Salem Trades In Medved For Gorka - UPDATED

I originally wrote and posted this at the end of 2018. I'll add some current [August 2022] thoughts at the end.

*****

I've long made a habit of listening to Michael Medved and I've often read his columns. I have a couple of this books.

While he seems to be personally very conservative (as in his personal life), he hasn't been a "the Republican way is the only way; screw Democrats" kind of guy when it comes to politics. He's tried to be fair to disagreeing callers Left of him, and to those Right of him (and there have been a lot of those lately!)

He has given his Democrat/Leftist friends plenty of air time and is generally very polite, trying to find common ground with just about anyone. He has always said he wants the President to succeed no matter who it has been, so that has included Obama.

I first thought things might change for him in 2016, when he refused to endorse or vote for Trump. Mind you, he didn't vote for this classmate, Hillary, either. Salem talkers who did endorse Trump were sent on a tour that year to try to get out the vote. Medved did participate in Salem townhalls, at which many in the audience were disappointed at his refusal to endorse Trump.

Since Trump was elected, Medved has praised the things the President has done that he likes and criticized (usually constructively) the things he hasn't liked, and there have been plenty of those.

The writing was on the wall once Sebastian Gorka, one of the many people with Trump Administration experience, started filling in for various Salem talkers when they were away from their own shows. Gorka is very much in Trump's corner, and not just because that's who happens to be the (Republican) President. Gorka has an accent and voice some listeners find appealing. I did often listen to his guest hosting stints, whereas I listen to very few guest hosts. Gorka expressed, on-air, his enjoyment of hosting.

Talk radio audiences skew older, especially conservative talk radio (and yes, there are other kinds of talk radio). Advertisers like a younger demographic. Medved is 70. Gorka is still in his 40s, which no doubt makes him the youngest of Salem's national political talk hosts, by far. With Salem lining up behind Trump and thinking about the future, it came as no surprise to me when they announced Gorka's show, which, absent anything explaining otherwise in the announcement, meant they were dropping Medved. A tweet by Medved confirmed this. He's been encouraging his listeners, on-air, to sign up with his subscription service to keep getting his show. Looks like I will be doing that, as I have for Dennis Prager's show and Dr. Laura's. It's curious, though: I tried signing up just a bit ago and it wasn't working. I have no idea if Salem's website is intentionally depriving Medved of subscribers or not. I expect he'll get ownership of his domain after the turn of the year and it will no longer be a Salem website.

Whether or not I sign up with Medved, I probably won't make a habit of listening to Gorka. I'm not quite as upset with the change by Salem as some others are, but I just don't expect I'll get out of Gorka's show nearly as much benefit as I get out of Medved's.

That isn't to say I find every hour of Medved's show must-listening material. Although, I did always like his recorded history shows, usually played on holidays. He frequently talks about the homeless, mostly to complain about the negative effects of local Leftist officials on the homeless situation, and I just have no use for those hours, nor the usually-monthly Conspiracy Day, nor the hours on how terrible drugs are.

I will listen to Medved misleadingly promote marriage and parenthood while portraying single men and their pastimes negatively; usually, I'll tweet him to disagree with his points. He's more or less against the "Border Wall", is pro-citizenship for Dreamers, and pro-immigration in the sense of wanting more of it, whereas I want a wall, and I don't want the immigration rate to exceed the assimilation rate. We can get guest workers if we absolutely must. And I don't want law-abiding Dreamers deported, but I see no reason to put them ahead of anyone else seeking citizenship.

His movie reviews and other media analysis is usually great stuff.

He talks a lot about the technicalities and machinations of politics and urges compromises and often takes a somewhat moderate stance in comparison to most of his peers, so his shows are not regurgitations of what I've already heard elsewhere. If I wanted to hear "rah-rah Trump and the Republicans, let me give you the party line" I could have turned to Sean Hannity during those same hours.

Personally, I would have preferred Gorka replaced Mike Gallagher, if anyone. Nothing personal, Mike, but I don't listen. It's just a matter of timing. Some of Medved's audience is happy Gorka is taking the slot, dunking on Medved for not supporting Trump enough for not being conservative enough on something or other. Others don't think Gorka is worthy to shine the shoes of the seasoned, experienced, principled Medved and have declared they're done with Salem.

I'm not done with Salem. I still find Townhall worthwhile and I'm glad they have Larry Elder and Dennis Prager broadcasting nationally. I'll catch the local Morning Answer show when I can, which is for a bit about once per week. And I understand why they are bringing in Gorka. It's business.
Time will tell how this change turns out. I have to wonder how much longer Medved plans to do a daily three-hour show. Dr. Laura is slightly older and says she plans to keep going until she's dead, and she's not kidding about it. I hope Medved continues for at least several more years, as I find his show worthwhile and frequently entertaining.

*****

Gorka and Medved are still both on the air. I did subscribe to Medved's podcast (his live show, in podcast form), and I still do. Larry Elder ran for California Governor in the attempted recall election, so that took him off the air for a while, he came back, and then ended up leaving the Salem show again (apparently on good terms). I haven't listened to his replacement and I don't know the age of his replacement, but I'm sure he's much younger than Larry, who seems youthful but is getting up there.

Medved has been unwavering in his Never Trump stance. He appears to unquestioningly accept the Democrat narratives regarding Trump and many other things, and appears to want politics to be a large backslapping exercise with everyone getting along and being polite to each other; his criticisms of Trump have often been not what he's done, but how he's done it, or how Democrats and other Never Trumpers have claimed he's done things.

He also seems to be delusional in thinking there can be an acceptable compromise between people convinced that bodily autonomy justified elective abortion on demand, at taxpayer expense, at any stage of pregnancy, and people who are convinced that the government should help protect human life from conception.

I have no idea how many stations he's on now.

Medved dropped Conspiracy Day from his show. He still regularly decries the homeless situation in Seattle and the perils of certain drugs, still is a marriage-seller.

He's also fully accepted and promoted the official narratives on C19 and the jabs, ever-changing as they've been.

Since the end of 2018, talk radio experienced a gigantic change with the death of longtime industry leader Rush Limbaugh, whose show use to run before Medved's on his home station and I don't know how many others. I'd think that has had some impact on Medved's numbers. I don't know which show is before his now on his home station; Limbaugh's official successors, Dan Bongino, Dennis Prager, or another show.