A real right-wing conspiracy

 Bill Press, the thoughtful, liberal radio talker writes a Washington Post op-ed for Sunday's paper that's going to be influential.

It's a convincing case for some doctrinal fairness, and free speech to be re-inserted into radio. The new FCC will definitely be reading it.

Press bemoans a station flip -- this one in Washington DC -- from progressive talk to pre-recorded financial advice programming.

The commercial use of public airwaves is supposed to reflect the diversity of the local community, but that's not how it works in Washington. On the AM dial, WMAL (630) features wall-to-wall conservative talk. So do stations WTNT (570) and WHFS (1580). For the past two years, OBAMA 1260 -- even with a weak signal that cannot be heard in downtown Washington -- was the exception. No longer. Starting tomorrow, our nation's capital, where Democrats control the House, the Senate and the White House, and where Democrats outnumber Republicans 10 to one, will have no progressive voices on the air.

Red Zebra Broadcasting, who owns the station throws the bone to the squawkers: they'll add Ed Schultz to one of their right-wing stations -- but it means Schultz's voice will be alone in a din of at least 15 conservative talkers: Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin, Chris Plante, Michael Smerconish, Michael Savage, Andy Parks, Fred Grandy, Bill Bennett, Monica Crowley, Bill O'Reilly, Dennis Miller and Lars Larsen.

Press writes: "No matter how good Schultz is, that's not a fair contest -- nor a fair use of the public airwaves."

It's what's happening in city after city across the country. In Miami, Clear Channel recently dumped progressive talk for sports; also in San Diego, and Cincinnati. Sacramento abandoned progressive talk for gospel music.

A study by the Center for American Progress and Free Press shows there are nine hours of conservative talk for every one hour of progressive talk in radio across the country.

Press says the claim that liberal talk can't get ratings is nonsense.

In Minnesota, independent owner Janet Robert has operated KTNF (950 AM) profitably for five years. In Madison, Wis., WXXM, 92.1 FM, just scored its highest ratings ever. And KPOJ in Portland, Ore., soared with progressive talk from No. 23 in market ratings to No. 1. Nationwide, progressive talkers Randi Rhodes, Ed Schultz and Stephanie Miller have proven that, given a level playing field, they can more than hold their own in ratings -- and make money for their stations.

We'd add not only Thom Hartmann, Rachel Maddow, Alan Colmes, and Ron Reagan, but a host of local talkers who have been held back by this systematic suppression, and rarely given the promotion, or opportunity to perform, much less syndicate.          (photo: Bill Press)

It's not the market, he says, but that the few companies who own and control American radio do everything they can to block liberal talk.

In markets like Philadelphia, Boston, Providence and Houston -- "... they join in providing no outlet for progressive talk. In others, as in Washington, they limit it to a weak signal, spend zero dollars on promotion and soon pull the plug."

Companies are given a license to operate public airwaves -- free! -- in order to make a profit, yes, but also, according to the terms of their FCC license, "to operate in the public interest and to afford reasonable opportunity for the discussion of conflicting views of issues of public importance." Stations are not operating in the public interest when they offer only conservative talk.

The Fairness Doctrine prevented that by requiring licensees to carry a mix of opinion. However, under conservative pressure, President Reagan's FCC canceled the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, insisting that in a free market, stations would automatically offer balance.

Seattle is a great example of how commercial radio ultimately hurt itself in a market where liberals dominate the population. Left with few choices on the AM newstalk dial of anything but conservative talk, the listeners went hugely to NPR.

Press argues that the experiment failed. There is no "free market."

[There's] only an exclusive, tightly held, conservative media conspiracy. The few holders of broadcast licenses have made it clear they will not, on their own, serve the general public. Maybe it's time to bring back the Fairness Doctrine -- and bring competition back to talk radio in Washington and elsewhere.

The self-regulating "free-marketeers" of corporate media could clean up their own act, which might be a good idea since Democrats now own the FCC.

While the Fairness Doctrine, as it stood in the '80's era won't work today -- a little fair regulating of this strangle-held medium would be good for the Republic.

Comments

[chucks]

So why don't you get your butt to work and start raising money to buy your own damned radio station. You can put together a public offering for share holders.
Put an ad in the Stranger.
Quit whining about the competition and become the competition.
The way these stations are alleged to be losing money, somebody out to be willing to sell.

[Duffman]

Don't you think that if progressive-leaning radio attracted ratings and sponsors they would proliferate? Of COURSE! Having the Gov't put pressure on the public is not the answer to making them popular. Why don't they hire Dori Monson as a consultant (for appropriate fee) to teach them how to be 'entertaining'...THAT's what they're lacking. Folks want relaxed entertainment, simple as that...not 'forced' pseudo-entertainment. OMG, it's so simple. WTF wrong with these folks. It's like the over-zealous mom trying to buy or cheat her daughter on to the cheer-leading team when she can't make it on her own talent. InFRICKENcredible!

[AuthenticAndrew]

It has nothing to do with talent and skill. Liberals simply don't listen to talk radio as readily as conservatives.

I think the primary reason is that people of liberal persuasion usualy don't like talking about or listening to politics for lengths of time, while conservatives are obviously willing to listen to someone talk about how awesome conservative ideology is from sun up till sundown.

[Duffman]

You don't know what the phuck you're talkin about...as USUAL!

[KS]

Now the lib talkers know how conservatives feel on Television and in newspaper editorials. The world's tinniest violin is playing here...

In addition, the demographics of the listening audience is not favorable for the leftwing talkers. By the same token, there needs to be more conservative journalists out there, or they will continue to take a beating from the lamestream media.

[Dennis Nilsson]

I am living in Sweden, and I prefer to listen to independent radio in U.S, like KKPT and Nova M Radio.

Like in U.S, here in Sweden all private radio is owned by two companies, SBS and MTG Radio.

[`]

Liberal radio works when there's good talent, it's invested in, and promoted -- like all successful radio. But they've cheated the market process. Monopolistic media corporations have been deregulated for 20 years and are now shaking down the stations for every last nickel and are averse to the risk (and expense) of doing anything different. There are fewer and fewer listeners, and the profession is considered a deadend to the up and coming generation of professionals. It's put a chilling effect on the whole industry, and they've fucked it up for themselves. They're killing terrestrial talk radio.
But that's not the point... Conservative talk is 90% of an entire format. If this was private business, your competitive market uber alles would mean something, but the public owns the airwaves, and gives it -- gives it -- to giant corporate entities. Because of a number of unfair practices, one POV dominates the civic discussion on an entire coimmunications medium. The least they can do is diversify the opinions a little in this publicly-owned medium... and they will, boys. Remember, it's for their (and your) own good!

[Coiler]

Spot on Dennis, we need more choices.

[Puget Sound]

wow, the libs must really be scared of 'hot talk.'

who would have thought that the likes of dori monson has 'em peeing in their pants.

newsflash: if you don't like it, turn it off. call in to the radio stations and demand the randi or mike malloy's that you want or vote with your feet.

why is it that advertisers aren't wanting to get that 'prime' highly educated 'liberal' demographic that listens to 'randi?' crap, i would think the micro brews would kill to sponsor her.

hey, honestly for all the 'hot talk' in seattle or the greater puget sound area you have a region which is controlled by and dominated by the democratic party. anyone seriously think that congressman jim mcdermott is in danger of losing his seat next year? does anyone really have a problem getting the liberal point of view here in the greater puget sound?

good luck with that fairness doctrine crap. jeez, even when you guys win you act like sore losers. scared of a little talk...and now you want Uncle Sugar to come in and force feed a point of view on the people of America.

just throwing out a 'parade of horribles' to illustrate the absurdity of the fairness doctrine:
(phJoanie -don't mind, as you can't grasp the concept so i'll duly note your 'miss the point' response later on tonight so don't bother)

what's next, you gonna start some 're-education' camps to get our 'minds right?'

duff, chucks, nevets, ks, and i will be among the first i guess to get rounded up and sent to those camps. poor habu, tommy, and wild bill. i'm guessing that they'll just take you boys out back of the barn and put some lead in your head.

sooooo, this 'fairness doctrine' anyone want to guess as to how it would be employed? if dave neihaus comments that ichiro is losing a step on that drag bunt to first base will dave sims be required to present an opposing view that no, in fact, ichiro is still as fast as ever?

where in the hell do you stop with this doctrine?

[Coiler]

The camps will be for the less crazy ones.

[jon diss]

Hey, if the left really wanted "fairness" in Talk Radio, they wouldn't be targeting radio at all, but the other media dominated by Liberals. It's the very fact that the left dominates everything "not radio" that has made Talk Radio the powerful political medium it is. After all, where else can non-liberal viewpoints be expressed without the patronizing, biased, or deceptive response that those views receive on the TV networks, in the print media, and throughout our educational system? Where else can half of America tune in to get news and commentary not driven by leftist ideology and propaganda?

I'm all for fairness in the media. The absurdity is that radio is somehow unfair. In fact, radio is the most fair medium today because it is driven by the market that forces it to give audiences what they want. If the left really is concerned with fairness in media, then break open the liberal domination of everything else. That will kill radio, but only because half of this nation will suddenly start reading papers and watching TV news again, where they won't be preached to by liberal propagandists 100% of the time, and they can hear viewpoints from all sides of the political spectrum.

But don't wait for John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, or Barbara Boxer to find unfairness in the liberal media. Bias and filtering is just fine when it promotes the liberal viewpoint. The Fairness Doctrine might as well be called the "Silence Conservative Speech Doctrine" as far as they are concerned.

[flip-twister]

The "Fairness Doctrine" is justified solely on the fact that the public owns the limited broadcast spectrum, and therefore has a right to regulate it for the good of all, which therefore means all views should be presented on controversial issues of public importance.

This does not apply to cable TV or newspapers, only to broadcast TV and radio. So the Fairness Doctrine cannot be applied to the "liberal media" except for the broadcast versions of the networks and PBS and so on. It cannot be applied to CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, and so on.
The Supreme Court has upheld the Fairness Doctrine in the past on the basis of limited broadcast spectrum. And that just doesn't apply to newspapers and cable.

[Nevets]

"The "Fairness Doctrine" is justified solely on the fact that the public owns the limited broadcast spectrum"

With the possibility of 40 or so stations per 2-3 hundred miles I dont see the need for this type of regulating of the airwaves. There is more than enough unused and underselling bandwidth out there for liberal radio to spew thier Socialistic views to the public. Conclusion, Lib talk radio just does not sell.

[joanie]

Leave it to chucks to give a stupid answer. Facts were put on the table by Press and chucks ignores them and goes on his own idiotic journey into nonsense.

And chucks, why don't you pony up the friggin' money for a dealership of your own instead of taking tax payor money to sit on your ass waitng for a job. Granted, one finally came along but you sure didn't turn down that liberal social safety net, how did you.

A bunch of hypocrites, every single one of you.

Anybody who answers these idiots with anything other than contempt deserves contempt as well.

BTW, Michael, welcome aboard to reason. Bill Press is pretty handsome, isn't he?

[Nevets]

"by training our teachers in math and science"

Looks like President Obama doesn't think you are smart either Joanie. The above is from his WAPO OP-ed the other day. Ouch, teachers not trained in Math or Science. What have you and Sparky been teaching these kids all these years.

[joanie]

Another stupid irrelevant answer, STeven? Working at Walmart? Maybe you better check your own math because my bank account isn't going to require me to become a greeter at Walmart.

Another hypocrite bites the dust.

[Nevets]

"Providing a welcome relief from the constant Obama-bashing by Rush Limbaugh and others, you’ll hear the progressive voices of Stephanie Miller, Ed Schultz, Lionel – or, during morning drive, my own “Bill Press Show.” Unfortunately, today’s the last day you’ll be able to do so."

To take a quote from the Paladin, call Whinne-1-1. The guy lost his gig in DC and now he is whining about it. How pathetic one guy can get.

[sparky]

So Steven, let's say George Soros bought WalMart and you lost your job. It is intriguing to wonder what your reaction would be.

[Coiler]

If Dori is so entertaining,or successful, as duffman drools, why hasn't his show gone to syndication?

"hire dori as a consultant"....

[joanie]

Dori is the reason KUOW has so many listeners.

[joanie]

Sparky, you keep asking them to think. Pleeeeese.

[rozskat]

I’m a rollin in the open seas under the cold front heading your way towards the warm front from Hawaii. Should be there in ten days but it will be pitching out here the next few days with high winds and seas. The Straits of Juan De Fuca was beautiful today! Except for leaving the wife behind, I love this job!

[joanie]

Sorry to change the subject - if I am - but this is a good read about honor and Tom DAschle(sort of):

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
My Children Made Me Do It

By STEPHEN AMIDON
Greenfield, Mass.

MY father didn’t leave me much when he died.

Although he was at one time a fast-rising executive in a multinational company, a combination of corporate skullduggery and his own personal demons meant he had little in the bank when he died in 2001, a few days before his 70th birthday.

There was nothing for his four children except a small array of personal items, including a particularly sturdy hairbrush I was astute enough to claim. I still own it, in fact, and use it daily to tame my rapidly thinning hair, which is probably coming unglued due to worry about what sort of inheritance I will be able to provide my own four children.

I got to thinking about that brush when I read that a colleague of Tom Daschle had said that his tax woes — not to mention the lucrative private-sector temptations he gave into — may have stemmed from his desire to make enough money to lay a fat nest egg for his children...

There's more.

[joanie]

What hour be it where you are, Roz?

[rozskat]

Still in the Pacific Time zone Joanie as we are heading southwest. We passed around Neah Bay around 5:30 this evening. They turned the heat off and the A/C on. The passageway lamps on my deck are red for night. I just got back from the galley to get a bottle full of water and some snacks. Bad habit when you are at sea and always run two miles a day when I am in Honolulu.

We should be at Ford Island in Pearl Harbor on the 17th. I work on the other side of the island from the Arizona Memorial and the USS Missouri museum. The piers we dock at is south of the USS Utah wreckage. I will be back in Seattle around March 10 so this is a short trip for me. I am going to hit the rack. This has been a long ten hour day for me. This nice rolling will put me to sleep like a baby in a cradle. My eyes are dozing off while typing at the desk.

[rozskat]

Several years ago I was assigned to a NOAA buoy tender. One of my tasks was operations and maintenance of the satellite TV and radio system. If anyone I know who practice the Fairness Doctrine, it would be AFN, the old AFRTS (Armed Forces Radio and Television Service). The “AM radio” portion of the satellite service we received had news, sports and talk all day. Programming contents was fragmented. Major contributor of the news was NPR, while AFN had one hour of Limbaugh and one hour of Ed Schultz. In between they broadcasted sports provided by ESPN.

The satellite system was not reliable so I had much down time. I sat up a short wave radio to pick up AM or shortwave broadcasts. One of the many hats I wear is a “Communications Chief.” I configured switching and cabling to pipe the AM Radio through the telephone intercom system. I dialed in KNX in Los Angeles as it had no political or sports talk show in its lineup. I publicized the AM radio service piped over the phone intercom and it wasn’t more than two days when I got an internal e-mail requesting if I can pipe in Rush Limbaugh. I had written back to the requestor and told him no, that I would not pipe in any single political viewpoint broadcast on the ship’s radio network. I based it on diversity of the ships crew, not only in race and gender but political viewpoints as well. Needless to say I was accused by this man of being a “punk liberal” because I would pipe in Limbaugh. A day later I got an e-mail from another crewmember asking me to find Air America and I refused on the same basis. She was not going to call me a “punk conservative” but tried to implicate that I refused her request because she was a woman. That didn’t happen and I was glad to see the satellite system fixed. I did accomplishing to unite the two sides for just a moment when I decided as a communications chief to “edit” the type of stations I was willing to pipe over the intercom system... I left the issue of “fairness” back to AFN when repair of the system was completed

[Puget Sound]

roz,
for many many years AFN was my primary source of tv and radio so i can feel the pain you went through.
trying to be the arbiter of 'fair' is a difficult position to be in. hope your tdy is quick and uneventful.

i did find something interesting about how presidential administrations have used the 'fairness doctrine' to go after opponents. both the Nixon and Kennedy Administrations did so with gusto:

"This, of course, puts immense power into the hands of federal regulators. And in fact, the fairness doctrine was used by both the Kennedy and Nixon Administrations to limit political opposition. Telecommunications scholar Thomas W. Hazlett notes that under the Nixon Administration, "License harassment of stations considered unfriendly to the Administration became a regular item on the agenda at White House policy meetings." (Thomas W. Hazlett, "The Fairness Doctrine and the First Amendment," The Public Interest, Summer 1989, p. 105.) As one former Kennedy Administration official, Bill Ruder, has said, "We had a massive strategy to use the fairness doctrine to challenge and harass the right-wing broadcasters, and hope the challenge would be so costly to them that they would be inhibited and decide it was too expensive to continue."

[Nevets]

Theres always Target Sparky.

[Puget Sound]

lol nevets! actually, i figured you to be like me, a Costco man.

Go ahead Dems, over reach and stifle free speech. Your arguments can't survive the marketplace of ideas so now you have to impose 'em on the people.

If anything, the explosion of the internet has made the Fairness Doctrine moot.

Best analysis of what will happen if the Fairness Doctrine gets re-imposed:
"Conservative Talk Radio will go privatized. Satellite provider XM will undoubtedly benefit, at the expense of the 2200 radio affiliates that carry talk radio nationwide. Moreover, blogs, blogcasts, ipodcasts, etc., will rise. Ultimately, democrats in Congress will not be able to stop conservative talk radio. They can, however, put a great number of people out of a job and try and destroy an industry."

[Puget Sound]

joanie spews:
"...And chucks, why don't you pony up the friggin' money for a dealership of your own instead of taking tax payor money to sit on your ass waitng for a job. Granted, one finally came along but you sure didn't turn down that liberal social safety net, how did you.

A bunch of hypocrites, every single one of you.

Posted by: joanie | February 07, 2009 at 09:07 PM

actually joanie, chucks employer paid the unemployment tax. since the employer accounts for that as part of chucks 'total compensation package cost' in essence, chucks self funded his own unemployment.
chucks used it appropriately. it was a temporary situation until he found a job.
why do you insist on demeaning him for having lost his job? as a teacher with years of seniority you really don't have to worry about losing your job in the same fashion. as such, your cheap shots at others who have lost their job is doubly damning.
or, perhaps indicative of your character.
oh yes, i know why you hate it when i post your words. i do it to illustrate your fallacies. in the light of day they look different once you come off the randi high, eh?

[AprilMayJune]

I must be missing something:

"Why don't they hire Dori Monson as a consultant ... Folks want relaxed entertainment "

Is someone implying that Dori is relaxed entertainment? I would listen to Dori (girl's name), even though I rarely agree with him if only he weren't so whine-y and schreech-y. His presentation gives me a pain in the eye.

[Puget Sound]

but it works here in seattle. go figure.

[sparky]

And whose analysis was that, Puts?

[sparky]

Yes, Steven, there is always Target.

[sparky]

Why is it that Rush is never invited to speak on TV panels?

[Malmo Blue]

Listening to Puget Sound and his Freeper paranoid BS about how the liberals hold the key to destroy all right-wing talk radio, you get a clear picture of just how paranoid the right-wing are. Its as if the President of Russia would spend sleepness nights worried about an urgent military threat from...Uruguay.

Puget Sound, you should be quite aware that its the right-wing radio talkers that have their finger on The Button instead. Michael Savage could anyday now get on the air and say "The libtalkers are threatening America, you need to take them out", and half of America's liberal talk radio stations would be destroyed within in 24 hours. That is the truth.

But no, you have to go in here and repeat the same slogans and the same faulty talking points, that the Fairness Doctrine is going to destroy talk radio. The Fairness Doctrine isn't even being considered at the moment, except by you right-wingers that keep beating the dead horse.

[Puget Sound]

"And whose analysis was that, Puts?

Posted by: sparky | February 08, 2009 at 09:54 AM"

Not mine, hence the quotations so readers would understand that I didn't author it. Passing on the work of others as my own is a little too Joe Biden-ish for me. LOL
But I do agree with it. I didn't think you would care about the author as the analysis stands alone so I didn't put in his name, but since you do here is:
'Bryan Del Monte is a senior policy and strategy consultant to government agencies on a wide range of defense issues; focusing primarily on transformational change and business processes. He worked for the US Government for four years in the Pentagon on Detainee Policy. He also a former Bush Administration political appointee and have been a Republican since Reagan defeated Carter back in 1980. Articles from his blog have been syndicated for publication in the Wall Street Journal, Investor's Business Daily, Reuters, and Associated Press.'

or how about this that comes from the American Thinker:

"Conservative talk radio has been successful, i.e. profitable--and liberal talk radio has not--because of the most basic of reasons: it supplied a market demand that was otherwise unmet. Listeners turn to conservative talk shows to meet that need. Listeners mean ratings. Ratings mean advertising revenues."

[Puget Sound]

Malmo Blue...what the heck hapened to Storsie?

[sparky]

The American Thinker...the one supported and endorsed by Michele Malkin,,,hmmmm....and Bryan Del Monte who claimed that the young detainees at Guantanamo were given lessons every morning so they wouldnt fall behind in school? A Bushie? You want me to believe their viewpoint on letting America hear both sides of things.

Um....no.

[Duffman]

You see puts...'they' always attack the messenger. The content and objectiveness of the person's quote is always negated by their 'supposed' political slant and such statements cannot stand on their own in the eyes of these progressives. But, we know that don't we...and yet we still persist in getting them to reveal it. It's all so beautiful.

[Mrs. Turner]

This blog is going to die from boredom.

Except for Rozskat, it's the same thing day after day...

I watched a fascinating hearing which put the SEC commission on the hot seat for a while today. Lots of PC talk until one Congressman (can't remember who - I was busy and just listening) really told them off and got to the point where they admitted they couldn't really say anything because they had some sort of executive privilege.

That started the conversation anew. Seems to be the norm for Republicans. Do all the corrupt stuff you want, destroy the country, and then shout executive privilege when you get caught.

Funny.

[Duffman]

'This blog is going to die from boredom.'

This (or similar) has been said many times before...other blogs come and go, but this one has always hung in there. It's provocative, timely and up-to-date. Some blogs don't update themselves...some are only up to July, of '08.

[BigK]

Aye, nothing like watching Duffman kissing Puget Sound's ass. 'Tis a thing of beauty, it is.

[KS]

Bottom line - What difference will all of this make 6 months from now ? Something that will matter is what the final version of the Stimulus package will look like.

Probably not an appropriate topic for this blog, since overall economic knowledge by most who post are laughable and laced with political talking points with little objective substance to support it..

[Duffman]

Just tellin it like it is...I know how painful it must be to get your ass handed to you that way...over and over and over again. hehe. THAT's the thing of beauty.

[Puget Sound]

oh sparky
very precious little sidestep.

so, just tell us what is so bad about the argument. c'mon, just tell us where the arguments go astray.

[Puget Sound]

LOL, I gotcha Duff. Eric Earling was right.
You da man!

Spot on KS.

[Duffman]

Oh My! Don't you just love the silent pitter-patter of da-feet.
Good-nite Chet, Good-nite David!

[Puget Sound]

as you know Duff, ph(J)oanie will no doubt 'weave' in at some point and erratically throw out her comments. missing the point as usual and just a little tone deaf to the conversation.
it will go like this:
'oh sparky, why do you bother talking to these guys?.'
(which is really less a question then a plea on her part. sad to say poor ph(J)oanie has yet to figure it out)
then she'll toss the usual 'sults and a demeaning comment about chucks losing his job long ago and then depart leaving that all to familiar acrid aroma that is pure ph(J)oanie.

anyone want to put money on it?

[BaBa Boey]

I put money on your guys hand-jobbing each other.