"If we still had the Fairness Doctrine, we would already have Single Payer"

I just now got aroud to listening to the last hour of Hartmann's Friday broadcast. You can do that http://www.620kpoj.com/cc-common/podcast/single_podcast.html?podcast=hartmann_nationwide.xml">here

His last caller was a guy from CA who started off with, "Thom I agree with you 98% of the time, but you are dead wrong about FD. The reason we get more fascist with every passing week is that the right wing controls 99.9% of the air time. Rush Limbaugh basically has 100% control over what is discussed in this country"

He then went on with a long, well-reasoned rant about how most of the damage done by the fascists over the last 20 years is attributable to hate radio and the Nazi media control.

Thom gave his usual pro forma arguments against FD, but they sound lamer and lamer as we rush into deeper fascist rule in the US.

I agree with the caller, disagree with THom

Discuss.

Single-Payer isn't even given a fair shake and discuss by congressional Democrats. If the media was responsible for covering it--when most American's currently don't understand it or know anything about it--its likely it would have far more momentum and support.

Without corporate ownership censoring and skewing news to suite their portfolios, its possible Americans would know that there is more than 1 alternative to a policy. Could you imagine an educated populace, instead of one brainwashed to agree with policy that helps media owners get richer?

and could be tailored to cable TV

It would simply require broadcasters to make time available to countervailing viewpoints.

Just one problem. You still need to have countervailing viewpoints to run. FD doesn't, and never did, require stations to actually produce the countervailing material. They just had to make time available so that others could run that material if they chose to do so. They could also arrange those viewpoints any way they wanted. Rush Monday to Friday, and then Liberal Saturday to "balance" it.

To produce that liberal material, which would be provided to the stations, you'd need a studio, phone systems, a crew, etc, etc, etc. That all costs a lot of money. That requires advertisers, and sales people. Running a liberal talk show professional enough to pull a consistent audience is NOT a cheap proposition (hence the storied financial problems that plagued Air America).

The fairness doctrine could force broadcasters to make countervailing viewpoints available. It never did force them to finance their production.

If broadcasters are forced to open up time for liberal shows, but none (or very few) are available, then the FD will have little to no impact on conservative radio. Even worse, if those liberal shows are run on otherwise ultraconservative radio stations, the odds that they'll draw any real audience, ad dollars, or have any real impact are essentially NIL.

And it's more dangerous than people saying things we don't want to hear.

Thom is right.

eom

and still it's not good enough for them --

good ideas keep breaking thru --

MEDICARE FOR ALL --

the cessation of the old one and the descent into craziness in this country go hand-in-hand. (Although the ever-growing American need to be constantly entertained certainly helped the madness along. Why have a balanced and civil discussion when you can rant and rave and shout other people down?)

"The reason we get more fascist with every passing week is that the right wing controls 99.9% of the air time. Rush Limbaugh basically has 100% control over what is discussed in this country"

And "Morning Joe", Fox, and CNN take care of the TV medium.

If the Bigger Banks hadn't come by untold Billions of dollars through Bernanke's and Geithner's Bailout monies, would there be the capital to have the endless ads?

The Big Insurers and the Big Banks are interlinked. The American people have turned the other way, letting the Evil Duo give away that dough, all because Bernanke/Geithenr were appointed by a Democratic President. Dems woul dhave neverlet a McCain/Palin team do this.

Now a lot of those bucks are buying television ads, defeating us Dems.

We elect our Senators and Congressmen to go to Washington and collectively create the best plan for the country. The right wing gas bags on AM radio want to circumvent the Constitution by forcing the work of Congress from a Republic to a straight Democracy. As Ross Perot would say 50% plus 1 wins the day, in other words - Mob Rule.

With the likes of Limbaugh and Hannity whipping their true believers into a froth, it becomes impossible for the legislative process to work.

Right wing radio needs to be shut down so that our government can get back to operating in the way the founding fathers intended