Fairness Doctrine
The mayor of Toledo Ohio, Carty Finkbeiner, is taking his hatred for talk radio to Congress as he begs for the Fairness Doctrine to be re-instated. He specifically complains about the hate mongers at Glenn's affiliate WSPD. It's the mentality of the left, if you can't beat em...cheat. Mayor Finkbeiner, along with having the worst sounding name ever, is also the mayor who kicked US Marine's out of his city because they were 'frightening' citizens. Glenn talks with WSPD host Brian Wilson about the ongoing attempt by the left to ruin talk radio.
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There is no fairness in the way people get their information. IF they want to listen to talk radio then let them. If they want to get their information off the internet then so be it. To try to make all the information sources fair is a going to be a big waste of time. Or am I reading this wrong?
It doesn't, at all. That is what is so bad about it.
Liberals claim that conservatives have a disproportionate representation on talk radio, because businesses are conservative, so will pay for advertising on conservative talk shows. They claim that businesses won't support liberal talk radio.
However, liberal talk radio doesn't draw listeners. Businesses will advertise anywhere that there are listeners. Rush Limbaugh documented 20,000,000 listeners per week at his peak. He still has over 15,000,000 listeners per week. Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Michael Savage all have extremely high numbers.
Air America, on the other hand, gets very low numbers. Businesses aren't interested in spending a lot of money on advertising on Air America, in say, Minneapolis, if there are only a few hundred listeners in that market. Yet when we lived in Minnesota, the little station in the extremely small town we lived in got constant complaints from listeners for preempting Rush with Twins baseball games! And that was with many other radio stations playing his show!
Keep in mind that Minneapolis ranks right there with Detroit, NYC, and San Francisco for liberal thought.
As usual, liberals cannot compete in the market, especially the market of ideas and discussion, so they seek government involvement.
It is particularly telling that the "Fairness Doctrine" only applies to radio. Liberals have a lock on television and newspapers, so would be appalled at the idea of applying this doctrine to those media. It would mean that they would have to give equal time to conservative ideas.
Of course, while talk radio has grown over the last 25 years, newspapers and television news have dropped. Could it be because of the same trends?
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It is hard to find a balance between simply insulting people because you can and saying what you want. I've heard my share of racial taunts before. Do I wish they would stop doing that, yes I do! I think there needs to be very specific guides. Speaking out against an organization is very different from speaking out against a race.
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As far as I understand this will not be limited to just radio but will control what you say or publish on the internet as well. With technology in place to track what you do and send via your computer / mobile it will easy to 'discover' who says what. Say anything inflammatory against government or an institution and you can become a target for retribution.
As for racial focus, I agree that freedom of speech should not be used simply to degrade someone because of their race. However, I do find US political correctness a bit too much, but that is another Topic.
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I found a great video on YouTube about the Fairness Doctrine. It starts with a short segment by former Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson, then leads into some segments by modern liberals. It is a great contrast.
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Posted for Nighthawk.