Sunday, August 5, 2012

In Memoriam: The Day The Truth Died

Kevin Binversie notes that today is the 25th anniversary of the day Ronald Reagan killed the Fairness Doctrine. Unsurprisingly, Binversie is rather jubilant, albeit rather petty and adolescent, about it:
Binversie
25 Years ago today, Pres­i­dent Ronald Rea­gan ended what was com­monly known as “The Fair­ness Doc­trine.” Since then, media has flour­ished in new and excit­ing ways — blogs, pod­casts, etc — that the FCC never even imag­ined in 1987. Also, the AM fre­quency has been saved by the talk radio format.

Mar­kets work when you let peo­ple decide what they want to lis­ten to and hear, not what the gov­ern­ment forced down their airwaves.

Also, since lib­er­als want it, it more or less proves how fas­cist (look up the def­i­n­i­tion, not crap RFK Jr. spews kid­dies) they are when it comes to media expo­sure, the 1st Amend­ment and free speech.
Now, given that Binversie is a paid toady for the Koch News Service, his attitude is not surprising. Likewise, it is not very surprising that he is also not very honest about it.

He claims that the almost exclusive domination of the AM airwaves by conservative squawk radio is the work of the free market at work.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

The reason for the explosion in squawk radio has nothing to do with its supposed popularity. In fact, when compared watt to watt, progressive radio is found to be far more popular.

So why is that conservative squawk radio dominates the AM airwaves?

Simple. The conservatives bought them all. Over the years, the conservatives have gotten the federal government to ease up on regulations that affect how many stations one owner can have. This allowed the conservative groups like Clear Channel and even Journal Communications to buy up scads of stations throughout the country, each one spewing out their propaganda day and night.

Of course, controlling the message and controlling the news has been one of the long term goals outlined in the Powell Memo. Killing off the Fairness Doctrine opened the door for them to get that control.

And that is why we now have pseudo-news networks like Faux News trying to tell people that last years protests were violent and lined with palm trees.

And as for Binversie's tirade about fascists - unless he was looking in his image in a mirror, he again is full of crap.

As has been repeatedly stated, even today, people aren't interested in shutting down the squawkers. Sue Wilson, who is on a crusade to restore balance to the airwaves, has repeatedly said that she feels the squawkers and their sponsors have rights. The only thing we want is for them to get back to the original intent which is for the radio stations to be in the public's interest, not just the corporate media's interest.

Then again, with people like Binversie and Charlie Sykes as their spokesman, one could see how giving the other side an even chance of getting their message out would seem like a death sentence to them. Not only are they liars, they're not very good ones or very smart ones.

11 comments:

  1. The only major network not spewing left wing propaganda is Fox. The rest of the networks have been in the Left's pockets for decades. Name calling, excuses and, blaming.. You sound like the president.

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    1. Actually, all the stations have conservatives on staff. The only one not to have anyone even slightly liberal is Fox. Then again, since you are obviously a Faux News/squawk radio fan, you are not interested in the truth.

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  2. "In fact, when compared watt to watt, progressive radio is found to be far more popular."
    Where do I find some of these highly popular progressive stations?

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    1. If you're not going to read the posts, please refrain from commenting. It saves me time and keeps you from looking even more moronic than usual.

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    2. So apparently, you cant back that statement up. Other than to blame corporate money.
      There might be a reality here for you to embrace, the majority of the public isn't as liberal as you are. Its not the commercials that keep listeners entertained and informed.

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    3. When Henry Ford first started making cars, he quipped that people could get cars in any color they want as long as it's black. The same principle applies here. When you don't allow people a choice, you cannot claim to be overwhelmingly popular. That's akin to be a dictator, but you seem OK with those too.

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    4. I listened to air america. But apparently nobody else did. I listen to Sly once in a while. NPR from time to time. There have been choices and still are. Its just that the people are choosing. A dictator would tell them what they have to listen to, more akin to what you want.

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  3. We have a community owned radio station and a corporate owned station that airs progressive talk on one of their channels. Both are immensely popular and provide much, much more factual information. Unfortunately, neither has the "reach" of the mega-watt conservative broadcasts. Still, in markets where they can be heard the beat the hell out of conservatives when it comes to popularity.

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  4. Conservatives are fascists. This one must be getting his talking points from the doughy pantload. The right wing noise machine that is spread from coast to coast would make Goebbels proud.


    WISN: Hearst
    WTMJ: Journal communications, right wing rag, radio station and tv station.
    WITI Local FAUX affiliate.

    There are no liberal news outlets. The unions are dead. The full frontal assault on education and the alienation that the ever tightening restrictions on voting will do to the citizens of this country are a right wing fascists wet dream.

    You wingnuts are right about radio. There is no left wing radio to speak of. But you are dead wrong about supposed liberal media. There is no liberal media in the Milwaukee market outside of the Shepherd Express.

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  5. 1987 was the end of the Fairness Doctrine. Rush Limbaugh was an unknown in radio, who moonlighted around Sacramento by writing a conservative column for a paper run by Richard Mellon Scaife. Limbaugh's show was taken national a few years later through WABC in New York.
    In November 1994 a lot of conservatives were elected to Congress, with Newt Gingrich taking over as Speaker of the House. Many attributed that Republican election victory to Limbaugh's radio show. Dick Armey was part of Newt's inner circle. Limbaugh at the time attributed their takeover to the thinking of "Hayek," meaning Friedrich von Hayek, the Austrian libertarian economist. That was Dick Armey's specialty. This was also the economics that the likes of the Koch brothers and the Bradley Foundation promoted. It was also what Paul Ryan would specialize in later studying in college.
    Since the 90s, Armey has worked with Koch brothers outfits associated with the Tea Party.
    The Tea Party I'm sure would have loved to have Newt Gingrich be the presidential candidate for Novemeber 2012, but instead the GOP has the Mitt flip-flopping machine.
    Controlling the media and representing itself as the voice of the people is very important, just ask Kevin Fischer or Christian what's-his-name at Journal Communications.

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  6. The Fairness Doctrine deals with broadcasting controversial issues, so that both sides get a fair chance to express themselves.
    The Republicans in recent years have moved to take public broadcasting off the air, denying them funding so they can't operate.
    In the 1992 Republican primaries, our local public broadcasting affiliate broadcast a very insightful program, one that the commercial stations wouldn't touch with a 1000 and 10 foot pole.
    The Wisconsin GOP was stuck between a rock and a hard place. They needed a spokesman to fend off efforts by KKK-man David Duke from Louisiana to be allowed to participate in the Republican primary for President.
    Who did they pick to represent the official Party view to stop Duke's campaign: Scott Walker.
    See this amazing (because it was ever broadcasted) to see what things were said:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wp3a4vEsJY

    I have never seen Scott Walker so speechless when arguing with anyone else trying to represent the GOP in their cause.
    Clearly Scott was having a hard time debating Duke's argument!

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