Freedom Ain’t Free & Take Our Country Back

Poor liberals.  Cry us a river.

As has been previously posted here, the whiners of the Leftinistra just don’t get it. They have lost their stranglehold on America and are lashing out and grasping for the invisible straw.

CBS News has “borrowed’ from National Review On-Line, an article with the above title. I have “borrowed” it from CBS.

Remember Jim Hightower? We didn’t think so. He was the former Texas state official who was, for a few minutes, the Left’s great hope for a liberal talk-radio host to challenge the domination of Rush Limbaugh. It didn’t work out. Neither did former New York governor Mario Cuomo, another failed radio talker. And neither did, most recently, Air America, the attempt to build an entire network of liberal talk.

Poor Jim Hightower. He and Mario Cuomo doesn’t get it, either. One of these days, hopefully sooner than later, these wanna-bes will finally see that they do NOT have the pulse of America and never have. If they had the pulse of America, folks would be flocking to them and those Big Bad Conservatives that have very successful radio shows which, are broadcasting from LIBERAL owned stations, would vanish. The Big Bad Limbaughs and the Hannitys and the Levins are reflecting what the MAJORITY of Americans think and feel. It really is that simple. Why else would the LIBERAL owned and operated radio stations keep them on the air? Conservatives are good for the Big Bad and Evil Profit Monster that the LIBERAL owned and operated radio stations maintain. Hello?

Nothing has worked too successfully for liberal political talkers. Rush, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham, among others, are as dominant as ever. The only thing that has changed is that liberals now seem less interested in challenging conservative talk radio in the marketplace than in strangling it with government regulation. And that presents a much greater threat than another misguided attempt to find the liberal Limbaugh.

Rush, Sean and Laura do indeed have the pulse of America. Why else would they be so successful on LIBERAL owned radio stations? And what are the LIBERAL owned radio stations doing with all that Big Bad and Evil Profit Mongering, anyway? I smell a Double Standard. And why do the Moonbats constantly attack them?

A new blueprint for a government takedown of conservative talk radio comes from the liberal think tank Center for American Progress, founded and run by former Clinton White House chief of staff John Podesta. In a report entitled, “The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio ,” the Center outlines a plan that would, if implemented, do enormous damage not only to conservatives on talk radio, but to freedom of speech as well.

Surveying 257 stations owned by the top-five commercial station groups, the report’s authors found the unsurprising news that 91 percent of total weekday talk programming is conservative, and just nine percent “progressive.” Rather than attribute that imbalance to the generally conceded superiority of conservative programming - most radio professionals would tell you that Rush Limbaugh is simply better at what he does than any of the liberal opponents who have tried to compete with him - the report finds a deeper, more sinister case. “The gap between conservative and progressive talk radio,” it concludes, “is the result of multiple structural problems in the U.S. regulatory system. ” According to Podesta’s Center, those structural problems can only be solved by government action.

“Progressive”. The other name for “Liberal”, “Socialist”, “Leftinistra”. Not surprisingly, the Center for American Progress doesn’t get it, either. “The Gap” they refer to is “The Gap” between their ears. There are no “structural problems in the US regulatory system”. Big Brother helps nothing. More “government action” helps nothing. Unless, naturally, one wants Big Brother to dictate all there is to dictate for the stupid people that cannot help themselves and are 100% dependent on Big Brother for up to and including the proper use of toilet paper and the quantity of sheets per use.

The “problem” missed by yet another socialist “can’t” think tank is the American people are sick and tired of groups like this retarded Can’t Think Tank.

The report proposes new national and local limits on the number of radio stations one company can own. For another, it recommends a de facto quota system to ensure that more women and minorities own radio stations. And finally, it says the government should “require commercial owners who fail to abide by enforceable public interest obligations to pay a fee to support public broadcasting.”

More free give-away crap for folks that cannot make it on their own because NO ONE WANTS TO LISTEN TO THEIR SOCIALIST CRAP!

The two-for-the-price-of-one attempt to have the government both stifle voices that don’t meet “enforceable public interest obligations” while raising money for government broadcasting is certainly a worthwhile strategy for the Left. Not for free speech and free markets, however.

Exactly so.

In addition, the report claims that the Fairness Doctrine - the government rule that, before it was repealed in 1987, required broadcasters to present opposing viewpoints on controversial public issues - might not really be dead, and thus might not have to be reestablished by Congress. Instead, a new administration might simply decide to enforce it again. That point is highly debatable, but it wouldn’t be surprising if President Clinton, President Obama, or President Edwards were to give it a try.

Whatever it takes to silence the voices of opposition to socialism, eh?

The fact is, liberals simply haven’t attracted talk-radio audiences. It’s not their market. But since they still largely have Hollywood, academia, the New York Times, PBS, NPR, a network news division or two … they’ll survive. And we on the Right will, too, if we keep the Center for American Progress’s dangerously wrongheaded ideas off the table.

How about a trade-off. The socialists get the radios and the conservatives take over Hollywood? Any takers?

Related articles of note:

Air America sold: gee, I wonder why

Air America files chapter 11: gee, I wonder why

UPDATE!!

RUSH Limbaugh, the conservative talk-radio pioneer, has been called many nasty things before, but never a “structural imbalance.” That’s the fancy term a liberal think tank uses to characterize his success - and to dress up its proposal for counteracting that success through new government regulation.

The report of the Center for American Progress on “The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio” marks the latest phase in liberaldom’s grappling with conservative talk radio. First came the attempts to create a liberal Limbaugh - Mario Cuomo, Jim Hightower, et al. - that fell flat. Then an entire left-wing network, Air America, was founded, and foundered. So there’s only one option left - if you can’t beat them, and you won’t join them, you can agitate for government to regulate them.

The report looks at a slice of 257 talk stations and concludes that more than 90 percent of total weekday talk programming is conservative. The supposed reason for this is, essentially, that media companies are conspiring to shove conservative radio down the throats of listeners in a way they couldn’t if, among other things, government required broadcasters “to regularly show that they are operating on behalf of the public interest.”

This is a pinched view of radio. There are upward of 2,000 U.S. talk stations that deal with news and issues, according to Michael Harrison of Talkers magazine, and they encompass all sorts of formats from National Public Radio to urban radio to shock jocks, none of which are dominated by right wingers. Conservative talk radio is a vibrant niche within that market, but there are many other places to go for news and opinion.

UPDATE 2:  Jack Kelly has a great comment in the last paragraph.

I see this every day at the very liberal newspaper where I work. Conservatives often write angry letters to the editor, criticizing the arguments made in an editorial, or what they perceive as the slant in a news story. Liberals unhappy with my columns often demand that I be fired. They object not just to my point of view, but to the fact that it was expressed. Scratch a liberal, and you’ll often find a fascist underneath.

If the Leftinistra had the “corner market” on Talk Radio, this would not even be contemplated. What would drive the leftinistra to try and muzzle Conservative Talk Radio? Is it because the MAJORITY of Americans are Conservative, Democrat and Republican alike?

Could it be that the likes of Reid DON’T have the pulse of America and it shows in the approval ratings? Does this explain the rantings of the losers and whiners? Could it be that the Hillarys and the Boxers are secretly trying to squelch Freedom of Speech and that if folks don’t agree with them, they must be silenced?

Why would the Leftinistra attack talk radio? And why do the Leftinistra fear it so much? Could it be no one wants to hear the trash from the lips of the Leftinistra?

This will be a big day for the left in its campaign to rid this country of their nemisis … those pesky right-wing talk show hosts. Today we’ll be hearing about a new study by the Center For American Progress, a Washington left-wing think tank. The man running this outfit is none other than John Podesta, the former Chief of Staff for Bill Clinton. This report will condemn what it calls a “massive imbalance” between conservative and “progressive” My guess is that the report will blame the preponderance of liberal talk radio shows on anything but the absolute failure of these shows to sustain themselves with good ratings. We’ll also undoubtedly see the typical statements about the asinine concept of “the public’s airwaves.”

Poor whiners. Nothing to offer so they whine. When my kids do that I send them to their rooms. “They” even wrote a paper on the subject of how the imbalance is driving them mad.

Blogrunner has a really good compilation of must reads on this subject. Jake Tapper has a fairly decent piece at ABC.

The conversation overheard may have been three years ago (what was going on then?) but the sentiment is alive and well as Lott so whined about not too long ago.

When will the politicos “remember” that it is “We The People” that “run government” and NOT the politicos of DC?

Congressman and Democratic Presidential Candidate discusses why he will reintroduce discussion of the “Fairness Doctrine”

The Constitution grants American Citizens (not ILLEGAL aliens or otherwise) protections guaranteeing Freedom of Speech.  Curiously, I find no where within the Constitution where Freedom of Hearing is protected.  Where is it found?  Just curious.

In a story emerging from Wierdofornia, somebody “read” something and then they “heard” something and it made them feel “targeted” and “estranged”.  Awwwwwwwwwwww.

The weirdos will be routed out and collected here.

Radio broadcasting is an artificial oligopoly. The restricted spectrum & ERP limit the practical density of transmitters. With the addition of the FM service, more frequencies became available, allowing for more competition in the market.

One factor limits competition: the FCC’s issuance of licenses. Before kvetching about monopoly, survey every major market, and compare the number of licenses to the maximum number of transmitters that can operate without mutual interference in the market area. If the market is not saturated, either there is a lack of demand, a lack of capitol, or the market is being restricted politically.

Here we have a government determining how many radio stations there will be in a market, and declaring that content must be regulated because there is a monopoly.

This is equivalent to:

• intentional iatrogenic disease

• morticians murdering to generate business

• firemen committing arson.

Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity & Mark Levin started out small and worked their way up, building skills and audiences; moving from smaller to larger markets. So did John Hightower, but he did not achieve the same success. Al Franken, Gov. Cuomo, Senator Gore & Senator Daschle dreamed of making it big. They failed miserably because of inexperience, poor production values and failure to inform and entertain their audiences.

Their solution: punish those who are successful by enacting laws to stifle their free speech rights.

The whole scam is about creating a propaganda monopoly for Socialism by preventing free market supporters from effective public speech. Our recourse is to the polls. Send the Socialists home at the next election!!!

Fair to whom? The whining Leftinistra talk shows that can’t hold their own water? The ones that go bankrupt because they are under the allusion or delusion that it is THEY that have the pulse of America? Please. Spare us the vitriol!

Michelle Malkin covered “it” here:

Spree covered “it” here:

Maggie’s Notebook covered “it” here:

We covered “it” here, here and here:

Mark Levin covered “it” here:

Many others covered “it” as well.

If one wishes to find out just what in the hell the Fairness Doctrine (snort-chuckle-guffaw) is, The Heritage Foundation has “it” all spelled out for ya.

Legislation currently is before Congress that would reinstate a federal communications policy known as the “fairness doctrine.” The legislation, entitled the “Fairness in Broadcasting Act of 1993,” is sponsored in the Senate (S. 333) by Ernest Hollings, the South Carolina Democrat, and in the House (H.R. 1985) by Bill Hefner, the North Carolina Democrat. It would codify a 1949 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulation that once required broadcasters to “afford reasonable opportunity for the discussion of conflicting views of public importance.” The fairness doctrine was overturned by the FCC in 1987. The FCC discarded the rule because, contrary to its purpose, it failed to encourage the discussion of more controversial issues. There were also concerns that it was in violation of First Amendment free speech principles. The legislation now before Congress would enshrine the fairness doctrine into law.

Bottom Line? Simple. The Leftinistra have lost their grip and they see their Power Plays faltering. They blame others for their own demise and will not accept responsibilities for their own actions. SO…they want to silence the ones “responsible” for their ineptness.

NEWSFLASH!!!  Hitlery and Box-a-rocks want Legislative Action to KILL Talk radio…just the Conservatives, though.

Radio communications are transmitted by means of electromagnetic radiation whose wavelength is considerably longer than that of light. We can neither see nor hear that radiation; we use electronic equipment to make it audible.

No air is necessary for the radio communication process, between the microphone and the loudspeaker. The electromagnetic radiation is not public; it is generated, modulated, amplified and transmitted privately. Specific frequencies are allocated by the FCC to prevent signals from jamming each other. There is no special magic involved. If broadcasters agreed on frequency allocation and power levels, no government intervention would be required.

Newspapers are printed privately, transported on public streets and highways, delivered to and read by consumers. Those consumers use sunlight to read their newspapers. Who owns the sunlight? Is it public?

Now explain some rational basis why government coercion should be used to determine the content of broadcast speech; why broadcasters should be told that they can’t air Rush Limbaugh’s show, or how many hours of it they can air or what he can or can not talk about.

Now explain why the government should not also control the news and opinions printed in the New York Times & USA Today. After all, they are transported on the public roads.

If they can regulate Rush, they can also regulate what you say and hear on your cell phone. Then they can also control the content which passes through your wireless computer network.

Do not be deceived: the ‘fairness doctrine’ is an attempt to violate the first amendment; to censor politically sensitive speech. Tell its proponents to go to Hell and burn forever!

BCP