I hope the Obama administration will bring back the Fairness Doctrine.

[colonel odis]

After 20+ years of hate radio and right-wing bullshit masquerading as "talk," it's time for us to return to more balanced and civil presentation of ideas, as well as discourse.

And secondly, if/when Obama takes office, those little pockets of right wing hate, from Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity to the hate monger on your locak AM dial, will take off like a rocket. Bringing back the Fairness Doctrine will neutralize that.

Just my opinion.

[FreakinDJ]

1. Yes it is time

propaganda by any other name is still propaganda

[snappyturtle]

2. A most definite "Yes"! nt

[rgbecker]

3. Absolutely the most important issue. Right wing hate radio must go.

I believe it is the main reason for the huge division in the USA today. The fact they are all spouting the same talking points day in and day out shows they are not dependent on listener popularity but rather are just top down propaganda machines paid for by the right wing cabal.

Bring back the Fairness doctrine first thing.

[BOSSHOG]

5. It shouldn't "go"

just be subject to fairness. Their mantra is that the market drives them. In other words if I wanted to counter their lies and hate with my lies and hate I should buy my own station. A fairness doctrine of some form would allow for the exposure of their lies and hate and I believe that would be much more powerful then them being gone.

[Hubert Flottz]

18. I agree...they are bashing themselves to death.

Their lies are wearing out.

[KharmaTrain]

4. Revising Telcom '96

The Fairness Doctrine never covered what is now hate radio. It was designed to offer equal time on public affair programs that the FCC once mandated but dropped as part of Telcom '96 and made sure all candidate could buy advertising time at the station's lowest possible rate to prohibit one candidate from "freezing out" another. It never dealt with talk radio, in fact, hate radio skirted those rules by considering themselves "entertainment" and thus not covered by any real equal time rules.

Telcom '96 enabled large corporations like Salem, Clear Channel, CBS, Citadel and others to dominate control of the airwaves, and with them what you heard. Since most of these companies were right wing, hate radio grew as a cheap and easy format to throw on dead-end AM stations. Local content was replaced by satellite hate spewers as thousands of radio stations were compressed into a strictly controlled structure that made a lot of money for these corporations.

Today, radio is dying...revenues have been on the decline for years...the medium has lost a majority of the under 30 audience and the financial mismanagement of the large corporations have turned the public airwaves into a basket case. Many broadcast companies are teetering on the financial abyss as their property values...which were artificially propped up for years, are now crashing and debts of these companies are soaring.

Radio is in desperate need of reregulation and an Obama victory will bring two very capable men...Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein who have both spoken about the need to revisit Deregulation and work toward breaking up the huge monopolies that control so much of the programming and encourage radio to return to more local control and voices.

[FreakinDJ]

6. But what covers the "Cencorship" of truth

Take KGO radio in San Francisco for example

Under New ownership, the radio host, news casters are prohibited under "Terms of Employment" from discussing "Evolution"

That means they can not even broadcast the news of scientific discovery supporting evolution

[anigbrowl]

15. Excellent summary of the problem.

Media ownership in this country has turned into a real oligopoly, denying consumer choice and leaving us with a range of cookie cutter stations that don't serve a good variety of news, music, or political opinion. Limiting ownership would actually increase competition and allow a functional market to reassert itself.

[Beacool]

7. I don't.

Freedom of speech should not extend only to those who say what we like.

As much as RW radio has been a thorn on our side, I'll defend their right to exist.

They have conservative radio and we have Radio America. I abhor censorship in any form.

Don't like what's on the airwaves? Very simple, change the station.

[babydollhead]

8. CNN daily luncheon hatefest; host Sarah Palin

for your once a day hate fix. Just to keep rabble rousing. every single day at 11:30ish

[snot]

9. WHY STOP THERE??? How about restoring/expanding restrictions on

consolidated media ownership???

Sorry if I sound overly vehement, but I've been pushing media reform for years and feel frustration over most DU'ers' apparent obliviousness to the imptc. of this issue.

[Gregorian]

10. Take back the FCC.

Against great protest, we need to wrench the airwaves out of the hands of the huge fatcat monopolistic broadcasters.

Get all Chavez on their asses!

[mzmolly]

11. Absolutely agree.

:hi:

[LWolf]

12. Has Obama ever said anything to indicate that he'd support

a new fairness doctrine?

[kster]

13. 1) Fairness Doctrine 2) Troop withdrawal 3) Distribute...

these to all the states and insist on Hand Counted Paper Ballots at the polling place for Federal Offices and encourage the states to use them for their elections.


Transparent Ballot Box, for 500 - 800 Paper Ballots, with Deposit Trap and Counter
Easy to use, sturdy and stackable. Lockable with two individual locks. Deposit trap is operated using a lever which is coupled with the counter. Can be safely stored in the reusable protective box.



K&R

[lelgt60]

14. And who would decide what is fair?

I think the key is to limit massive ownership of stations, not what the stations broadcast.

[ColoradoMagician]

16. It has to do with having both sides of an issue given equal time, not fairness.

I agree with you on the ownership issue.

Also, the Fairness Doctrine would ruin Randi Rhodes show. Shultz brings on conservatives but having equal time would mess that up too.

I used to want the Fairness Doctrine but Rhandi talked about it once and it made sense.

If I am wrong, calm down and don't flame.

[lelgt60]

19. But, who decides what "side" means, what if there ar more than 2...

Do minority opinions get their time? Wacko, space alien type opinions? Who decides?

I am very suspect when you put some group of people in charge of free speech, even free speech over the airwaves.

I much prefer lowering the financial bar as to who can get on and let everyone who can get above that bar say what they want within the limits of our constitution.

Fortunately, Internet radio is close to making this all a mute point...but close probably still means 10 years or more.

[machI]

17. Kick