Right off the bat Sen. Diane Feinstein, in a rare moment of candor, advocated her desire to restore the “Fairness Doctrine” to American media. While Hillary and Barbara Boxer are denying their participation in just such plans, Feinstein had no problems with formal legislation further limiting political speech. I wonder how she would evaluate the content of the networks news broadcasts, the typical AP story, the three big news weeklies and the entirety of prime time broadcasting. Somehow, I do not see a network being forced to forge documents attacking a Democrat presidential candidate and then further forced to not only air the forgeries as authentic but actually coordinate the release of the story with the Republicans.
Feinstein attacked constantly and Lott responded that Congress needed to be a problem solving institution. Lott did a pretty good job of describing the do nothing Democrat Congress. Feinstein’s response was yet another attack on the Iraq campaign as she blamed the unpopularity of the Congressional Democrats on their inability to end the Iraq Campaign.
Feinstein attacked the Justice Department again with the oft repeated accusation that the Attorney General fired US attorneys for “political” reasons. Trent did an average job of responding. Trent’s statement of “guess how they got their jobs-politics” did serve to remind the audience that US Attorneys are political actors. Trent also did a pretty good job of explaining mid level resignations at the Justice Department and the White House, why would anyone take the pounding from the Democrats’ constant attacks.
Lott, like Sessions before him on ABC, simply deferred the Iraq question to the time of the next Iraq report, roughly September of this year. Feinstein again attacked the Iraq policy and intoned the “we’re in the middle of a civil war” language to justify immediate retreat from Iraq. Chris Wallace could get absolutely nothing new from Feinstein on Iraq.
The Fox panel, like the ABC panel dismissed a Bloomberg Presidential Campaign. Juan Williams was warm to the idea, for the same reasons as ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.
Feinstein attacked constantly and Lott responded that Congress needed to be a problem solving institution. Lott did a pretty good job of describing the do nothing Democrat Congress. Feinstein’s response was yet another attack on the Iraq campaign as she blamed the unpopularity of the Congressional Democrats on their inability to end the Iraq Campaign.
Feinstein attacked the Justice Department again with the oft repeated accusation that the Attorney General fired US attorneys for “political” reasons. Trent did an average job of responding. Trent’s statement of “guess how they got their jobs-politics” did serve to remind the audience that US Attorneys are political actors. Trent also did a pretty good job of explaining mid level resignations at the Justice Department and the White House, why would anyone take the pounding from the Democrats’ constant attacks.
Lott, like Sessions before him on ABC, simply deferred the Iraq question to the time of the next Iraq report, roughly September of this year. Feinstein again attacked the Iraq policy and intoned the “we’re in the middle of a civil war” language to justify immediate retreat from Iraq. Chris Wallace could get absolutely nothing new from Feinstein on Iraq.
The Fox panel, like the ABC panel dismissed a Bloomberg Presidential Campaign. Juan Williams was warm to the idea, for the same reasons as ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.
18 comments:
So you feel threatened by Fairness, huh? Or is it the woman Senator that threatens you?
Please elaborate on how the Fairness Doctrine undermined American broadcasting during its 40 years on the books. How it kept us from debating the Vietnam war, the communist menace, the civil rights movement, the feminist uprising, the Other America, and the Pentagon Papers. How its demise has meant that broadcasting over public air space has become 91% crazy now that Rush rules the waves.
We'll be your students.
Spotlight..
Explain..in detail..why liberal talk radio has utterly failed.
There is nothing in law or in the free market that is stopping anyone from creating new media outlets for liberal viewpoints.
Air America tried..failed. Cuomo..tried and failed. Randi Rhodes..tried and failed.
The ratings for them were never there..the radio stations that carried them lost revenue and sponsors..and subsequently dropped them.
Why is it necessary for Goverment to come in and dictate what is broadcast on the airwaves. Do you not believe in the free market?
We're not threatened at all by other viewpoints. However, when those viewpoints are foisted upon goverment fiat..that's when people feel threatened.
The 1st Amendment guarantees freedom of speech Spotlight..it does not guarantee you the forum to do it from.
Cedar, free speech terrifies liberals. How else would their falsehoods become exposed?
Look at everything they are doing to demonize scientits who don't accept the religion of global warming. Burned at the stake.
I've never heard more than an hour or so of Air America, so I don't know why it failed. Maybe it's harder to garner an audience with thoughtful argument than with name-calling like feminazis or pomposity like the Excellence in Broadcasting Network nonsense, or the "Get AIDS and die" cry of Michael Savage (stagename).
Under the Fairness Doctrine the govt did not dictate what was on the air. It only said that all sides of a controversy had to be aired with equal time. Rush still would have his free holler, but he could not go unanswered like he does now. It's my airwaves, too.
Spotlight..
Once again, common sense has abandoned you.
If you have a liberal viewpoint..great!! Go get investors, create your own talk show..find a radio station to broadcast it..and compete in the free market just like every other talk show host does!
Where is it government's responsiblity to dictate to a radio station who or what it should broadcast? Again..I'll repeat it for you...
The 1st Amendment guarantees freedom of speech..it DOES NOT guarantee you a forum to do so from...
Hence why anyone can't march into a radio station now and demand to be heard...
You say you haven't listened to an hour of Air America......WOW..my point has been made for me here.. Thats WHY Air America failed..NO one listened to them...even unabashed liberals like yourself admit they didn't listen to it...
No listeners=no revenues from advertising=no sponsors=unemployed talk show host.
What's next?..if people don't like the music that a station is playing..should government come in and dictate that say..a country music station be made to play death metal?
The arguments for the so called "Fairness Doctrine" so weak and pathetic it doesnt even merit consideration in Congress.
Liberals like spotlight didn't have a problem with thier liberal friends' monopoly on CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, BBC etc. for over a generation. But now that FOX NEWS is here and winning the lions share of the marketplace viewers, he and the other mamby-pamby liberals (Denny Crane reference) screem bloody murder. Go figure.
So which is it Spotlight? Do you want to keep your 1st Amendment rights or do you want government mandated equal time and have them take away NBC, CBS, ABC and MSNBC to leave only CNN and FOX to cancel each other out evenly?
Wait, that won't work either because FOX still has 3 times the viewers as CNN. Oh well sucks to be a liberal huh?
WAR Cedar WAxwing (good to see you Saturday)
Frankly, I could not care less about Fox or right-wing talk radio. I can listen to it if I want to. If not, I don't need to tune in.
What annoys the heck out of me is the constant R whining about liberal MSM. I thought R's were all about "mainstream." Maistream profit-seeking American media corporations bastions of lefty liberalism? Give me a break. Maybe if the R party folks re-entered the American maistream, a dose of reality would not freak them out.
If the drive-by media was a part of the "mainstream" of America..explain why RF that major newspaper subscriber rates have sharply declined...the nightly news shows ratings have crashed..and magazines like Newsweek and Time have seen their subscriber rates crash as well.
Just another reason why liberals are screaming for the so called "Fairness Doctrine"...people are turning off what they see from the drive bys...and the old guard that runs them isn't willing to adapt..
So, how else to rectify the situation--easy, have the government mandate that so called "opposing" viewpoints are given a forum to be heard.
Once again, a perfect example of how liberals turn to government to solve all the perceived ills of society...
All the attention paid to Couric's tough start at CBS has overshadowed what's been going on at NBC.
In Couric's first 39 weeks at CBS, she's lost 287,000 viewers from the average of a year ago, a drop of 4 percent from predecessor Bob Schieffer's audience. At the same time, "Nightly News" lost 533,000 viewers, or 5 percent, Nielsen said.
In Williams' first three months after taking over from Tom Brokaw in December 2004, "Nightly News" averaged 10.79 million viewers. In the past three months, it's been 7.66 million.
That's a lot of missing viewers.
Who cares about the fairness doctrine? Seems to me conservatives win on that one. Think of all the equal time we'd finally get on PBS, NPR, CBS, ABC, NBC, The NY Times, The Washington Post, CNN, The San Francisco Chronicles, The LA Times etc.
Heck, Fox already presents both sides. They wouldn't have to change a thing.
spotlight - you forget. republicans don't do categories. democrats do categories. we are defined by character. being a woman or not being a woman is immaterial.
can libs watch CNN anymore now that their morning program was taken over by a former FOX news reporter? Do they know they've been infiltrated by a Fox person? Do they know which one it is?
I wonder how Dan Rather feels about the fairness doctrine. Do you suppose that GREAT BIG LIE he told about Bush that caused him to lose his job might have been impacted through use of the fairness doctrine?
We could have demanded "FAIR" and made them have to broadcast a story that told the other side - you know the side that was truthful?
Gee Teddy, think of how all the "journalist" panels would have to change on all these Sunday Morning News Programs.
They would have to put conservative journalists on their panels too instead of the die hard heavy duty liberals they put on there now.
my favorite liberal pundit who didn't make it was Al - small, teeny tiny big fat liar - Frankin.
He can't even raise money in his own state for his race. He has to rely on Hollywood.
He had no marketplace for his listeners either.
Cedar & co.,
If you think declining viewership/readership of traditional media can be explained only in the liberal/conservative framework, you must not be paying any attention to the world around you. We are talking about a much broader technological and cultural change. We partisan political junkies tend to forget that 99% of the population does not think like us. Of course real or perceived political bias plays a role in the media/information fragmentation that is happening, but surely it is only one of many factors.
Personally, I don’t care for government-sanctioned fairness doctrine. I’m all for free speech. I also hate spoiled brat conservatives who cry “liberal MSM” as soon as any inconvenient truths are aired. I would like to see those conservatives back in reality, in mainstream America.
Cedar,
I haven't listened to Air America because it is not available in this area (to my knowledge).
I'd love the opportunity.
and by the way:
Bong Hits For Jesus.
Spotlight..
Your pathetic attempt at humor not withstanding..
If you REALLY wanted to listen to Air America..there have always been options available for you to do so.. the internet..satellite radio, etc...
Instead, AA has become widely regarded as a joke. Its "top" talent has either been let go..or been abandoned by AA. (ie Al Franken, Janine Garafalo, etc)
Again, you made my point VERY clearly...people DIDN'T make that effort..why? they weren't interested enough in it to listen!!!
So, what have liberals decided to do--lets find a way for goverment to dictate who gets on the radio!!
Nevermind that little thing called the 1st Amendment...
If they don't listen.. no revenues are generated from advertisers..no revenues=unemployed talk show host in no time. It's all quite simple.
I know its hard for the liberal mind to comprehend, considering that the liberal philosophy is to find a govermental fix for all of our life's ills.
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