Free Republic

“May you live in interesting times.” No one knows with certainty if this proverb is a famous Chinese curse or not. However, one can certainly accept the fact that these times are indeed interesting…meaning troubled…in many spheres including economics and international broadcasting. While the fine points of US international broadcasting are debated among a fairly small circle of interested participants and observers, the globalized financial markets appear to be poised on the brink of collapse. What’s the connection? Not long ago, a book was published with the title “Dow 36,000.” This book was authored by James Glassman, the most recent...

Coming to a radio or TV network near you - the sounds of silence, at least from conservatives like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. Same goes for Glenn Beck, Hugh Hewitt, Dennis Prager and Laura Ingraham and the rest of talk radio and TV. Whispers are growing louder that certain Democrats, a growing number of them, want to impose "balance" in broadcasting, otherwise known as the Fairness Doctrine, which was legislated into FCC law back in 1949 but dismissed in 1985 because, as Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. pointed out, it "chilled speech." It also ran counter to our First...

BBG Spreads Freedom and Democracy by: Melinda Zosh, May 20, 2008 America’s prominent news stations, CNN, Fox News, ABC, CBS, and NBC, broadcast to millions each day. But combined, none have as many viewers or as many hours of footage as the BBG—the Broadcasting Board of Governors. BBG is “the independent federal agency responsible for all U.S. government and government sponsored, non-military, international broadcasting,” according to the Broadcasting Board of Governors Web site. James K. Glassman, Chair of the BBG, said that although the BBG is telecast around the world, the organization focuses on three countries which are critical to...

RIVER FOREST, Ill. — The wife of radio legend Paul Harvey, Lynne Cooper Harvey died at her Illinois home Saturday morning after a year-long battle with leukemia, according to a statement from Harvey's office. The woman he called "Angel" was 92. Lynne developed and edited her husband's best-known feature "The Rest of the Story." A director, writer and editor, and the producer of her husband's radio program, she was the first producer ever inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame. Among her brainchilds were including news features within hard-news broadcasts, and the humorous "kicker," which became a Paul Harvey trademark....

Somebody in the Huckabee camp made the mistake of insulting the leader of the conservative movement in the U.S., Rush Limbaugh. Rush responded on Friday's show and basically ripped the Huckabee camp a well-deserved new one. Whoever made the original comments clearly has not been paying attention. Some are questioning whether the Huckabee campaign can survive the shellacking it got on Friday's program. Huckabee is trying to stop the bleeding: SIOUX CITY, Iowa — The best-talking Republican politician in America has a message for the best-talking conservative voice in the country: Let's talk to one another. Mike Huckabee, taking questions...

Vin Scully, the great broadcaster for the Los Angeles Dodgers, turns 80 years old today. He began his career with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1950. When the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles in 1958, Scully moved with them. 8 seasons in Brooklyn, 50 seasons in LA. 58 seasons and counting. Wow. Scully's longevity is remarkable, but even more remarkable is his unique style. It transcends just sportscasting. It is artistic broadcasting at its best. You don't have to be a sports fan to appreciate him. You can read about his style in this fine Salon article There are more articles...

The BBC has cancelled a plan for a Comic Relief-style day of programmes about environmental issues a week after it came under fire from two of its most senior news and current affairs executives over impartiality issues surrounding the TV special. Planet Relief would have highlighted concerns about global warming and encouraged viewers to take part in a mass "switch-off" to save energy. Ricky Gervais and Graham Norton were among the celebrities mooted to take part. However, it faced criticism from the BBC head of TV news, Peter Horrocks, and the Newsnight editor, Peter Barron, at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International...

ap.org is link only.STORY

I commented below on a report that ZDF the German equivalent of the BBC was starting with programming aimed at a Muslim audience (and scroll down a small way). Now the General Secretary of the Bavarian Christian Social Union has criticised the ZDF plans.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 6, 2006 FCC ISSUES ORDER ON REMAND ADDRESSING EARLIER BROADCAST TELEVISION INDECENCY DECISIONS Washington, D.C. – The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today released an Order addressing several television indecency decisions that were remanded to the Commission by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. As part of its March 15, 2006 Omnibus Indecency Order, the FCC originally found that the broadcasts of “The 2003 Billboard Music Awards,” “The Early Show,” “The 2002 Billboard Music Awards,” and several episodes of “NYPD Blue” were apparently indecent and profane. Penalties were not proposed, however, because...

BURHIZ — The voices and the faces of freedom are making their way onto the airwaves in the Diyala Province for the first time since coalition forces arrived in 2003. The Independence Radio and Television news station, an Iraqi broadcast station in Burhiz, began broadcasting television and radio programs Sept. 22. The station hopes to help build a media infrastructure ran by and for the local public. “I really do believe that (freedom of the press) is the key to a peaceful, democratic Iraq. I think they’re off to a good start here in Diyala,” said Maj. Mike Humphreys, public...

Targeting Tomlinson How the Democrats are trying to purge Bush’s conservative pick from the liberal world of public broadcasting. By Stephen Spruiell For nearly six years, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson has fought his battles mostly on his own. Earlier this month he survived a Democrat-led attempt to oust him from the Broadcasting Board of Governors after a State Department inspector general’s report criticized his conduct as chairman. But the same scurrilous charges upon which the report is based have led Republicans in the Senate to put off his re-confirmation hearing until early next year, at which point he will have to...

CBS To Air Profanity-Laden Program It is time to tell CBS and the other networks that enough is enough!. Not content with all the profanity already on TV, CBS has decided to air the profanity-laden unedited version of "9/11" on Sept. 10. The decision by CBS is a slap in the face to the FCC and Congress, which recently raised indecency fines to $325,000 per incident. "9/11," which will be shown in prime-time, contains a tremendous amount of hardcore profanity. CBS has stated they have not, and will not, make any cuts in the amount and degree of profanity. CBS...

Chandler family may actively pursue change in management (Crain’s) — Chandler Trusts, the second-largest holder of Tribune Co. stock, is calling for an independent management review after questioning the leadership abilities of the media conglomerate’s executive team. In a letter filed Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Chandler family strongly recommended that the Tribune’s board of directors appoint an independent committee to evaluate management and to “promptly execute alternatives to restore and enhance stockholder value.” The Chandler family is also calling for the media company to spinoff its broadcasting properties, among other actions. Related story: Chandler family calls...

--House panel backs budget reductions-- WASHINGTON -- House Republicans yesterday revived their efforts to slash funding for public broadcasting, as a key committee approved a $115 million reduction in the budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that could force the elimination of some popular PBS and NPR programs. On a party-line vote, the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees health and education funding approved the cut to the budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes money to the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio. It would reduce the corporation's budget by 23 percent next year, to $380...

Democratic Party Chair Howard Dean has contradicted his party’s platform and infuriated gay rights advocates by saying the party’s platform states “marriage is between a man and a woman.” “Howard Dean puts his foot in his mouth so often that he should open a pedicure wing in the DNC during his tenure,” Log Cabin Republicans President Patrick Guerriero said Wednesday. “Howard Dean’s positions on LGBT issues have changed more often than the weather in New England, where he’s from.” National Gay & Lesbian (Socialist) Task Force... Foreman said in response to Dean’s “pandering and insulting interview” with the Christian Broadcasting...

This past Monday, CBS, otherwise known as See? BS!, Al-Jazeera West, and the Corrupt Broadcasting System, proved once again that it is nothing but a shameless propaganda tool of the Democrat party, by releasing the results of a poll it rigged... uh... conducted recently showing that President Bush's popularity rating has plummeted to an all-time low of 34 percent. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/27/opinion/polls/main1350874.shtml

A ripple of indignation spread across the campus of the University of Maryland, College Park yesterday over news that its student-run radio station, which has been broadcasting since 1937, might be unceremoniously forced off the air by a more powerful station in Baltimore.

It is no secret that America's international-broadcasting institutions have been sadly lacking in strategic vision for years. In fact, such institutions are among Washington's most dysfunctional. Efforts to make them more efficient in the "war for hearts and minds" inevitably get stymied by political infighting, tight budgets and internecine warfare among the organizations. News last week suggests that the U.S. government is again about to shoot itself in the foot in this vital front of the public diplomacy in war against terrorism by eliminating Voice of America's English-language service. Not all the news is bad, though. The good news...

I found it rather ironic that, on the very day of President Bush's State of the Union address, in which he said that the US is "addicted to oil", we learned that US government international broadcasts are cutting about 90,000 transmitter hours per year. High-powered international broadcast transmitters need a lot of fuel, and in most cases it's oil. The two are not directly connected, of course, but it's a coincidence that reminds us just how energy-inefficient broadcasting, and especially international broadcasting, can be. I was a shortwave listener and DXer for many years before coming to work at Radio...

The cable network's Headline News outlet is poised to give a primetime slot to radio talk-show host Glenn Beck. He goes against everything that CNN has claimed to stand for -- a first-rate pedigree, a non-biased point of view and understated excellence. Beck's chief qualification is that he personifies controversy. Then again, who do I think I'm kidding with this high-minded blather? OF COURSE, controversy alone is enough. In fact, it's PLENTY. If Beck catches on with his own unique audience, he'll get a shot to go on CNN. Then CNN will reckon that Bill O'Reilly will no longer be...

Turkey and Denmark clash over press freedom Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan boycotted a joint press conference with the Danish leader in protest at the presence of a Kurdish TV station on Tuesday (15 November), highlighting European values on free speech. "There is a fundamental difference between Turkey and Denmark in matters of freedom of expression," the Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said at the press conference his Turkish counterpart avoided. The Turkish prime minister was visiting the Danish capital Copenhagen as the first stop in a tour around EU capitals to discuss the prospects of Turkey's EU membership....

In one of talk radio's oddest recent moves, the syndicated "Savage Nation" host has made a public call for several new "sidekicks" and even a possible co-host. What in the world would possess Savage to do this, the Radio Equalizer can't imagine. From Savage's Paul Revere Society website:........ (snip) ......As part of its "C-SPAN 25 Years- Viewer Call-ins" series, Air America's Randi Rhodes was teamed up with Salem's Janet Parshall to debate talk radio's influence. Airing Saturday afternoon, it was initially tame. Parshall made a few basic points, while Rhodes had great difficulty getting into the conversation's flow. In terms...

A nun in full By George Weigel Three years ago, when Raymond Arroyo told me that he was going to write the biography of Mother Angelica, the formidable foundress of EWTN, I had to admit to some skepticism. Was there enough of a story there to warrant a full-scale biography? Could an EWTN employee tell the story frankly, fairly, and without premature hagiography? This past April, in Rome, Raymond gave me a copy of the proofs of his book. Five nights of reading later, my initial skepticism had completely abated. Mother Angelica: The Remarkable Story of a Nun, Her Nerve,...

Clear Channel, Entercom and Local Independent Stations Combine Resources to Provide Continuous Information to New Orleans and the Surrounding Area New Orleans, LA – September 2, 2005 – In response to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the radio groups serving New Orleans and the surrounding area have come together to form the United Radio Broadcasters of New Orleans. The United Radio Broadcasters of New Orleans is a joint effort to provide the region with the most complete, reliable and consistent radio broadcast of emergency recovery and relief information. It is comprised of stations operated by Clear Channel Radio (NYSE: CCU),...

Let's not give the CBC any credit for its commentary-free football broadcasts, basically because they were born out of the kind of desperation that arises when you lock out your staff. But the network might inadvertently help revolutionize sports broadcasting. That doesn't mean other networks will air games without announcers, not even after they calculate the cost savings. But we can hope that somebody might learn from this; mainly that the public wants less talk. One of the fascinating things that came out of last Saturday's announcer-free game was the number of viewers who praised the lack of verbiage. A...

ANGST AND NETWORK news go together like — oh, like Simon and Garfunkel, whose popularity peaked around the same time that Walter Cronkite was signing off with the comforting fiction "that’s the way it is." For more than a quarter of a century, the audience for the three evening network newscasts has been both shrinking and aging — leading to widespread speculation that, someday, television news as we know it will cease to exist. Lately, though, angst has given way to full-scale, hyperventilating, stampede-the-exit-doors panic. SNIP Thus, more than 50 years into the television era, television news is at a...

Cindy Sheehan, Rush Limbaugh, and CBSIt isn't Cindy Sheehan - she's no more significant than I am. The problem is the broadcasters who get her to stand on her son's coffin and use it for a soapbox. And it isn't even the broadcasters, but the sheeple who would take offense at the idea that the broadcasters should lose their priveldge - not their right, but their privilege - to transmit at particular frequencies at particular places. And the reason they should lose their privileges is that those privileges - denied to you and me but given to the government's pets...

WHETHER it is to do the dishes, clean the car or vacuum the living room, men now have an answer to their wife's war cry that they never listen: it's not me, darling, it's my brain. Scientists now have discovered that women's voices are more difficult for men to listen to, and process information from, than the voices of other men. Researchers at the University of Sheffield tracked activity in the brains of 12 men while playing recordings of different voices. The results showed that there were startling differences in the way the brain responded to male and female sounds....

The pro-terrorist Al-Jazeera International will debut early next year as a 24-hour English-language news network headquartered in the Middle East. And efforts to bring the network to the U.S. have been "very interesting and extremely encouraging," according to Commercial Director Lindsey Oliver. At launch the network will have a staff of "hundreds," said Oliver, a former director of CNBC Europe. The advertising-supported network will operate out of four broadcast centers – Washington, London, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia - and Doha, Qatar, its headquarters. The international version of Al-Jazeera, which has been accused by Washington of having an anti-American, pro-terrorist bias,...

Congress is once again debating the budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which partially funds the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR). Public broadcasting doesn’t require fine-tuning. Like most other remnants of the Great Society, it needs to be killed. Much of the discussion centers on the question of public broadcasting’s bias. That question was settled long ago. PBS’ and NPR’s programming has had an obvious leftist tilt since their inception. In 1969, PBS carried a documentary on the ongoing struggle in Vietnam. The program was produced in - surprise, surprise - Communist North Vietnam. A...

Many commented on the fact that, on the day of the London bombings, the BBC referred over and over again to these acts as terrorism and to the perpetrators as terrorists. This was in striking contrast to its refusal to use the term terrorist when reporting terrorism in Israel. When a bus full of innocent people was blown up in Bloomsbury, it seemed, the perpetrator was a terrorist but when a bus full of innocent people was blown up in Jerusalem the perpetrator was a ‘militant’ or even ‘fighter’. Now, however, it seems that the BBC has had second thoughts...

Opening a new battle with the White House, Senate Democrats on Wednesday abruptly blocked the approval of President Bush's nominee for a top public diplomacy job, charging that the administration had injected partisan politics into the drive to improve the United States' image overseas. The nominee, Dina Powell, the White House personnel director, had been expected to win broad approval to become deputy under secretary of state for public diplomacy, to be the second-in-command to Karen P. Hughes in charge of repairing the United States' reputation, especially in the Muslim world. But in what was to have been a routine...

Kenneth Tomlinson, a Republican who chairs. Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) in the U.S. that controls both the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR) caused quite a stir when he hired a consultant to monitor the television network for balance. Tomlinson, not unlike many others, feels that the public broadcaster has tilted too far to the left. The New York Times reported that the consultant is monitoring Now with Bill Moyers (that is now without Bill Moyers) and counting how many of the show’s guests are anti-Bush, anti-business and anti-Tom Delay. Any action to provide better balance...

The emerging state of U.S. radio broadcasting Editors Note: This is the second in a series of periodic stories about free expression in arts and media under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The first story, about banned books, was printed Feb. 24. By CONNIE KORBEL Of the Advocate - Radio has touched our lives in predicable ways for as long as anyone can remember. Its hard to imagine communications without acknowledging how radio connects us with the world, near by and far reaching. One of radios strengths is that it cuts across all demographics and peripheries, while it...

Why doesn't F.Lee Levin sub for Rush next week while El Rushbo visits the troops in Afghanistan? Roger Hedgecock is okay but "The Great One" is on his own plain.

Despite all their idealistic rhetoric about "tolerance," liberals are among the most intolerant individuals. Their blatant attempts to suppress free thought and speech are regularly found in the public school classrooms and on the college campuses of America, where social change agents masquerading as teachers and professors attempt to impose a rigid standard of politically correct leftist orthodoxy on their impressionable students. But sadly, the thought police have now spread their influence beyond the realms of academe and into the broader world of media and business. Consider the recent campaign of extortion waged against Staples, the giant office products supplier,...

Lots in the news this month. But are we really receiving news or are we receiving conjecture disguised as news? As a retired journalist, I can recall the days when, under strict orders, we could only write facts for newspapers. Oh, of course there were the editorial pages and the famous columnists. It was on these pages that opinion lived and thrived. Even gossip was permitted but generally only by a Hollywood reporter or what was called a gossip columnist --- Louella Parsons, Hedda Hopper, and Walter Winchell come to mind. Stray from the editorial pages and any reporter or...

Her first effort is expected in 2006In an unexpected move, King World CEO Roger King has turned over talk-show development for the giant syndicator to the queen of talk shows and his No. 1 star, Oprah Winfrey. Oprah's first show is likely to debut in the fall of 2006. King declined to elaborate on plans, saying it's too early in the process to comment. It's an unusual move for King, who rarely admits that someone can do a job better than he can. “The person who develops the next hit will probably be Oprah Winfrey,” he says. King is an...

DU has just done all of us a great service. In their attempt to censor Sinclair Braodcasting's effort to broadcast "Stolen Honor" they've posted the most extensive list of email links to Sinclair, its advertisers, and various governmental agencies, like the FCC, that's probably available. This is the link: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1036078&mesg_id=1036078 Let's have some fun and use their own weapon againt them. I've already used the email addresses on the DU link to send the following message to Sinclair: "Dear [name of Sinclair official]" "Out of an admittedly perverse interest in looking at things like train wrecks in progress, I went...

Time to Freep another poll. Should John Kerry respond to the charges made by POW's in the Documentary?

LAST week's seminar in Athlone on the ongoing Review of Radio Station Licensing in Ireland saw proposals to increase the number of radio licences being given out, to speed up the system of awarding licences and alsofor a new appeals process for stations which lose their licences. So far, so good. But what about the insistence of Dermot Ahern, Minister at the relevant Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, that he has again ruled out any special concession to Christian groups in Ireland for their own radio stations? If Irish Muslims wanted their own radio station, you can be...

With the success of "The Passion of the Christ" still reverberating throughout Hollywood while viewers increasingly tune into digital cable as an alternative, it's not surprising that TBN gains favor among new viewers as the family-friendly network.

Civic Group Demands Free North Korea Radio be Shut Down The Unification Alliance for the 6.15 Joint Declaration and Peace (Korean: Tongil Yeondae) held a press conference Thursday in front of Free North Korea Radio (www.freenk.net) in Mok-dong, Seoul demanding that "slanderous broadcasts about North Korea be suspended immediately." Members of the North Korea Democratization Network protest against a press conference held by a civic organization called the Unification Alliance for the 6.15 Joint Declaration. The civic organization urged Free NK, an Internet radio station run by North Korean defectors, to stop its broadcasts. Free North Korea Radio is...

WASHINGTON — America's efforts to counteract the ill effects of Arabic satellite station Al Jazeera (search) appear to be paying off. The first ratings are in for Al Hurra (search) — the U.S.-based Arabic language television station that just went on the air in February, and they look promising. "Al Hurra" means "the free one" in Arabic. From its studios in Springfield, Va., it broadcasts news and public affairs programming throughout the Middle East and is available on all the same satellites where its long-standing competitors, Qatar-based Al Jazeera and Al Aribiya (search) are seen. The idea is to counter...

“You remember things like WLIB’s logo ‘Keeping the business in the family,’” Irwin Claire, co-director of the Queens-based Caribbean Immigration Services said. “You remember that you used to hear comments like, ‘Rip the knob off your radio, because you wake up and go to sleep with WLIB on the dial.’ “I put it in perspective,” Claire added wistfully, as he spoke about the sense of regret and offense many feel about the abruptly announced scheduling changes at New York’s radio station WLIB-1190 AM, which as of March 31 will help launch “Air America Radio,” the new, predominately white, liberal talk-radio...

Some 50 gunmen belonging to Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, raided the offices of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation in Khan Yunis Saturday night, demanding that they be employed by the Palestinian Authority security forces. This is the fourth incident of its kind in Khan Yunis in recent months. The Fatah gunmen have on previous occasions gone on a rampage inside the headquarters of PA Governor Hosni Zu'rub. Witnesses said the armed activists who stormed the offices of the PBC ordered all the employees to leave, demanding that Zu'rub fulfill his promise to absorb them in various branches of...

Albuquerque, NM – Congresswoman Heather Wilson at a hearing today compared Viacom, owner of CBS and MTV, to Enron for demonstrating bad corporate behavior by airing the Super Bowl halftime show that included indecent broadcasts. Rep. Wilson, a cosponsor of the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2004 (H.R. 3717), made the following statement at today’s hearing of the House Telecommunications and Internet Subcommittee: “I was visiting my mother when the Super Bowl was on and called home just before halftime. We are very restrictive about television watching at our house, but we have a sports fanatic fourth grader who asked...

Did anyone see Joe Namath's sideline interview with the female reporter-babe during the second quarter of the Pats-Jets game? She was asking him about Chad Pennington, and he talked to her like Chad was going to lead them to a championship...of course, the Jets aren't going anywhere now...and his speech was very deliberate and slow. "He's either drunk or he has some kind of disease", I said to my mate. The very next question, the woman (I didn't catch her name) asked him about how great it was being a QB as a Jet...and Namath started smiling and leaning around...

Ed Schultz of KFGO in Fargo is being financed by U.S. Senate Dems to start a liberal talk show, supposedly to become the left's answer to Rush Limbaugh. He hasn't even started yet, but already he's having problems with the truth. ED SCHULTZ WATCH: Ed Schultz, the left's answer to Rush Limbaugh, and pal to Byron Dorgan and our own Tom Daschle, claims to be the recipient of a Peabody award and a two Marconi awards. On "Scarborough Country," he said the following: "I’m a proven talk show host. I have got a Peabody. I have got a Marconi." On...