Ralph Nader, desperately seeking relevance, rears back and tries to take a swing at Rush Limbaugh, calling him a welfare queen:<\/p>\n
Rush Limbaugh
\nThe Rush Limbaugh Show
\n2 Penn Plaza
\nNew York, NY 10121<\/p>\nDear Mr. Limbaugh,<\/p>\n
The Associated Press reports your new contract with Premiere Radio Networks will enrich you with at least $38 million a year over the next eight years. You are making this money on the public property of the American people for which you pay no rent.<\/p>\n
You, Rush Limbaugh, are on welfare.<\/p>\n
As you know, the public airwaves belong to the American people. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is supposed to be our trustee in managing this property. The people are the landlords and the radio and TV stations and affiliated companies are the tenants.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Leave aside the obvious double standard – could also demand “rent” from the Big Three networks?\u00a0 They’ve made astronomically more money than Limbaugh over the past eighty years.\u00a0 How about Air America?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ralph (and the supporters of his who will hop up and down like poo-flinging monkeys at his latest utterance)?\u00a0 Limbaugh doesn’t own any transmitters<\/em>.\u00a0 His production company, and Premier, his syndicator – just produce a program, and put it up on the satellite (and they do <\/em>pay for that).<\/p>\n
You’ll need to take it up with Limbaugh’s 600 affiliates, who carry the show.\u00a0 By the way – this is important – they carry it of their own corporate free will<\/em>:\u00a0 nobody was forced to carry the Limbaugh show.<\/p>\n
The problem is that since the Radio Act of 1927 these corporate tenants have been massively more powerful in Washington, DC than the tens of millions of listeners and viewers. The result has been no payment of rent by the stations for the value of their license to broadcast. You and your company are using the public’s valuable property for free. This freeloading on the backs of the American people is called corporate welfare.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
No, it’s not.\u00a0 The airwaves are “public” in the same sense that the great outdoors is “public”; I, or Limbaugh, owes “the public” no more for sending a radio signal through the ether than I do for walking along the beach.<\/p>\n
You need not wait for the broadcast industry-indentured FCC and Congress to do the right thing. You can lead by paying a voluntary rent–determined by a reputable appraisal organization–for the time you use on the hundreds of stations that carry your words each weekday.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Excellent idea, Ralph!<\/p>\n
And then you can pay me “rent” for the space you’re using on my monitor!<\/p>\n
No really – they’re the same.\u00a0 Equally senseless and illogical.<\/p>\n
Anyway, Ralph; I’ll look for the same letter to go to Al Franken, Bill Maher, “Lionel”, Oprah Winfrey…<\/p>\n