Genachowski to Chair FCC: Prospects for Media and Internet »
Posted By JSilver 10 months, 3 weeks ago in NewsPresident-elect Barack Obama will nominate Julius Genachowski to head the FCC. Genachowski anchored the drafting of Obama's media policy agenda...
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JSilver
I am currently the executive director and a co-founder of Free Press. Before Free Press, I ran a statewide campaign for public funding of elections ...
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lovemorgulComment removed: Spammer, Hard Banned2 Replies
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scott426110 months, 3 weeks ago
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Before the wingnuts start in on what one of their nutcase radio darlings Bill Cunningham (not to mention their God... Rush Limbaugh), calls the "Un-Fairness Doctine," let me just share with you what it actually was:
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According to Steve Rendall of FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting),
"The Fairness Doctrine had two basic elements: It required broadcasters to devote some of their airtime to discussing controversial matters of public interest, and to air contrasting views regarding those matters. Stations were given wide latitude as to how to provide contrasting views: It could be done through news segments, public affairs shows or editorials. The doctrine did not require equal time for opposing views but required that contrasting viewpoints be presented."
He's right. In fact, the doctrine was an attempt to ensure that all coverage of controversial issues by a broadcast station be balanced and fair. That is what it was. Nothing wrong with that.
But it's worth noting that Limbaugh began his radio show in 1988 - the year after the FCC declared that stations could air political commentary without a mandate for opposing viewpoints - declaring himself the first post - Fairness Doctrine talk show host. His show would be conservative....and he set himself on a self-declared "Mission from God" to destroy liberalism and everything it represents.
Now even Thom Hartmann (the best host on the radio and much more mentally challenging, IMO)
http://www.thomhartmann.com/
- who is in the midday slot on Air America stations opposite Limbaugh - will say that even liberals do not want the Fairness Doctrine again....so it is really a moot point.
Why? Because media has become too vast in scope. In 1987, television networks consisted of ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS. That was it. Cable television was still relative and offered much less than it does today.
And if you had cable television, you were fortunate enough to have CNN Headline News, which started in 1982 by Ted Turner as CNN2 and was a reliable ALL NEWS channel with no opining and 13 minutes of ACTUAL NEWS and three to five minute segments for sports, weather and pop culture. At the bottom of the hour it started over again.... 48 newscasts a day, 7 days a week (Starting in the late '90s Headline News began to alter that format and in the last few years it has become the atrocity it is today).
Of course, now the media landscape is so vast that it would be impossible and impractical to enforce such a mandate.
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BB6410 months, 3 weeks ago
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You're quoting Thom Hartmann? I didn't know Air Communist was still on the air. Tell you what, when you guys force the unfairness crap, you'd better be prepared. Take Rush, Hannity or any other conservative talk format off and force a liberal agenda and you will need another bail out. Liberals don't listen. There's a radio station in Madison, Wisconsin that tried the ultra liberal talk. Madison is trying to out liberal San Fransisco, so to say their slightly liberal is like saying Rosie slightly supports gay rights. Well long story short, in a city with around 12 commercial radio stations, they were 11th, behind the sports station. Clear Channel has spent a lot to keep this station going and in fact tried changing the format last summer but caved when the libs started protesting. In the end I think it's obvious, there's over kill on liberals in the media. Most people won't tune in and the whole AM radio phenom will die. Conservatives will go to satellite. No FCC, no Federal licensing fees, no chance of local comment. Way to go libs! If you can't control it kill it. Free speech? Gone! Free Enterprise? Gone. And you claim to be progressive and supporting freedoms. Only those that meet your standards.
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scott426110 months, 3 weeks ago
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(....cont'd...)
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I would like to see an "equal signal" requirement of companies like Clear Channel, which - thanks to the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that our buddy President Clinton signed into law - allows such a company to dominate a market. What I mean is simply that if a conservative talker is owned by that company, an equal signal should be designated to liberal talk (and remember, we are talking about a companies that own multiple stations...and even more HD signals in the digital age...).
Now that probably won't happen, but IMO it should...
My hope is that that will be a moot point too. Clear Channel is one company that has begun to recognize that the liberal's money is as green as the conservative's. It is, after all, just another niche market to them...
And my hope is also that the internet will remain free and vast and unedited and that I will always be free to investigate the news.
One thing is definite. The genie is out of the bottle. Media is forever changed and the best we can do now is to adapt and move the transmission of said media into the 21st century...-
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BB6410 months, 3 weeks ago
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Liberal's money? Try getting a liberal to part with their money. Our tax money, no problem. Their money, you're not that tough. See my notes above on the liberal try for Clear Channel. Liberal talk radio never works. I think they're simply too many liberal media outlets for the market. You don't see a super star like Rush or Sean simply because they're too many all saying the same thing.
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