March 07, 2013 01:33 PM UTC

Brownie's idea to honk horns around State Capitol shows how talk-radio shows launch ideas and actions

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• by: Jason Salzman

All the cars honking in front of the State Capitol on Monday became a symbol, in the media, of the angry opposition to gun-safety legislation.

I'm not the first to report this, but the idea for the honk-athon came from Michael "Brownie" Brown, who was doing a "heck've a job" during Hurricane Katrina, in George W. Bush's humble opinion.

Last Thursday on his KHOW radio show and on his blog, Brownie first started encouraging listeners to drive by the State Capitol and lean on their horns:

We can spend all day Monday driving by…laying on that horn until it's driving you crazy. I want to hear horns honking all day long at Colfax and Broadway…So are you in or not? I have no clue if this will work or not…but i think if all of you think about this, it's a pretty easy thing to do….All i am suggesting is you drive around, you lay on your horn, you make as much noise as possible.

Brown then took his horn campaign deeper into the conservative echo chamber, apeearing on other talk shows and promoting it to his friends.

And his idea took off, as Brownie reported on his blog Monday:

Little did I realize how impactful that suggestion [of honking horns] would be for decent, ordinary citizens around the nation. First, the Daily Caller picked up the story. Then, Erick Erickson at Red State picked up the story. You can read those here and here. Both are great stories and I’m grateful for their coverage.

Some people write off radio, but Brownie's stunt shows how conservative talk shows can launch an idea or an action, using the media connectons and pseudo "celebrity" qualities of the hosts, as well as the networks of their fringe audiences.