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Dems Secretly Trained Thousands of Activists to Manipulate Media, Clinton Library Docs Show freebeacon.com/politics/dems-…
The Democratic party developed an elaborate, multi-year operation in the 1990s that deployed thousands of activists to covertly mold public opinion using talk radio, according to documents from the Clinton Presidential Library.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC), with the blessing of the Clinton White House, launched the Talk Radio Initiative (TRI) ahead of the 1996 campaign.
The program trained thousands of operatives to call in to radio shows, conduct surveillance of their contents, and secretly disseminate Democratic talking points while posing as ordinary listeners.
Radio show hosts long suspected that someone was training so-called "seminar callers" to inundate their shows with sympathetic callers.
Lars Larson, a host in the Pacific Northwest since the mid-1990s, recalled being on the receiving end of many such calls, but was not aware that many may have been trained by the DNC.
The Democrats did publicize some aspects of this secret program while it was running, praising the initiative as their first step in bringing back "truth" to radio. However, the inner workings of the TRI were kept secret for decades.
Washington Free Beacon reviewed scores of internal documents from the Clinton Presidential Library—including secret DNC communiques, confidential state party documents, and executive memorandums for the president—that together shed light on the internal workings of TRI.
The materials revealed that Democrats systematically trained more than 4,000 operatives in at least 23 states to lie about their identities, deflect difficult questions from hosts, and plant pro-Democrat messages on the radio waves.
"If you are afraid that producers are beginning to recognize your name and are weary of allowing you on the air, use an alias," the Michigan Democrats' TRI guide read. "For example, be Carol today, Sue tomorrow, and Debbie on Friday!"
The records also revealed that the Clinton administration consistently kept tabs on and coordinated with TRI, considering it a crucial pillar of the administration's plan to neutralize conservative radio in preparation for the 1996 election.
