech TV and/or CNN and/or other stuff? What other stuff?

Footnote: 

1. Remember the ex-president's phone call to the Georgia Secretary of State to tell him to “find” (fabricate) 11,780 votes so he could win? Aw crud, Republicans do cheat.