America's Right Turn: How Conservatives Used New and Alternative Media to Take Over America

Two revolutions have transformed America in the past half century — the conservative political revolution and the alternative media revolution. America's Right Turn is the first book to reveal the direct linkage between these two revolutions, and where they are taking the nation politically and culturally.

In recent years, liberals like Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and Tom Daschle have tried to explain why the GOP, now an avowedly conservative party, has won the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives. They weren't the cause of the Democrats' failure, they agreed: It's all the fault of the right-wing media.

America's Right Turn takes a close look at liberals' conspiracy theories, weighs the prospects for Al Franken's new liberal radio venture, Air America, and puts Al Gore's new TV network under the same scrutiny. Save your money, say authors Richard A. Viguerie and David Franke — you're barking up the wrong tree. Citing the conservative experience, they show liberals exactly what they must do to regain the power they once held. But the medicine they prescribe is tough, and not the easy answers many liberals want to hear.

At the same time, Viguerie and Franke warn conservatives that they are making two critical mistakes today-mistakes that can return the liberals to power in a closely divided nation.

The advice comes from two Washington insiders with impeccable credentials. Richard A. Viguerie started the conservatives' alternative media revolution in the 1960s and '70s, and is credited by liberals and conservatives alike for transforming American politics. David Franke is one of the original founders of the conservative movement, with a lifelong career in alternative media.

America's Right Turn, their collaboration, is not the kind of shrill partisan rant that has marred American politics in recent years. Instead it's a lively and insightful explanation of exactly how conservatives used alternative media to take power, and what is likely to happen next.

Penned by movement conservatives actively involved in their subject matter, this book describes how, beginning in the 1950s, the American right wing began to establish their own media as a means of building the movement. The authors describe the impact of talk radio, direct mail, conservative- oriented cable news, the Internet and other "alternative" media on the political landscape, occasionally looking over the political fence to report on how liberals are attempting to counter the conservative media revolution.
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Liberal media activists beware! Richard A. Viguerie, venture capitalist of the conservative movement (described as funding father of the right) and David Franke, a founder of the conservative movement, detail how conservatives-shut out by the liberal mass media of the 1950s and '60s-came to power by utilizing new and alternative media, and then created their own mass media.

Liberal media activists beware! Richard A. Viguerie, venture capitalist of the conservative movement (described as the funding father of the right) and David Franke, a founder of the conservative movement, detail how conservatives--shut out by the liberal mass media of the 1950s and '60s--came to power by utilizing new and alternative media, and then created their own mass media. In particular, they discuss how political conservatives worked in conjunction with evangelical Christians such as the Reverend Pat Robertson and the Reverend Jerry Falwell to counter the effects of the liberal establishment. Authors Viguerie and Franke give a first-hand account of how the Right took power by using direct mail, talk radio, cable news TV, and later the Internet. Can liberals do the same? This is the first insider book to expose the link between the conservative political revolution, their conservative Christian counterparts, and the alternative media revolution.