Back Talk

That’s exactly what our own Jack Jamison does in his article, “Talk Radio lacks a Liberal Perspective.” I am disappointed in Jack who, as an old hand in the information business, should appreciate that any form of censorship or control of ideas is not the answer. Jack quoted a line - I assume he would be embarrassed to make such a silly statement himself - from a Sacramento Bee article by Sue Wilson, “Why are corporate dollars the sole arbiter of what information people get to hear on publicly owned airwaves." For starters, does anyone want to take a wild guess at where Sue Wilson stands in the political spectrum? Only desperate left-wingers, such as Dennis Kucinich and a few other Congressional Lefties have tried to re-institute the jokingly name “Fairness Doctrine” which would use government fiat, place a bureaucrat in control, tell the networks what and how much of liberal versus conservative radio they can air, and essentially destroy talk radio. Jack knows that corporations do not and will not let political feelings get in the way of the bottom line, and the bottom line is that corporations syndicate and put on the air radio programs that bring in the most listeners who then hear the commercials, buy the products, and make a profit for everyone. Liberal Democrats have struggled for years trying to make a go of Liberal talk radio, ala Air America, the dopey stand-up comedian who is running for congress from Minnesota and whose name escapes me, and many others. Al Gore and other deep pockets Democrats even dumped thousands of their own money into the effort. They failed to compete in the free market of ideas, so now they want the government, as Liberals always do, to step in and force the outlets to air liberal shows. They all failed or are failing, because they have nothing to say except to trash the President and Republicans. They are boring. Conservative radio shows, when they are as popular as Limbaugh, Hannity, and Medved are a terrible thorn in the Liberal backside because of their immense popularity and because they break the stranglehold that the major media outlets ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, PBS, and CNN who claim to present news as opposed to talk radio, which are opinion shows, has had on information presentation. This bunch has been in the tank for the Democrat Party for years, although, ironically, they are now giving Hillary Clinton a taste of their bias since they have chosen Obama over her. The Conservative radio listening audience still amounts to only a fraction of the combined liberally biased audience of the above behemoths yet the liberal bellyachers never suggest we censor them. The Fairness Doctrine that was tossed out in 1987 has nothing to do with fairness. It has everything to do with shutting down opposing viewpoints.