I just caught the 1957 movie A Face In The Crowd on Turner Classic Movies the other day.
A female radio reporter turns a folk-singing drifter into a powerful media star.
Was it amazing foresight that Budd Schulberg used to write this story that could be about Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, or others of their ilk?
Perhaps extrapolating from Father Charles Edward Coughlin or Arthur Godfrey was enough to get this close to the modern day demagogues.