* Rushed to Judgment: Talk Radio, Persuasion, and American Political Behavior. David C. Barker. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. 141 pp. $52.50 hbk. $19.50 pbk. Much has been written about talk shows on radio and television. Scholars have studied their role in American society, the exploitative nature of talk show producers, the motivation of guests to reveal and discuss intimate details of the personal lives, etc. In his book Rushed to Judgment, political scientist David C. Barker has approached the subject from the perspective of political communication. An assistant professor of political science at the University of Pittsburgh, Barker has written extensively on political communication and talk radio. He places radio talk in a category with the Internet and other new media, pointing out that they operate outside the journalistic traditions of objectivity and equal time. He argues that much of the political information flooding American society now comes from these sources whose primary objectives are to entertain and persuade. Increasing public reliance on new media, he says, holds substantial implications for democratic discourse in the 'marketplace of ideas.' Barker not only asks important questions, he answers them with grounded communication theory and empirical research. He focuses most of his attention on the Rush Limbaugh Show, hence the double entendre of the title, which is heard on more then 650 stations nationwide by an estimated 15 to 25 million listeners each week. Limbaugh is widely considered to be the most influential of the bevy of conservative political talk show hosts on the airwaves. However, much of this credit is based almost solely on audience figures that demonstrate his vast reach but say nothing about his degree of influence or his ability to motivate. Barker sets out to document Limbaugh's effectiveness among listeners. He wants to know how the conservative host influences radio listeners (and potential voters) and whether Limbaugh's brand of politics and his popularity actually translate into voting behavior. He begins by setting aside the classic rhetorical arguments that are traditionally used to describe the persuasive power, or assumed power, of talk show hosts and argues that Limbaugh employs a heuristic route to the listener's consciousness. He argues instead that Limbaugh uses a tactic that frames messages in a manner that primes particular considerations and, thus, capitalizes on beliefs and opinions that are commonly stored in the listener's memory. …