Posted on 08/09/2004 12:59:36 AM PDT by GeronL
A recent article of mine on a public sector scandal, this one in Milwaukee, brought several e-mails from friends and strangers telling me that it was read and discussed on WTMJ-AM in that city by its weekday morning host, Charles Sykes. WTMJ is Milwaukee’s highest rated talk station, and while I appreciated the plug, I was not sure if that is the sort of station that friends of liberty need to be associated with.
That’s because that station, like so many across the U.S., have adopted the pro-war, pro-Bush nationalist format that dominates AM radio today, robbing it of much of the diversity that once characterized it. It is a marketing model that appeases small government conservatives (who have always favored radio) by telling them that big government really isn’t all that bad—as long as the right guys can control it.
It is a successful marketing model too. While it may be easy for classical liberals to get discouraged by the popularity of the "jaw-jaw, war-war" format, we must recognize that its ubiquity suggests the popularity of our ideas among the mainstream. Without talk radio keeping the focus of much of the population on Iraq (and away from the expansionary domestic agenda of the last four years), small government conservatives would revolt against George W. Bush as the reincarnation of LBJ.[1]
I distinctly remember listening to the Sykes show in my car during a recent trip to Southeast Wisconsin. He played Mel Gibson’s stirring speech on freedom from the movie "Braveheart"[2], followed it with a speech excerpt from Bush (equating the two), and then played that most famous line of the summer of 1969: "The Eagle has landed."
It sounded like propaganda you’d hear in the former Soviet Union...... [snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at mises.org ...
WTF?!
Exactly. I am glad they believe in economic freedom, but when it comes to anything else they are wacked out.
The real trouble with talk radio is the leftist propaganda at the top of every hour. On the two stations I mostly listen to, it comes from CNN and ABC.
It seems they haven't figured out it applies to radio too.
If we could wrap up Ludwig Von Mises and surround him with magnets, his spinning would power a major city.
This sounds more like an editorial than "news".
But how neat a trick would that be?
The "news" is an attack on talk radio. =o)
When Clear Channel canned him (and said to the new boss, no God talk and no discussion of pending legislation), he formed a new station and went with the USA Network (whatever this is). He has had Alan Colmes on at night so he could get live Fox broadcast during the Iraq war but has grown tired of Colmes liberal bias.
There aren't a whole lot of places to turn (even the boss at Fox's parent company News Corp endorsed Kerry).
I am NOT Christopher Westley
660Am here carries SRN News. Pretty fair and balanced. Does not drive me nuts.
AND THAAAAT's...the rest of the story.
AIn 't that the truth...analysis is leading them to paralysis...geez
They don't get along well with others. They can't go into detail because they have none and know none.
YUP. they should stick to economics
On the station that I listen to Rush on, they are not a conservative station, so the fact that they play ABC news is no surprise. But on the station that is like 90% conservative, Hannity, Ingraham, Beck, Savage, etc., they have CNN news, and I have no idea why.
Even on FR few understand the economics and politics of journalism - and how inimicable "objectivity" is to actual perspective.Why Broadcast Journalism is
Unnecessary and Illegitimate
Such exchanges describe talk radio today, where statolatry is much of what is promoted on the federally-regulated AM dials in the United States. This is especially true on the Clear Channel stations that donate so heavily to the federal overseers who regulate them.
Such interdependence between the media and the State is creepy, to say the least. Large, centralized nation-states, the emergence of which contributed greatly to the bloodiness of the 20th century, are bolstered when "public servants" influence what voters access in the media (such as the U.S. government’s recent attempt to suppress Michael Moore’s "Fahrenheit 9/11"). There can be no better argument against federal control of information sources, the practice of which is antithetical to limited government. Any attempt to control any information source by an elected official should be an impeachable offense.
What a misguided child of government largesse. What's up with his "federal regulation" of the AM dial remarks? He doesn't want free-market forces to determine content--the government should?
He goes on to say that there should be less federal intervention RE: enforcing the CFR where Fictitious911 is concerned. He's a smaller-government liberal? My head spins.
And Charlie Sykes rocks. And he is straightforward about federal government spending, IMO. And he can discuss this j@ck@ss and his government-funded diatribes all he wants. Apparently the guy doesn't want anyone outside the choir to discuss what he has to say.
In this one Kerry is running neck-and-neck with Bush. In that scenario we elect a Libertarian exactly how?
It's doubtful Sykes has taken any position on anything as part of any "formula".
http://www.theadvocates.org/celebrities/charles-sykes.html
WISN is the Clear Channel station in Milwaukee. WTMJ is owned by Journal Broadcast Group, a local media company & I believe the station is 2nd in the market, not first.
Finally, gimme a break. Conservatives do not think in lock step about everything, in case you haven't been paying attention around here. I'm sure the author would have been much happier to listen to the anti-war, anti-Bush yack over at NPR, another station in the same market, though it's on over at the FM band.
The writer is making better the enemy of good enough. Bush is good enough, if the alternative is "the only war hero in America." And that is faint praise.
But Bush did sign CFR, and CFR is an abortion. But then, so is the FCC, and even most Freepers don't appreciate the implications of that.
If that's something that will cause Clear Channel to can an employee, Belling & Glenn Beck should have been gone a long time ago.
And in the name of "diversity", no less. Shades of the fairness doctrine in all it's glory.
As if further proof was need that these guys are morons, this line presents it.
Clear Channel donates to politicians. The federal regulatory overseers are men like Michael Powell, who are not politicians and don't receive donations.
There is simply no connection at all.
I don't know about you, but once I hear the intro's to ABC or CBS News, CLICK! One must watch his blood pressure, you know.
They don't even make sense then. Half the crap they preach breaks down in the presence of non-zero growth.
Cut him some slack. He apparently has never had a real job in the real world.
</sarcasm!>
The politicians don't appoint the overseers? When did this change happen?
Get rid of Screwey Lewey Rockwell and I will reconsider.
This guy completely avoids the fact that the US "State" runs the US military. The only effective police force on the planet. Talking about groups of men vs groups of other men is the reduction of complexity to absurdity. The US controls the sea, air and space. These responsibilities must be taken seriously by the US citizenry. Invoking heroism is not always propaganda. People want to have heroic lives eg sports popularity.
eh hehehehe...
he hasn't gone all this time thinking all the articles posted were by the authors, has he?
This guy is a maroon.
WTMJ isn't owned by big bad right wing clear channel. They're earned by left wing journal communications. They run conservative hosts because they draw the listeners. They've tried liberal hosts before - those guys drove away listeners.
As for the sound clips - sykes plays them after almost every newsbreak. It's great to be able to hear reagans 'government is the problem' clip regularly. It puts you back into the mood of the program that he wants to set.
This guy doesn't know what he's talking about. The only one being 'rah rah' is him. Charlie sykes would eat him up in a debate. Sykes thinks things through - apparently this guy just sees something and reacts in his pre-determined way.
It shouldn't have been at Mises, thats supposed to be where the economics articles are posted. They actually make sense on that, I never go over to LewdRockwell.
uh huh. We are all left-wing writers and reporters who bash each other for our liberal bias.
This guy even thinks the military should be privatized.
It needs a new leader. One that will keep the line drawn between the economic articles at mises.org and the garbage over at lewdrockwell
The say law professors are refugees from reality.
I imagine regular professors are much the same.
I have only seen one person with an ecconomics degre get it right. He was from eureka college and his name was Ronald Reagan.
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