ABSTRACT
The author was driving around Billings, Montana, in the middle of a nasty blizzard in 1996, trying to figure out what the hell was going on, when the voice belonging to "The Talent on Loan from God" hit his ears. He was in Billings because a few days before, the FBI had arrested two leaders of the Montana Freemen at their compound near Jordan, Montana. Transmitters play a central role in the interaction among the Right's competing sectors. This is particularly so for mass-media transmitters, like Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly. Indeed, what fascinates Berlet about the interaction of the sectors is watching the transmission belt - how stuff gets essentially a trial run in the Christian right and the messages will get refined, and then they'll be picked up by these intermediary groups and individuals, and refined some more, and then there'll be a buzz that's created, and then that gets media attention in the mainstream press.
