Dems Secretly Trained Thousands of Activists to Manipulate Media, Clinton Library Docs Show: DNC coordinated with activists to 'infiltrate' talk radio Clinton's started to proactively manipulate conservative talk radio starting in 1996! 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. "Volunteers must be able to keep the project confidential so as not to create the image of a ‘Democratic conspiracy' to infiltrate Detroit area talk radio shows," a 1995 TRI guide prepared by Michigan Democrats said. "Democratic performance in the 1996 elections will no doubt be affected by the success or failure of this initiative." 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. "You would get calls, an hour apart, from different people with different voices and different names, but they would talk the same lines. So close that you knew that this was not a coincidence," Larson said. "It was the same language on the same subject and the same arguments." 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. The Washington Free Beacon reviewed years' worth of previous reporting and 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. "My office is now coordinating closely with talk radio shops in the White House, Federal Departments and Agencies, the House, the Senate, and [the] ones I have helped set up in the State Parties," TRI Director Jon-Christopher Bua, an acting-coach-turned-DNC staffer, wrote in an April 1996 memo to the White House Deputy Chief of Staff Harold Ickes. Ickes forwarded the memo to President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, and several other White House insiders. It was one of several TRI memos seen by White House leadership. Ickes did not respond to request for comment about the initiative. Democrats began conceptualizing a new radio strategy after their historic defeat in the 1994 election, when the GOP, buoyed by support from popular radio hosts, captured the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years. Operatives launched the project as an "all encompassing, nationwide grass roots effort to win back the airwaves." The multi-pronged project sought to groom pro-Democrat radio hosts by "offering them good guests, information, and access" and train Democrats to appear on these shows. The initiative targeted not just large national or regional shows, but local radio shows serving listeners in battleground districts. "Democrats have largely ignored talk radio, and only since the last election, have we paid attention to how we can win back the airwaves and the discussion," an internal DNC report on the project read. "We have now put our frustration into action." Much more at - https://freebeacon.com/politics/dems-secretly-fielded-thousands-of-activists-to-manipulate-media-clinton-library-docs-show/