Cumulus bars its talk show hosts from saying election rigged

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After months of stoking anger about alleged election fraud, one of America's largest talk-radio companies has decided on an abrupt change of direction.

Cumulus Media, which employs some of the most popular right-leaning talk-radio hosts in the United States, has told its on-air personalities to stop suggesting that the election was stolen from President Donald Trump - or else face termination.

A Cumulus executive issued the directive on Wednesday, just as Congress met to certify Joe Biden's election victory and an angry mob of Trump supporters marched on the Capitol, overwhelmed police and briefly occupied the building, terrorizing lawmakers and leading to the deaths of five people.

"We need to help induce national calm NOW," Brian Philips, executive vice president of content for Cumulus, wrote in an internal memo, which was first reported by Inside Music Media. Cumulus and its program syndication arm, Westwood One, "will not tolerate any suggestion that the election has not ended. The election has been resolved and there are no alternate acceptable 'paths.' "

The memo adds: "If you transgress this policy, you can expect to separate from the company immediately."

The new policy is a stunning corporate clampdown on the kind of provocative and even inflammatory talk that has long driven the business model for Cumulus and other talk show broadcasters.

Since the election, Cumulus has remained silent while its most popular hosts - which include Mark Levin, Ben Shapiro and Dan Bongino - have amplified Trump's lies that the vote was "rigged" or in some way fraudulent.

Atlanta-based Cumulus owns 416 radio stations in 84 regions across the country. Many of its stations broadcast a talk format, a medium that has been dominated by a conservative point of view for decades. In addition to its national personalities, it employs local talk-radio hosts in many of its markets.

Cumulus's biggest stations include WMAL in Washington, KABC in Los Angeles, WLS in Chicago and KGO in San Francisco, all of which air a news-talk format. (Rush Limbaugh, perhaps the biggest star of conservative talk, is syndicated by another company, Premiere Networks, though his program is heard on many Cumulus-owned stations. Limbaugh isn't subject to Cumulus's memo.)

The memo appears to reflect the reality that voters, presidential electors, courts and now Congress have accepted or certified that Biden won the election and is the president-elect. It may also be an attempt to cool down emotions that led to Wednesday's invasion of the Capitol, and to mollify advertisers that are concerned about being associated with programs that could be inciting listeners to violence.

But it also reveals some of the hidden corporate hand behind what is said and discussed on talk-radio programs. Rather than a medium of freethinking individuals expressing passionately held beliefs, the memo reminds that hosts are subject to corporate mandates and control.

"It's naive not to recognize that a corporate imperative goes into all media," said Michael Harrison, the publisher of Talkers magazine, which covers talk radio. "Corporations have always called the tune ultimately. Everyone pays attention to the guys at the top and always has."

Cumulus and other broadcast companies "recognize they're in the hot seat right now because the national eye is on them," he said.

Asked how hosts who have repeatedly promoted Trump's claims of fraud can now credibly flip to acceptance, Harrison said: "I would hope they put their personal feelings aside and come clean with their listeners. I encourage them to pursue the truth and to tell their audience something that Trump may not like."

However, there's some question as to whether stars such as Levin will comply with the recent edict and whether Cumulus will discipline them if they don't.

On his syndicated radio program on Thursday, a day after Cumulus sent its memo and Trump supporters breached the Capitol, Levin didn't seem to be backing off. "It appears nothing has changed in 24 hours," he said on the air. "Not a damn thing. The never-Trumpers, the RINOs, the media - same damn thing."

"It's naive not to recognize that a corporate imperative goes into all media," said Michael Harrison, the publisher of Talkers magazine, which covers talk radio. "Corporations have always called the tune ultimately. Everyone pays attention to the guys at the top and always has."

Honestly, there’s something refreshing seeing how the Trump era has... what’s the word? It’s made people realise what side they are on, and that is the side without Trump on it.

iberal media watchdog organization Media Matters for America says hosts syndicated by Cumulus Media-owned Westwood One are not abiding by a recent company memo that forbade them from suggesting the 2020 Presidential Election was rigged or fraudulent in any way.

Since the release of the memo, which garnered national mainstream media attention, Media Matters has been monitoring Westwood One-syndicated hosts and local Cumulus Media personalities. The group says the hosts continue to spread election misinformation.

“Since [the hosts] were directed to cease spreading election misinformation, numerous Cumulus radio hosts – both some of the most popular on-air personalities in conservative media, and numerous local hosts – continued to amplify this dangerous rhetoric.”

Some example provided in its Jan. 13 report include comments, which did not include context of the break or segment, from numerous hosts that seem to validate the organization’s point.

On Jan. 7, Dan Bongino said, “We had an election with unbelievably suspect behavior.” A day later the host said “we’ll continue” to “question the election.” On Monday, Jan. 11, Bongino reportedly said “principles about what happened in the election, the constitutionality are in dispute.”

The Media Matters report cites seven times Mark Levin contradicted Philips’ mandate, while claiming he never received the memo. “What took place in this last election cannot be dismissed,” he said on Jan. 8, two days after the memo was released and subsequently made public.

he piece also highlights comments regarding election fraud made by Larry O’Connor (WMAL-FM), Frank Beckman (WJR Detroit) and Michael DelGiorno (WWTN Nashville).