If Keith Olbermann was on the radio every day for the last 24 years...

like Limbaugh... and we had people like Keith and Rachel Maddow on roughly 50% of the cable and broadcast TV networks in this country since 1984... Do you really think we would be in the hell of a mess we are now ?

I just watched Keith Olbermann from tonight. And my answer is HELL NO. The American people have been BRAINWASHED by the deliberate rw'ing of the news.

The Fairness Doctrine ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairness_Doctrine , for a START to your research ) is NOT about silencing the right wing or despicable Sean Hannity or loathsome Rush Limbaugh or heinous Bill O'Reilly. It is about giving the American public an EASY way to be halfway informed about issues without having to subscribe to the New York Times or The Nation or Mother Jones, etc. If you think the airwaves belong ONLY to the person or persons who bought the broadcast rights, then this does not apply. It takes a hell of a lot of leaflets door to door to combat millions of dollars in paid right wing advertising on television and radio networks.

I cannot comprehend serious opposition to this doctrine. It is NOT about silencing anyone! The airwaves, theoretically, are a public trust. Or have we surrendered those also to the highest right wing bidder ?

As for forcing Sean Hannity onto "left-leaning" broadcast outlets, I say TURN HIM OFF. Let the knuckleheads watch him. If someone watches Olbermann and Maddow and then watches Hannity and Limbaugh and decides for them... then they are hopeless, truly.

By the way, my mind is made up on this issue.

/rant off

they started buying up and consolidating all the media in the country, and then manipulated, used influence, lobbying and lots of money to get rid of the fairness doctrine. It was all part of a big plan....the common name for this is FASCISM.

The people who own the media now do not want any change to the status quo...and as long as they have lobbyists, money and the influence of the media itself....things will not change.

stations that repeatedly and unabashed spread lies- false statements of fact should not only be compelled to issue corrections, but warned, fined- and if they continue- then lose their lucrative licenses come renewal time.

This can be done quite objectively- and would apply to any to any and all political persuasions.

Take John Stossel for example- the man makes up data out of thin air and outright lies to his audience. That's basically perpetrating a fraud against the American people, an in no way comports with the public interst standard that broadcasters are required to follow.

and I'm John Stossel and that is why I'm pissed off.

Jokes aside, I agree. We need to bring back fairness and factuality to the media.

We have the internet. The internet is the future, you know.

The one radio station that carried Thom Hartmann and a local liberal talk-show host (Lynn Cullen), suddenly went to a "business" format over Labor-Day weekend.

At about the same time, Comcast put MSNBC in some obscure channel you have to pay extra for.