Hiya Taylor!

JANE!

which opened out on a conservative monopoly on radio, because the Democrats were still trying to figure out direct mail.

Perfect. Every office in every Democratic Party outlet should have that taped to at least one wall.

The Rightards don’t want to see an even field because they are afraid of The Mighty Wurlitzer getting muted.
God forbid the left should have a level playing field where we wouldn’t have to put up with slimeball hacks ie;Limpballs,O’Rielly etc. ad nauseum.

Hiya Bustednuckles, and you’re exactly right. Good idea, eRobin!

What ever opinion one has of the messenger, Kucinich is 100% right about this.
It, along w/ public campaign financing would really get to the nub of a lot of problems.

EPU’d from below:

For those who might have missed the “passing of the plate”
I refer you to this post. Our beloved Ladies of the Lake are in need of our help. It’s time to put our money where our values are. If you don’t have time to click through and read the post, just wander up towards the pay pal buttons above or find your checkbooks and fill an envelope that you can then send to:

The Fire Dog Lake Company
8033 Sunset Blvd. #966
Los Angeles, CA 90046

For all they do for us, it’s time for payback.

Anything we can do to help keep this cyber home and family healthy and prospering will keep all of our hopes alive.

Thanks to everyone for kicking in.

Wow, looks like the voir dire junkies decidered to go back to work.

Taylor, seems there’s no question that the toobz have changed the equation greatly, at least over time, and forever (until the cabal tries to lock it up again). But in the short term, with so many “voters” still unconnected, getting their views from the Faux sewers, it’s really good news that Kucinich announces a new committee to bring accountablilty back to the FCC.

I can remember when network news was a (relatively) public trust.

FAIRNESS!!!

kUCINICH!!!

Hate jocks cower behind a thin facade spewing words of rage and anger. Exposed, Limpballs, O’Liely the rest keep pounding their message to dumb down listener. If someone is having a car serviced and the work is audibly impaired, who’s responsible. Having once been involved in small radio projects, I took as a model the San Palo, Brazil model of neighboorhood projects that empowered women in healthcare, public safety, and justice. The message here? Decentralize or nationalize.

Thanks for this, Taylor. Les Kinsolving (yeah, the whackjob) just cornered Pony Blow during a presser about the Fairness Doctrine reintro, and it sure sounded like Pony was blind-sided.

Hope that Rep. Louise Slaughter is one of the folks pressing for this; she’d introduced under both the 108th and 109th Congresses the Fairness and Accountability in Broadcasting Act, which would have revisited ownership rules as well as restore the Fairness Doctrine to publicly-owned airwaves. (Unfortunately, both times the FAB Act was buried in committee by Repugs.)

That’s the part that the wingers don’t get: broadcast over television and radio is licensed by the government because the airwaves are communally owned by the American people. A license is issued for broadcasters to serve the public interest, NOT merely make a profit. If they only wanted free speech, a broadcaster could go to cable or internet which are not publicly owned venues per se.

The wingers who are badmouthing the Fairness Doctrine don’t also get that it has the support of roughly 70% of the public (if memory serves).

This is great and they are freaking out. The thought of another viewpoint being mandatory brings the winhnuts to their knees. You know when wingnuts get chapped when they troll madly with drooling rants. Rush is calling this censorship, big surprise eh?

The right wingnut hate machine has been at it for years and it would be refreshing to have some balance again, they will do everything to stop this from returning. They know it is just the begging of media reform that has been shelved by their cronies in Congress and the WH.

The ‘Fairness Doctrine’ was nulled precisely to put air in the bellows of the ‘Mighty Wurlitzer’, a quid pro quo agreed to by politicians and media group owners – ‘Deregulate us, and we’ll reinforce your social and economic agendas’, a never ending spiral of increasing the growth of money and power at the expense of public access to balanced information.

Bring it back, and America might (with other issues pending) be able to slow the cycle of cynical, self-satisfied jingo-jangling that enables privateers such as the current administration to maintain their atavistic deathgrip on mainstream public discourse.

Fairness Doctrine!!

If we win on Net Neutrality, in the long run that will be our Fairness Doctrine, because as long as everyone’s free to put up whatever content they want on the Web, and nobody gets in the way of users’ ability to freely choose to click to whatever content they want, we’ll have a level playing field. And that’s all we need to beat the socks off the big corporations.

But that’s the long run. For the next 15-25 years, there will still be a goodly chunk of people who get their news and commentary from broadcast, satellite, and cable TV and radio. For that era, we need the Fairness Doctrine, and we should push hard for it.

Amen, Crazy Horse. This issue is incredibly important to us. Republicans have been using radio to win elections. AA is terrific, as are all the other progressives I mention, but we need more on radio to combat the wingnut bs.

This is SO right on, to say nothing of the push to get Air America and Progressive Radio more generally off the radio! One of the most critical issues today (oh, and of course Iran, Iraq, the Scooter trial, spying, torturing, corruption, loss of the middle class, voting fraud). So many issues… so little time, but the tide IS turning.

Fabulous post!!!

great post, Taylor. These are important issues. I am glad to hear the new Congress will be addressing them, especially the Fairness Doctrine and net neurtality. I hope that means legislation with teeth, not just lip service.

You said that Fox’s program “24″ is not political content. I wonder if that is really true. I have never watched the show and don’t think I want to, but I saw a news report about 24 recently, I believe on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, which described the show’s content as political propaganda, helping to spread the fear of terrorism that has been this administration’s principal political weapon.

Maybe other readers familiar with the show (and thus better informed than I am) would have opinions about that.

Thanks everyone. Your interest in this subject is critical to making change happen. And frankly, neurophius, I think Jack Bauer is a Democrat.

Taylor, as a long time viewer of 24, I agree that Bauer is a democrat.

I expect that if we restored the Fairness Doctrine that it would be quickly hijacked by the wingnuts for their own ends. We’d have a TV special about creationism for every science program about evolution; we’d have global warming deniers; we’d have holocaust deniers (I guess we have those on CSPAN already). We’d have more bullshit, not less.

I’d rather see the media ownership rules fixed. A handful of corporations control almost the entire spectrum of media.

Chief Angry Cloud – We need to do both. But at the very least have a serious debate about radio and media consolidation, all in the light of day. If the debate is engaged we will see movement. In addition, we need progressives to SUPPORT progressive radio through listening and demanding more fairness. I also believe that Dem donor lists and progressive biz consortiums should be put together across the country to entice advertisers to back progressives through commercial advertising on their shows.

Quick technical point:

I hope the Congresspeople update their Fairness Doctrine bills to account for digital broadcasting. The days of airwaves and rabbit ears are fast coming to a close. It won’t do much good for the airwaves to belong to the People, if the cables belong to Sinclair.

Couldn’t Democrat supporters get their own radio stations and take on the right-wing shock jocks that way?

I was listening to shannity last night on the way home and I caught his “interview” with a congressman (dunno who) about this very topic about halfway through.

[You know the old “hold thy enemies closer” Sun Tzu thing.]

Now he normally interrupts, talks over, and cuts the mike on his guests but last night was as blatant as I have ever heard him.

His main blather was the freedom of speech part of the first amendment. He actually implored the congressman to recite the 1st amendment from memory to validate his argument.

His next blather was asking the congressman if he thought certain media outlets were liberal, as if that had any bearing at all.

Anyway, suffice it to say that shannity was completely unhinged and it was obvious to anyone listening that this is right-wing radio’s Achilles heel.

Press on with fairness!

And if you want a good laugh, maybe an mp3 exists of it somewhere, but I ain’t putting on the hip waders again to go look for it.

Suzanne @ 19 – It’s so obvious.

Dusty59 @
6

What ever opinion one has of the messenger, Kucinich is 100% right about this.
It, along w/ public campaign financing would really get to the nub of a lot of problems.

Four years ago, Kucinich was one of the only ones to speak out against the war in Iraq and Universal single-payer healthcare; these were two of the biggest planks in his platform.

Now, EVERYONE has hopped on the “This war is BAD” bandwagon and even the Governator is seriously consisdering health care for all.

I hope Dennis is as good at predicting where the country will be at this as he was four years ago! Gotta love the Dennis (Rhymes with Spinach) Kucinich!

Lucky for us, we already have our version of Buffy the vampire slayer. She is with us right now.

- Taylor Marsh LIVE! can be heard from 6-7 pm eastern – 3-4 p.m pacific, Mon.-Thurs, with podcasts available.

Take a bow, Taylor.

Usually the right wingers WANT to return to the good old days of Public Decency on the airwaves. But they don’t seem to realize that rush, orally, and wolfie ARE horribly indecent. And dangerous, unlike Janet & Paris and Brittany. sheesh!

I remember hearing Limbaugh on the radio in the early 90s and wondering how something so vile ever got on the air. More recently, I learned about the history of the Fairness Doctrine and the fact that it had been repealed. I did not realize until now that there was a connection between that repeal and the advent of the devil’s spew that characters like Limbaugh have polluted our airwaves with.

Bring it back! I am willing to give wingnuts equal time; the absurdity of their ideas will speak for itself when compared to the truths that we will be telling.

Please, how dare anyone question the Bush No Nazi Left Behind doctrine?

-GSD

Taylor Marsh @ 25

Suzanne @ 19 - It’s so obvious.

Heh, that’s what we used to say to each other about Xena: Warrior Princess! (but we weren’t talkin’ POLITICAL preference, if you know what I mean)

Wow! I was going to post this on the last thread when I saw that Taylor had a new post. And it fits right in. Evidently BushCo must’ve seen Imus this morning, as I did, when Imus and Fineman were giving high props to Ted Kennedy for his stance on Iraq.

My scenario: BushCo WATBs likely wailed “fairness” but didn’t dare send up Imus’ BFF Matalin now that the trial’s in play, so they went for their hole card [yes, deliberate typo. As in a-hole] the other Senator from CT, J-LIE.

So guys, just for fun, while we comment with Taylor and await Pach’s update, how about sending some love to Imus? Here’s the message I sent to: imusmail@wfan.com with copy to imus@msnbc.com

I saw on the MSNBC Imus page that Joe Lieberman is scheduled on your show Friday. I hope you’ll consider asking these two questions:

Why did you lie to the voters of Connecticut about bringing the troops home before the election?

Will you drive your children to the recruiters to sign up for this war, and encourage Bush to do the same with The Twins, so that Wyatt Imus [and my four-year-old grandson] don’t have to go years from now?

Oh, and for good measure, this one: Senator Lieberman, have you no shame?

Oh, and, Impeach Gonzales.

If people think the wingers aren’t freaking out about the progressive voice then why has Clear Channel been stripping Air America from it’s franchises around the country?

They killed it suddenly in Boston on Dec. 21. Efforts are being made to bring it back but it’s a tough slog. If Progressive talk can’t make it in Boston/Cambridge MA, where can it? CC didn’t advertise, they didn’t seek out local advertisers, they set it up for a fall. Then after the repugs lost the election, the CC folks started the purge. Are they afraid of us? You bet!

Prairie Sunshine:

I would want to add, “And tell me, Senator, how is that Connecticut for Lieberman independent party thing working out for you?”

I agree with Chief Angry Cloud…We’d have more bullshit, not less.

I remember when the fairness doctrine was in force, Dick Cavett interviewed a TV actor (forget who) who happened to also be running for a city council position in CT (I believe) where he lived. Network lawyers told Cavett that the “fairness doctrine” required Cavett to give this actor’s political opponent equal time on Cavett’s show…even though the original interview had zero discussion of the local political issues.

I also favor a revamp of the media ownership rules.

T, you’re right about Hannity.

Bustedknuckles, you’re making me blush!

Over at Kos yesterday, Kucinich’s candidacy was given an “ugh”, like why are we being bothered again with this little loser. Lots of answer back, I’m glad to say, But the dismissiveness of so many so-called progressives is really disappointing. It seems many progressives want the same thing the dlc’ers want, someone smooth, someone photogenic, a clinton redo. The only great president this country has had was Lincoln, who hid his face behind a beard so he wouldn’t frighten children. Obama puts me to sleep, Edwards makes me wish his wife was running and Gore ain’t in the fight. Progressives say they want real democracy, but then they won’t trust that democracy to elect Kucinich. Kerry didn’t lose to tinpot because he wasn’t as physically as attractive. Kucinich has been and continues to be out front on just about every progressive cause. If progressives will take his presidential run seriously, so will the country.

RevDeb at 33:

Fight back hard–Clear Channel tried this in Madison in November (kill the Air America affiliate) and there was a minor uprising that actually worked. Petitions, complaints, the usual things happened. Stephanie Miller and Ed Shultz (not AA shows, but very popular here) used lots of national air time to lend support.

From a pragmatic perspective, I think what saved the day was the business community that agreed to advertise. I’ve noticed a much more diverse group of advertisers recently.

Excellent post, Taylor, thanks.

I’m old enough to remember the Fairness Doctrine, test patterns and the National Anthem to end this broadcast day I think it helped a lot in that at least a nominal opposing opinion was presented. The possible renewal stands as a threat to Conservatives who prefer to pass their opinion as “the truth”

What we really need, in addition to restoring a form of the Fairness Doctrine, is an Accuracy Act. I’d love to see a screen crawl or profile sidebar on each guest appearing that lists the instances of censure, sanction and suspension for inaccurate claims.

By the way, what in the hell qualifies anyone to be titled a ‘terrorism expert’? Is there a testing and license process? There should be.

Moe never got away with hitting one Stooge more than another.

I’ll tell you what;

the two most important issues are the fairness doctine and corporate sponsorship of politicians

both allow corporations to purchase law

here’s how the conversation needs to be framed and here’s what the corporations do NOT want the people to understand;

the air waves are NOT theirs, they are OURS.

a corporation rents the right to use our stuff, at under OUR requirments, they DO NOT have the right to say or do whatever they want.

this is what most supporters of the corproations point of view don’t understand, they are led to believe a corporation should be able to say and do whatever they want since it’s their bussiness, but these people do not understand it’s NOT their bussiness, it’s OUR bussiness.

if a “liberal” wants to promote his point of view, a “concervative” wants a counterpoint and it is required.

if a “concervative” wants to promote corporate agenda, a “liberal” counterpoint is required

otherwise we are fed what the corporation wants us to hear and we are not given the information we need to discover the truth

so that’s the way the conversation needs to be framed;

IT’S OUR STUFF, THEY JUST GET TO USE IT, but they DON’T get to use it however they want to use it

if they don’t like those terms they don’t have to rent our stuff from us, we can surely find someone that will gladly rent our stuff at our terms

AP – The Pentagon has drafted a manual for upcoming detainee trials that would allow suspected terrorists to be convicted on hearsay evidence and coerced testimony and imprisoned or put to death.

OT- It’s been 6 hours….

Chief Angry Cloud @ 20

I expect that if we restored the Fairness Doctrine that it would be quickly hijacked by the wingnuts for their own ends. We’d have a TV special about creationism for every science program about evolution; we’d have global warming deniers; we’d have holocaust deniers (I guess we have those on CSPAN already). We’d have more bullshit, not less.

I’d rather see the media ownership rules fixed. A handful of corporations control almost the entire spectrum of media.

The problem, of course, being that you can’t fully reregulate what has been deregulated without showing grounds for large-scale antitrust suits and their resultant myriad legal jeopardies.

The Fairness doctrine as previously established did not require networks and media groups to give time for balanced rebuttal to viewpoints that flew in the face of empirical fact, like holocaust deniers for example. Nor do I suspect that such legislation revisited would entail a rigid system of ‘fair and balanced at all costs’, but rather, less demagoguery and deliberate distortion on the part of self-styled ‘prophets of the airwaves’…

Unlike in the ‘old days’ of news media where networks ran news divisions at non-profit financial levels to avoid the appearance of impropriety, we are now talking about profit-driven enterprises…If the large networks felt there was large money in creationist viewpoints, prime time fundievision would become a reality very quickly.

The fact that they do not, leaving such materials to the likes of CBN et al, is telling.

Madison AA supporters had a celebration party, heard on Rachel Maddow show.
I’m bummed that the Gonzales grilling wasn’t on cspan. Where else can I see it?

new thread but the Zed is already taken and that triumph is dedicated to Jane

‘The conservatives are freaked out about the Fairness Doctrine becoming a reality again.’

Which proves that, despite their constant complaining, they don’t really think that the broadcast media is too liberal.

martha @ 38

RevDeb at 33:

Fight back hard–Clear Channel tried this in Madison in November (kill the Air America affiliate) and there was a minor uprising that actually worked. Petitions, complaints, the usual things happened. Stephanie Miller and Ed Shultz (not AA shows, but very popular here) used lots of national air time to lend support.

From a pragmatic perspective, I think what saved the day was the business community that agreed to advertise. I’ve noticed a much more diverse group of advertisers recently.

Sadly, we don’t have the local advertising base here. AAR was on 2 low powered channels that cut out after dark. It had a following but not enough people knew about it. This is a much larger market than Madison and the folks here didn’t know what hit them until it was a fait accompli. That said, the petitions are circulating and there’s a yahoo group plotting and planning. I joined up, but way too many messages and all web based. I don’t use yahoo regularly so I’m way far behind in what’s happening.

This is a much bigger issue than Boston and Madison, it needs national attention.

In the mean time, I stream it through iTunes (the AAR website stream s*cks royally) and just bought into XM for the car. I also paid for premium last fall and podcast what I need to.

We all need to chip in for the premium if we value their service (just like we need to chip in here). Democracy doesn’t come cheap. The repugs have deep deep pockets. If our well endowed dems don’t want to step up, we need to collectively do so.

Watson @ 46

‘The conservatives are freaked out about the Fairness Doctrine becoming a reality again.’

Which proves that, despite their constant complaining, they don’t really think that the broadcast media is too liberal.

SUCH an obvious point and completely MISSED by most “concervatives” who swear there is a “liberal media”

puppets

Taylor, great post!

Spocko is back at his blog, of course; the link in this post is to BlogIntegrity, our group site, where he guest posted while his site was shut down, and where we hosted the sound clips he’d been ordered to remove.

Just wanted to be sure folks knew where to find Spocko, and that he’s back in business!

Just

check this out from think progress, you’re gonna LOVE this;

FISA court judge wants NSA order shared with Congress. As TPMmuckraker notes, the Bush administration “has refused to release any part of the order issued yesterday by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court authorizing NSA surveillance within the United States, saying doing so would risk exposing operational details.” But in a letter to Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Arlen Specter (R-PA), the presiding judge notes that she has “no objection” to the material being made available to Congress; it is the Attorney General who refuses to share it.

I don’t like the fairness doctrine. If the wingnuts start up a controversy about evolution, does that mean one has to give equal time to both sides of the argument, where one is clearly inferior scientifically?

-pm

Washington ’snubbed Iran offer’

Iran offered the US a package of concessions in 2003, but it was rejected, a senior former US official has told the BBC’s Newsnight programme.
Tehran proposed ending support for Lebanese and Palestinian militant groups and helping to stabilise Iraq following the US-led invasion.

But Vice-President Dick Cheney’s office rejected the plan, the official said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6274147.stm

Pm @ 51

I don’t like the fairness doctrine. If the wingnuts start up a controversy about evolution, does that mean one has to give equal time to both sides of the argument, where one is clearly inferior scientifically?

-pm

religion doesn’t get a political venue, we declare evolution is science and magic (creationsims) is not science

Huh?

Are you implying that conservafascists are at heart spineless, cowardly punks who will always pee their pants at the prospect of a fight that is actually fair?

Whooda thunk………

(((((Jane)))))

Taylor! Great post.

I sure wouldn’t mind voting for Kuchinich in my primary. Actually voting FOR someone, priceless.

Ed Schultz and Stephanie Miller, as well as the leader in progressive talk, Randi Rhodes, are making it in the commercial market, as are others.”

Don’t forget: Donahue was the HIGHEST rated show on MSNBC when he got axed.

Another great post, Taylor!

[No time to read all comments, so sorry if this has been pointed out already.]

The wingnuts contradict themselves as soon as they open their mouths to complain about the Fairness Doctrine.

First they say that mass media are thoroughgoingly LIBERAL.

Then they say they don’t want Fairness for opposing viewpoints to be heard.

Well — which is it?

If they can’t get their message out because the mass media are so liberal, then they should be jumping for joy at the opportunity to have their side of the story told.

They are bad faith actors. They lie with every breath.

TAylor, I left this on your blog as well:
If applying the fairness doctrine means that when an actor runs for political office (ahem, I live in Kullifohrnia), TV stations may not play his/her movies over and over again during an election cycle in which said politician is running without giving his opponent equal air time, them I’m all for it.

It really pissed me off that, during the gubernatorial race, Ahnie was on TV, like once a weekend, for months, and Angelides didn’t get anything near equal time. That’s not fairness, that’s blatantly unfair.

{{{{Jane!!}}}
{{{Kobe}}} {{{Kobe}}}(he must be beside himself.)

Oooooh! Does this mean that we can get Fox News, Hannity, Limbaugh, and O’Reilly off the air?!

I’m salivating at the possibilities…

Wanted to repost this from Taylor Marsh dealing with this issue:

“I love how ‘free marketeers’ claim that Rush Limbaugh and Fox News represent the (non existent) free market in content, because these two entities, as well as many others, DON’T MAKE MONEY!. They are bottomless pits, that the corporatistas throw money into, to flood the airwaves with their points of view, to push out other voices. Pennies on the dollar to mega corporations to keep ‘uncomfortable’ news and views out of the main points of access. If Rush and Fox had to truly compete, without subsidy, they would not survive. Let these programs compete, without said subsidies, for advertising revenue and see how well they do. They are the worst perpetrators of ‘corporate welfare’ and wouldn’t survive without outside dollars from GE or Disney’s other divisions to prop them up. Look at the revenue from their fig leaf ads and compare it with how much money that needs to be pumped in to them to keep them afloat and tell me about the ‘free market’.

Let’s see some real ‘free market’ action and see how pigs like Limabaugh and Hannity last.

That’s what you rightards really fear