I usually don't post on a story already covered here but I'd like to build on Shamanic's post in response to the relentlessly insipid Jeff Goldstein and the rest of Wingtopia who have their knickers in a knot over this report that reveals "conservative" talk radio programming is wrongfully monopolizing the public airwaves.
I love how these wingnuts are thumping their chests, crying out about the suppression of the free market while simultaneously demanding that their favorite hatemongers be protected from open competition. And they have good reason to be so terrified of the liberal voice. As progressive radio host Ed Schultz points out:
I beat Sean Hannity in Denver. I beat him in Seattle. I beat him in Portland. I beat in San Diego. How many markets do I have to beat Hannity in before I get 200 or 300 stations? It’s an ownership issue. … The fact is, it’s market opportunities and liberal talkers, progressive talkers are being held to a totally different standard than conservatives.
I find the prevailing meme the wingers are promoting, that the liberals are trying to silence the "truth-challenged" conservative rage machine, rather comical. What part of Fairness do they not get? Nobody is trying to take the hate jocks spittle flecked microphones away. By all means, let the malicious idiots shriek to their heart's content. The Fairness Doctrine will simply ensure that the seven rich white guys who literally own the media, can no longer deny their opponents equal air time.
It's painfully apparent that the only ones who fear equal access to the public airwaves are those bloated bigots who benefit from the right wing noise machine. Probably since the only reason they rose to prominence in the first place is because Reagan revoked the Fairness Doctrine in order to build their echo chamber free from competition. Restoring the Fairness Doctrine would only mean they have to protect their ratings in a fair fight for market share.
If they're so bloody sure they have a corner on that, then why are soiling their trousers at the mere thought of having to fight fair to keep it?
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