Talk radio needs some balance [petulant liberal jeremiad BARF ALERT]

It is high time for the Federal Communications Commission to re-institute its traditional Fairness Doctrine and guarantee equal access for all points of view over the public — that is — our airwaves.

The Fairness Doctrine was scrapped by the FCC in 1987 during a time when Ronald Reagan was out to get the government out of practically every facet of our lives. But the deregulation by the FCC of radio only ensured that mega-media corporations were able to gobble up more and more independently owned stations and then offer up zealots like Rush Limbaugh and what Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., calls Rush wannabes on hundreds of radio stations across the country.

Soon, both local and nationally syndicated Rush wannabes began offering a daily concoction of right-wing politics to a public that largely ignored their local newspapers and relied upon the radio rants for their news.

In some cases, the vitriol came directly from the fax machines of the Republican National Committee. In other cases, the propaganda echoed that written in the Washington Times or on right-wing Internet sites like the Drudge Report, World Net Daily and News Max.

The political misuse of the commercial airwaves was what Al Gore was talking about when he recently told the New York Observer that "the media is kind of weird these days on politics, and there are some major institutional voices that are, truthfully speaking, part and parcel of the Republican Party."

Liberal alternatives cannot be found on the public commercial airwaves. A few liberals, like Jim Hightower, found an outlet on a few public radio stations, but their reach to the general public is worse than Radio Free Europe's during the days of Soviet radio jamming.

After the events of Sept. 11, it can be argued whether the right-wing hosts are actually helping to destroy America's way of life rather than claiming to protect it.

Daschle said the talk-show blatherers create "an emotional movement in this country among some people... who are then so energized as to go out and hurt somebody."

Daschle, it should be noted, was a recipient of deadly anthrax in the mail soon after Sept. 11 when the radio waves were flooded with invective tones of hate and retribution. And it does not help when a Rush wannabe in Boston refers to the soon-to-be Senate minority leader as "Dass-hole."

Rush Limbaugh may be, as Sen. John McCain claimed, a mere "circus clown," but we must recall what happened to one of America's last liberal radio talk show hosts.

In 1984, Alan Berg, who had infuriated a number of neo-Nazis, was shot to death by them in front of his Denver home.

It's not so much the Limbaughs that are the problem but the people they tend to incite to violence. The talk-show hosts who consistently call for "rounding up" foreigners are playing into the hands of many racists and xenophobes and that is what Daschle was talking about when he talked about enraged listeners going out and hurting somebody.

Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois told National Public Radio that there is "station after station of right-wing screamers."

With Gore, Daschle and Durbin all finally aware of the misuse of the public commercial airwaves by the Republican Party and its rightist allies, the FCC's commissioners must revisit the Fairness Doctrine.

However, time is of the essence because the FCC, under the leadership of Michael Powell, the son of Secretary of State Colin Powell, is considering scrapping even more FCC regulations over OUR airwaves.

Madsen is the Washington correspondent for Intelligence Online and a political columnist for Counter Punch. Distributed by Knight Ridder News Service.

Left wing radio will NEVER work. The only reason left wing TV garners any attention is because the visual part grabs that attention. It's a natural thing, that once you SEE what the clown looks like as he is performing, you're more likely to watch the performance through before registering opinion.

Radio, however, requires that you invest imagination to visualize the goof spouting the leftist tripe. People have less patience where their imagination is concerned, thus the quick trigger in flipping the dial for another station.

After all, nobody wants to hear excuse making, spin, bald faced lies, and left wing whining for even one second!

"...I don't need someone like you NAGGING me..."

'Nagging' is the word I'd use to describe this.

Petulant... Brittle... Effeminate...

Something about Wayne seems a little off, a little abnormal.

Does he admit to being afflicted with any kind of mental illness, such as homosexuality?

Here are my thoughts.

I guess we're going to have to keep shouting this out until it gets impressed upon the other side but here it goes.

THIS IS NOT A LIBERAL NATION. THIS IS NOT A PROGRESSIVE NATION. THIS IS NOT A MODERATE NATION. THIS IS A CONSERVATIVE NATION. A CONSERVATIVE NATION. GET IT???????!!!!!

Liberalism and progressivism has already been tried on the radio and it just doesn't sell at all. You want to kill AM Radio. You want to kill information radio and end up depriving people like myself of essential and vital information. Our only way of getting information when the T.V. goes down. Folks, T.V.'s don't have batteries. radios do.

Simply put, the public has spoken. THEY DO NOT WANT TO HEAR LIBERAL OR PROGRESSIVE OR MODERATE TALK ON THE RADIO. THEY WANT CONSERVATIVE TALK.Conservative talk is what's keeping vital sources of information on the air. By paying their utility bills in the form of advertising revenue.

And don't get me started on the Big three networks annd CNN. All they care about is their own special political agenda. They don't give a damn about the news and information consumers. I know of lots of people who have thrown bricks at their T.V.'s over gushing articles about the rapist X42 and Hillary.

These idiots writing about the need to bring back the fairness doctrine have no idea how the broadcast industry works. They think they know everytrhing but the reality is these are just a bunch of charletians with the I.Q. of a pencil sharpener.

The Democrat party is a criminal enterprise and these bozos have very little to teach and an awful lot to learn. The public does not to want hear their B.S. and C.F. They need to learn to accept that and stop this Fairness doctrine B.S. and C.F.
Regards.

Hightower used to be on private radio stations. I've heard him. Unfortunately his radio shows came off like simplistic cartoons of reality and were unlistenable and so like with his liberal cohort, Mario Cuomo, his show sunk due to the RATINGS.

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