Crute’s campaign: A truly Trumpian gimmick
In 1889, Milwaukee Journal founder Lucius Nieman removed the words “An Independent Newspaper” from the Journal’s masthead. Nieman declared that from now on, the Journal would be a Democratic paper.
A year later, the Journal backed the gubernatorial candidacy of Milwaukee-based editor and humorist George W. Peck, a Democrat best known for his witty column “Peck’s Bad Boy.” When he won statewide office in 1890, the Journal rejoiced, running the headline: “Sound the Glad Tidings
O’er Land of O’er Sea.
The Democrats Have Triumphed, The People Are Free.”
The concept of nonpartisan newspapers is actually a fairly new one in American history. Quite often, papers were set up to promote candidates and parties, while other competing papers did the same for rival parties and candidates. (The Journal, for instance, disliked progressive Republican Robert “Fighting Bob” La Follette, prompting La Follette’s son to say, “I would rather have my children grow up illiterates than to read the Milwaukee Journal.”)
In a sense, newspapers used to be what talk radio and cable news outlets are now —partisan programming meant to promote specific candidates and agendas. But this week, Wisconsin saw partisan media hit a new level as radio station owner Mike Crute announced he would be running in the Democratic primary for governor.
On his radio station, Crute cohosts “The Devil’s Advocates,” a liberal talk show he began in 2012 with his friend Dominic Salvia. Crute has indicated he has no intention of staying off the air during the campaign, as his show is broadcast in the heavily-Democratic Madison and Milwaukee markets. He has said he will not promote his campaign on the air, although it’s obvious that granting himself unlimited airtime to talk issues with voters is an advantage none of the other 16 (at current count) candidates in the primary enjoys.
One has to give Crute credit for sheer audacity. To date, he has cajoled other Democrats to spend $10,000 in advertising on his liberal station to promote their own campaigns — money that he could indirectly use to subsidize his own campaign. Using your competitors’ cash to buttress your own candidacy is a stroke of genius and one that privately has other Democrats fuming.
But for a broadcaster who routinely savages President Donald Trump, Crute’s maneuver is downright Trumpian. In 2017, he used $1 million in personal funds and loans to buy the tiny radio station, and now he’s using the guise of a political campaign to drum up some free advertising (including, for what it’s worth, this column) and bolster his own brand.
For Crute, however, his campaign could be penny-wise and poundfoolish. Perhaps more people will have heard of his station in the short-term, but what advertiser is going to spend money on his airwaves knowing they’re simply contributing to his campaign?
But if Crute is willing to take on up to a million dollars in debt to own a broadcast station, he can run tapes of himself singing the entire Meat Loaf catalog of songs 24 hours a day for all anyone cares.
He just now can’t expect anyone to take anything said on his air seriously. Ironically, if his radio show was an attempt to demonstrate progressive talk radio could succeed on its own, he has now done the exact opposite.