wildmon, don

<div>=</div><div>American Family Radio is split among two networks – AFR Talk, which airs mostly conservative-leaning <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_talk_and_teaching" class="mw-redirect" title="Christian talk and teaching" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Christian talk and teaching</a>;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Family_Radio#cite_note-ProgamLineup-3" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[3]</a> and AFR Hybrid, airing Christian talk and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemporary_Christian_music" title="Contemporary Christian music" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">contemporary Christian music</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Family_Radio#cite_note-ProgamLineup-3" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[3]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Family_Radio#cite_note-StationFinder-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[2]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Family_Radio#cite_note-StationGuide-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[1]</a>AFR airs original programs such as Today's Issues, hosted by AFA president <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Wildmon" class="mw-redirect" title="Tim Wildmon" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Tim Wildmon</a>. AFR also airs nationally syndicated programs such as Focus on the Family, as well as contemporary Christian music by various artists. Other personalities heard on AFR include Dr. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Dobson" title="James Dobson" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">James Dobson</a>, Dr. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Jeffress" title="Robert Jeffress" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Robert Jeffress</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Barton(author)" title="David Barton (author)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">David Barton</a>, Jan Markell and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Rios" title="Sandy Rios" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Sandy Rios</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Family_Radio#cite_note-ProgamLineup-3" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[3]</a><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">History[</h2>AFR was launched by Rev. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Wildmon" title="Donald Wildmon" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Donald Wildmon</a> in 1991 as a ministry of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Family_Association" title="American Family Association" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">American Family Association</a>, with the flagship station being WAFR in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupelo,Mississippi" title="Tupelo, Mississippi" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Tupelo, Mississippi</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Family_Radio#cite_note-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[4]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Family_Radio#cite_note-Sanders-5" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[5]</a> It originally aired a contemporary Christian music format.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Family_Radio#cite_note-6" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[6]</a> Christian talk and teaching programs were also featured.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Family_Radio#cite_note-7" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[7]</a> Eventually, American Family Radio included three networks – Classic Gospel; a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_AC" class="mw-redirect" title="Christian AC" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Christian AC</a> network; and Inspirational, which included Christian talk and teaching programs.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Family_Radio#cite_note-Sanders-5" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[5]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Family_Radio#cite_note-8" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[8]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Family_Radio#cite_note-9" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[9]</a> In 2009, American Family Radio launched AFR Talk, and most of its stations joined the new network.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Family_Radio#cite_note-Peterson-10" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[10]</a> The Christian AC network was discontinued at this time.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Family_Radio#cite_note-Peterson-10" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[10]</a> At its peak, American Family Radio was heard on over 200 stations.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Family_Radio#cite_note-11" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[11</a></div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>=</div><div>
</div><div>shadow network bk</div><div>
</div><div>...
All of this must have been music to the ears of the

Council for National Policy. The ongoing disruption of the traditional

news industry created a vacuum, and they were systematically building a

stable of media partners prepared to fill it. The regulatory environment

was working in their favor.

The gutting of the Fairness Doctrine had opened the door for the

Salem communications empire, originally founded as a radio operation by

fundamentalist broadcasters Stuart Epperson and Edward Atsinger III.

Salem and other CNP media partners produced highly politicized one-sided

broadcasts. CNP member Donald Wildmon founded American Family Radio in

1991; it would expand into a network of almost 200 stations in 35

states. American Family Radio developed three different programming

streams designed for its various markets: AFR Talk, AFR Hybrid, and

Urban Family Talk, which employed an African-American staff to target an

African-American audience. All three adhered to the statement of faith:

<blockquote>The American Family Association believes that God has

communicated absolute truth to mankind, and that all people are subject

to the authority of God’s Word at all times. Therefore AFA believes that

a culture based on biblical truth best serves the well-being of our

nation and our families, in accordance. with the vision of our founding

documents…</blockquote>

The organization’s action statement spurred followers to “promote

virtue by upholding in culture that which is right, true and good

according to Scripture.” Its overtly political goal was to “motivate

people to take a stand on cultural and moral issues at the local, state,

and national levels.”<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="https://flux.community/anne-nelson/2021/05/disinformation-factory-how-christian-fundamentalist-media-brainwash-millions#sdendnote17sym" name="sdendnote17anc">17</a>

Another CNP radio partner was the Bott Radio Network, founded in 1962

by Dick Bott, a former child evangelist, and his wife Sherley. Bott

quickly recognized the potential of commercial religious broadcasting,

and his radio network grew to over 100 stations in fifteen states,

heavily concentrated in the Bible Belt.<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="https://flux.community/anne-nelson/2021/05/disinformation-factory-how-christian-fundamentalist-media-brainwash-millions#sdendnote18sym" name="sdendnote18anc">18</a> States

like Kansas and Missouri had plenty of news deserts without a daily

newspaper, but they were blanketed by Bott radio signals carrying the

programs of CNP stalwarts like James Dobson and Gary Bauer. <a class="sdendnoteanc" href="https://flux.community/anne-nelson/2021/05/disinformation-factory-how-christian-fundamentalist-media-brainwash-millions#sdendnote19sym" name="sdendnote19anc">19</a>

Together, Salem’s Epperson and Atsinger, American Family Radio’s

Donald Wildmon, and Bott Radio’s Dick Bott – all members of the CNP –

built overlapping radio empires that were all but invisible to the urban

northeast. But it was hard to drive very far across the Plains without

running into their signals and their increasingly virulent rhetoric.

Wildmon’s American Family Radio network, for example, produced

programs with titles like “Infanticide Adopted by Democrats” and

“Homosexuality is the Dividing Line Between Light and Darkness.”<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="https://flux.community/anne-nelson/2021/05/disinformation-factory-how-christian-fundamentalist-media-brainwash-millions#sdendnote20sym" name="sdendnote20anc">20</a> One

program asked how Christians should respond to a Muslim call to prayer,

and answered “They should take the call to prayer as a call to arms, to

go to war in the Spirit against the demon-god Allah and the spiritual

deception of Islam.”<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="https://flux.community/anne-nelson/2021/05/disinformation-factory-how-christian-fundamentalist-media-brainwash-millions#sdendnote21sym" name="sdendnote21anc">21</a>

The Salem Radio Network was especially aggressive in acquiring new

stations. Atsinger and Epperson developed a successful strategy of

purchasing leveraged stations in urban markets. But they ran into an

obstacle with the Federal Communications Commission, which prohibited a

broadcaster from owning too many stations in one market. Epperson and

Atsinger—by now members of the CNP Board of Governors– joined other

broadcasters to lobby against the regulations; Salem contributed $74,000

to key legislators. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was written by

industry lobbyists, promoted by Newt Gingrich, and signed into law by

Bill Clinton.<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="https://flux.community/anne-nelson/2021/05/disinformation-factory-how-christian-fundamentalist-media-brainwash-millions#sdendnote22sym" name="sdendnote22anc">22</a> It

eased the ownership regulations to the benefit of Salem and other large

companies. Salem went on an acquisition binge and created a system of

station “clusters” to cut costs.

In 1999 Forbes magazine reported that Salem Communications (as it was

now called) owned 57 stations. This made it the eighth largest

broadcaster and the largest religious broadcaster in the country, with

at least one station in 19 of biggest 25 markets. “Christian radio” had

become the third most popular format in the US. (following country music

and talk). <a class="sdendnoteanc" href="https://flux.community/anne-nelson/2021/05/disinformation-factory-how-christian-fundamentalist-media-brainwash-millions#sdendnote23sym" name="sdendnote23anc">23</a>

In July 1999 Salem issued an initial public offering. The company was

booming. It still reaped half of its revenue – nearly $78 million —

from the sale of block programming, but advertising accounted for a

third of its revenues, and it was growing. The IPO’s influx of capital

allowed the company to acquire more stations. <a class="sdendnoteanc" href="https://flux.community/anne-nelson/2021/05/disinformation-factory-how-christian-fundamentalist-media-brainwash-millions#sdendnote24sym" name="sdendnote24anc">24</a>

Salem’s reach extended beyond religious programming, it also rode the

wave of conservative talk radio. Local radio stations, like hometown

newspapers, had traditionally been owned by – and answerable to —

members of the community. In the wake of deregulation, over a quarter of

the nation’s radio stations were sold, many passing from local to

corporate owners, while new satellite technology facilitated national

programming.

Eventually the Salem, Bott, and American Family Radio empires – all

owned and operated by members of the CNP – extended to at least

forty-six states. (As of January 2019, they owned stations in every

state except Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Alaska.) Their programming,

including political content produced by CNP members, was utilized by

other radio networks, including the Christian Satellite Network and

Family Life Radio. In combination with their affiliates, the CNP radio

broadcasters covered the entire nation; California and Texas were

blanked by all three. ABC, NBC, and CBS began to dump their radio

stations, especially in small and mid-sized markets, and their news

programs disappeared. The Great American News Desert grew drier by the

year.

<hr />

National Public Radio, founded in 1970, did much to

fill in the gap.</div><div>...</div><div>
</div><div>Salem Communications developed three principle formats for its

stations: Christian (fundamentalist) talk, contemporary Christian music,

and conservative news and talk. and blocks of religious programming

(AM). <a class="sdendnoteanc" href="https://flux.community/anne-nelson/2021/05/disinformation-factory-how-christian-fundamentalist-media-brainwash-millions#sdendnote27sym" name="sdendnote27anc">27</a> The

company created a syndication service that distributed talk programs

and a 24-hour news service to over 2,000 affiliates nationwide. It

billed its programs as “Christian Radio’s Definitive Source for News”

that “breaks the ivory tower approach of the traditional networks.”<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="https://flux.community/anne-nelson/2021/05/disinformation-factory-how-christian-fundamentalist-media-brainwash-millions#sdendnote28sym" name="sdendnote28anc">28</a> This

was not news about Christianity, it was current events filtered through

a highly partisan fundamentalist lens. Salem’s “Christian journalism”

was a new genre, unhampered by professional practices of multi-sourced

reporting, fact-checking, and corrections.

The Salem, Bott and American Family Radio networks, all run by

members of the CNP, bypassed the crisis in business models that

afflicted the rest of the industry, buoyed by blocks of airtime sold to

fundamentalist churches and advertising sold to CNP affiliates such as

the Family Research Council.

Further revenues resulted from the Dietary Supplement Health and

Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA, pronounced D-shay), promoted by Senator

Orrin Hatch. Hatch and his family had extensive involvement in the

nutritional supplements industry, which is based in Hatch’s home state

of Utah. DSHEA prevented the FDA from regulating harmful or fraudulent

supplements before they hit the market. The Los Angeles Times concluded,

“The harvest [of DSHEA] has been a public health disaster.”<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="https://flux.community/anne-nelson/2021/05/disinformation-factory-how-christian-fundamentalist-media-brainwash-millions#sdendnote29sym" name="sdendnote29anc">29</a> The

elderly were especially easy marks. Bott and American Family Radio run

ads for products such as “vitamin cures” for impotence and organizations

such as the Institute for Creation Research, which argues “Birds didn’t

evolve from dinosaurs because they can fly.”<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="https://flux.community/anne-nelson/2021/05/disinformation-factory-how-christian-fundamentalist-media-brainwash-millions#sdendnote30sym" name="sdendnote30anc">30</a> Salem’s

online outlet RedState rented its email lists to the Health Sciences

Institute, which used it to promote a product that supposedly “vaporizes

cancer in six weeks.”<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="https://flux.community/anne-nelson/2021/05/disinformation-factory-how-christian-fundamentalist-media-brainwash-millions#sdendnote31sym" name="sdendnote31anc">31</a>

Salem’s stations took a regional approach. In Irving, Texas, “The

Word 100.7 FM” was overtly religious. Focus on the Family and related

programming offered advice from a fundamentalist perspective for

listeners’ daily problems of marriage infidelity, alcoholism, and

depression, and condemned abortion and homosexuality. CNP member and

attorney Jay Sekulow’s programs expounded on policy issues from a

fundamentalist perspective.

Beyond the South, Salem’s “conservative news and talk” format built

on the success of talk radio’s secular “shock jocks” like Rush Limbaugh,

promoting hosts such as Hugh Hewitt, Sean Hannity, and the ubiquitous

Sekulow. Salem’s Detroit station, “The Patriot WDCK,” focused on the

anxieties of the Rust Belt: “politics, pop culture, the war on terror,

education, immigration, and much more.”<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="https://flux.community/anne-nelson/2021/05/disinformation-factory-how-christian-fundamentalist-media-brainwash-millions#sdendnote32sym" name="sdendnote32anc">32</a>

Atsinger and Epperson expanded their political footprint along with

their radio empire. In 2005 journalist Adam Piore published a detailed

history of Salem’s strategy called “A Higher Frequency” in Mother Jones

magazine. Piore reported that between 1998 and 2004, they and their

company offered $423,000 in federal campaign contributions, 96 percent

of it to Republicans. This rendered them the sixth largest donor in the

industry.<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="https://flux.community/anne-nelson/2021/05/disinformation-factory-how-christian-fundamentalist-media-brainwash-millions#sdendnote33sym" name="sdendnote33anc">33</a> In

2000 Atsinger, Epperson, and a colleague donated $780,000 towards a

California state ballot initiative to oppose gay marriage....In recent years, the CNP media affiliates have

continued to modernize and proliferate. It’s difficult to say exactly

how many there are, or to track all the platforms where they appear.

Salem Media, rebranded as the Salem Media Group, has acquired various

digital platforms, including TownHall, RedState, and PJ Media. 
The Daily

Caller, co-founded by CNP member Neil Patel and Tucker Carlson, lists

Clarence Thomas’s wife Virginia (another CNP member) as a “special

correspondent,” and Tony Perkins makes frequent appearances on its video

channel “American Voices.” CNSNews (originally the Cybercast News

Service) was founded by CNP executive committee member Brent Bozell

III in 1998 as a division of his Media Research Center. Like many of the

other organizations mentioned, MRC is designated a tax-exempt

“non-partisan” 501(c)3 organization, despite its unrelenting stream of

partisan content.

The movement has been focusing on developing social media platforms,

especially since Donald Trump was banned from Twitter in the wake of the

January 6 Capitol riot. On May 14 the Wall Street Journal reported that

Donald Trump <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-considers-contenders-to-be-his-new-social-media-outlet-after-big-tech-crackdown-11621013567">may launch his own platform</a>

on July 4, although it’s unclear what form it might take. Tony Perkins

has endorsed a relatively new social media platform called Gab, which

has been widely reported for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/11/gab-social-network/">providing a haven for QAnon supporters and other extremists</a>.

Other contenders, such as Parler and Frank (launched by My Pillow CEO

Mike Lindell) also vie for attention. The CNP has tried to develop its

own “celebrity spokespersons” to cultivate specific target audiences,

such as CNP member Charlie Kirk, who has his own YouTube channel and a

radio program on Salem Media targeting youth. CNP member Alveda King

(MLK’s niece) is <a href="https://townhall.com/tipsheet/connormcnulty/2021/04/07/panel-of-prominent-black-leaders-blasts-hr-1-and-the-lefts-racism-of-low-expectations-n2587565">prominently featured</a> on Salem’s TownHall as an African-American opponent to HR1 and voting rights initiatives.

In the distorted mirror of this media system, the violent storming of

the Capitol was a “tourist event,” and the illegal efforts to overturn

the electoral results were exercises in “election integrity. Tragically,

these media initiatives have not limited themselves to political

misinformation; they have also been disseminating deadly misinformation

about Covid for over a year, and sowing manufactured doubt about the

safety of vaccines.

The stakes couldn’t be higher. The battle against Covid may have

peaked, but millions of Americans are still vulnerable. The 2022

midterms will determine the fate of the House and the Senate, and in

many ways, the future of the nation. These information systems create a

growing chasm in America. Thanks in large part to their efforts,

Americans are more sharply divided than they have been in our lifetimes —

and as Abraham Lincoln warned, “A house divided against itself cannot

stand.”</div><div></div><div>
</div><div> Alliance Defense Fund President, CEO and General Counsel: Alan Sears

2007 Revenue: $31,674,124

Location: Scottsdale, Ariz.

Web site: www.alliancedefensefund.org

Overview:

Founded in 1993 by a coalition of more than 30 Religious Right leaders,

the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) has become the nation’s most prominent

Religious Right legal group.

ADF founders, which included James

Dobson, Donald Wildmon, the late Bill Bright and the late D. James

Kennedy, originally conceived the organization as a funding pool that

would finance legal cases brought by other groups that advanced the

Religious Right’s view in the courts.

This strategy was employed

for a few years, but the ADF now directly litigates cases itself and is

headed by Alan Sears, formerly an anti-pornography crusader in the Edwin

Meese-era Justice Department. The ADF is rigidly anti-gay and promotes

its Christian fundamentalist vision in public schools and government

institutions.

A flavor of Sears’ views can be found in the titles of the books he has coauthored: The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom Today (2003) and The ACLU vs. America

(2005). Sears, 52, is so concerned about the “homosexual agenda” that

he once opined that SpongeBob SquarePants might be part of a gay plot to

indoctrinate children.

The ADF has become one of the leading

proponents of the “war on Christmas.” While it raises a lot of money

fighting this “war,” actual litigation over the issue is rare. Other ADF

cases seem to have been filed as ploys to raise cash. In 2005, the ADF

sued a California public school after claiming that officials had

ordered a teacher to stop using the Declaration of Independence in

class. The claims were exposed as false, and the case quickly unraveled

and was dropped – but not until the ADF had used the manufactured

controversy to win media appearances and raise money.

The ADF has

worked aggressively to lure churches into a right-wing political

machine. This year, it announced plans to urge evangelical pastors to

openly defy federal tax law by endorsing or opposing candidates from the

pulpit. The drive sparked a backlash from a group of Ohio clergy and

tax law experts, who asked the IRS to investigate ADF lawyers for urging

churches to violate tax law.

Working with a network of pro bono

attorneys nationwide, the ADF offers training for both established

lawyers and law students. The latter are “equipped with a distinctly

Christian worldview in every area of life, particularly in the areas of

law and public policy,” boasts the ADF Web site.

Sears Quote:

“Homosexual activists have noticed very astutely that the use of humor

is a primary vehicle to help them reach their goal of cultural

acceptance. Humor had been used by the entertainment industry in the

past to stir up antiwar sentiment (the Marx brothers’ Duck Soup, MAS*H, Dr. Strangelove) and to promote feminism (Nine to Five) and cross-dressing (Some Like It Hot and Tootsie).

Homosexual producers and directors readily admit that humor is their

best weapon to soften up the American public for the future promotion of

their agenda. If you can get people to laugh about something, you are

then on the way to convincing them to accept the behavior as normal.” (The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom Today, coauthored with Craig Osten, 2003).</div><div>===
</div>