Prairie Dog

Originally published in the Spring 2026 edition of The Prairie Progressive, Iowa’s oldest progressive newsletter. The PP is  funded entirely by reader subscription, available in hard copy for $15/yr.  Send check to PP, Box 1945, Iowa City 52244. Click here for archived issues

by Trish Nelson and Dave Bradley 

There is a book out now, Rural Versus Urban: The Growing Divide That Threatens Democracy. I saw an interview by Paul Rosenberg of Barn Raiser Media with one of the authors, Suzanne Mettler.

The discussion covered factors they believe responsible for our current situation – the erosion of the New Deal, the Reagan era, deregulation, union-busting, abortion, Christian nationalism, gun rights, NAFTA, money, culture wars, Democratic party failures, etc. are presented as explanations for the magical powers of the GOP to put themselves in power no matter how horrible their policies and how unlikable their candidates.

They mention nothing about the growing conservative media Republicans have spent decades building. Republicans have made it their mission to own and control the media for the purpose of winning elections. This is no accident. Their primary method of doing so is by strategic use of language to ruin the Democratic party reputation in the eyes of the public. That is what they set out to do and that is what they have done. (See the award-winning documentary ‘The Brainwashing of My Dad’ by Jen Senko about the history of the Republican plan to win elections and keep Democrats out of power forever by establishing their own media).

The author admits her cited reasons for the urban rural divide aren’t enough to explain why huge swaths of people continue to vote for Republicans when their policies make their lives worse.

Lying to the public through the mass media is obviously unsustainable for a democracy. Millions of Americans and many Iowans live their lives according to the lies they are told by Fox News. One-third of the country thinks Donald Trump is their savior.

Trump’s numbers still hover around 30% approval. Pundits on our side cite this as good news and how historically bad it is for an American president. But when you think about everything the felon in the White House has done and Republicans have done alongside him, approval should be one percent.

Why do voters support Democratic policies but tell you at the doors they would never vote for a Democrat? Pollsters analyze election data, but the interpretation of the data typically makes no attempt to add a contextual layer examining the false beliefs voters absorb from media. I attended a Zoom event where Iowa pollster Ann Selzer was asked why voters were never asked where they receive their news. She replied, “that is never going to happen.” And that was the end of it.

Iowa has a particular problem. We have several Sinclair Broadcasting TV stations and a statewide network of commercial radio stations that pump multiple hours every day of rightwing garbage into our communities. Dave Bradley has been writing about the radio problem in Iowa for two decades.

He wrote about Mettler’s conclusions, “I think what they wrote hit the mark, but I am surprised by what they left out. That is media, and most specifically local radio in the rural areas. Of course, local TV stations and social media such as Facebook come along to cement the norms in rural areas that are planted in rural areas by local radio stations. After Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the far right gobbled up small and medium-sized radio stations that local people trusted and where they would get their opinions shaped daily.

They also added major radio stations like WHO in Des Moines. Farmers and small rural businesses had decades of connecting to the world through the radio; suddenly all the radio stations were booming out Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. When they turned to TV, newspapers, or the new internet, their opinions were confirmed by those media as they were also bought up by the far right.

Liberal leaders downplayed the effect of local media and instead tried to focus on national issues. Anything they did was clobbered by thousands of local radio, TV, newspapers, and internet influencers almost as quickly as they said it.

Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy was the only thing close to really confronting the overwhelming local media powerhouse that the far right had built. I’m surprised it was not even mentioned.”

We should be more concerned that enough people to decide elections believe provably false ideas. It is hard for many to accept that TV, radio, and media in general have so much influence. Maybe because no one knows what to do about it. I wish Iowa had a Chris Jones for media. Jones, running for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, got the problem of big ag and our polluted water into the conversation, something that was considered political suicide for Iowa Democrats just months ago. I have begged and pleaded with Free Press to establish state and local chapters to help states get organized to push back but the answer is always the same: no money for that!

Progressive pundits are big on touting independent media. They seem to think internet podcasts and Substack are the answer to beating back the dominant corporate media. They argue that we should abandon legacy media – radio and TV—because “nobody watches TV or listens to the radio anymore.” I guess they haven’t noticed that there is a reason Republicans have taken over the ‘legacy’ media. How else could America elect someone like Donald Trump?

—Trish Nelson is the administrator for http://www.blogforiowa.com.