Media Matters poking limbaugh with a sharp stick

limbaugh lashed out at Media Matters yesterday, displaying his fear of the FAIRNESS DOCTRINE in so much babbling. Why do conservatives fear fairness?

http://mediamatters.org/items/200704170002

So a fat assed, drug addicted cowardly slob has a difficult time hearing the truth. I think he's a candidate for therapy. limbaugh probably fears for his job because he knows there is only one way he can make a living.

Good for Media Matters.

and I bet Brock is having a good laugh at Limbaugh's hissy fit.

I keep seeing reference to this "fairness doctrine" but have to admit I dont see how it changed media.
How far does it take fair? Is that fair as in "fair and balanced"?
I have always focused on the concentration of media aspect (few outlets owning everything) as the culprit for why media is so .... umm, what it is now.
How does the "fairness doctrine" put media back on course?
What is it exactly? Any idea?

8643

Guess Im lazy. Was hoping someone would recap. My thinking is if Reagan hated it, it must have been good but then I am reminded of terms like "fair tax" :)

and to operate in the best interest of the community.

It also limited how many radio and tv STATIONS COULD BE OWNED BY THE SAME COMPANY (Shift lock error)and how many they could own in the same city. If any person determined the station was not acting in the best interest of the community that person or group could sue and if the suit was won the station could loose all of its property. A very costly situition, so stations were on guard to stay in line. yOU COULD NOT BROADCAST INFOTAINMENT (DAMN) you had to be truthfull or risk loosing all, and some station owners did in fact loose all.

I can tell you as one who was in broadcasting for several years that much has changed with 4 companies owning all the Radio and TV stations in the country. There is no decent as compared to Viet Nam, do you know how many anti war/government songs have been recorded? You dont hear that much today. tHEY DETERMINE WHAT WE WILL LISTEN TO (I really hate the shift lock key!)and they arent held to tell us truth.

But there is more to it than that. Really check it out and make it your battle cry

"Restore the Fairness in Broadcasting Doctrine" the first thing we do!

8643

Adopted by the FCC in 1947, it simply stated that if a station chose to air subjects of controversy, it had to make time available for opposing view points. It has often been confused with the Equal Time provisions, which provide that if a station provides air time to a candidate out side of legitimate news or paid advertising, it must make equal time available to the opposition. Equal Time was why stations didn't air Reagan movies, and why Pat Buchanan always quit working as a commentator when he ran for President. However, there never was an equal time requirement in the Fairness Doctrine.

While the 1996 TelCom act opened the path to 4 companies swallowing up most of the radio stations in the country, killing the Fairness Doctrine in 1986 by an opinion of Bork and Scalia (and a later veto by Reagan when Congress passed it as a statute rather than an administrative rule), opened the way for AM propaganda. While Limbaugh and his ilk bleat that it would force them off the air, that's not really true. It would require the stations that carry them to provide at least some time for opposing view points. However, there's a reason that Limbaugh never debates. He knows that propaganda needs a vacuum. It can't exist if the listeners can get the truth. So while he could stay on the air, he would likely wither away ultimately, and he knows it.

The adoption of the Doctrine prevented the rise of propaganda machines. Stations didn't want to deal with the issue, so most just avoided controversy. Now the entire AM band is nothing but. Reinstitution would require stations to either drop the propaganda, or try to figure out how to satisfy a Doctrine that requires other views, but doesn't (and really shouldn't) specify what they must be, or when, and for how long, they should air.

Thanks. I knew I could count on you guys.
It sounds to me like there are two pieces of this puzzle that are working together to create this pork soda excuse of a free press.
My thinking is that the repeal of this fairness act in itself wouldn't have been so evil, until it was combined with the Telecom act. Competition usually evens the plain.
I have this squeamish feeling when looking at the term "fair" because I wonder who gets to decide what suffices. Without consolidation I believe the general public would have had the priviledge but instead we have to beat the media on the head with a story until they bleed, before they will cover it.
Guilt by omission is just as bad as the inverse.
Any chance of repealing the Telecom Act?

Reagan and his enablers said that, with the "fairness doctrine" in place, the media was extremely biased in the "liberal" leanings.

The "Fairness Doctrine" was put in place so that (within reason) both sides of an issue would be presented to the public.

In Bizarro World, that meant that Reagan wanted the industry to be deregulated, which would allow the "balanced" aspect of putting a liberal against a conservative on the air to be eliminated, letting "the liberal media" to be able to put ONLY LIBERAL viewpoints on the air. :silly: :eyes: This "logic" ran counter to what they seemed to want.

Shortly after elimination of the "Fairness Doctrine", Right-Wing radio was unleashed ...

You can tell they've REALLY wound him up - big time.

There's so much juicy twaddle in the Limbaugh quotes, but his assertion that "We didn't hear about Bill Clinton's abuse of women from people outraged by that" defies belief... I mean, where do you begin ???!?

Instead of airbrushing history, the loony Republican wing seems to be trowelling the revisionist paint on like it's going out of fashion! - How "Stalinist" is that, PigMan?

You guys might enjoy this.... finally up on YouTube.

JesusLand

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seUvYO0IC4I

- David

8643

86 Cheney first!

I'm not being self riteous, I've included the fat adjective in my tirades against him plenty.

Just some food for thought. I'm all wacked out because of the VA Tech thing. Just sick about it, thinking about everything differently, can't help it.

The conservative movement is history. The November elections proved the point. All the RW radio propagandists have left is desperate grasping at straws. It's getting to be where it's fun listening to them on the radio. You can hear the desperation in their voices.

It's time for OxyRush to retire to the Dominican Republican where he can hang out with the boys. And when OxyRush hangs out with the boys, he really hangs out with the boys.