{"id":342,"date":"2007-01-17T11:19:12","date_gmt":"2007-01-17T17:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php\/2007\/01\/17\/so-pick-your-side\/"},"modified":"2012-01-06T14:09:10","modified_gmt":"2012-01-06T20:09:10","slug":"so-pick-your-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=342","title":{"rendered":"So Pick Your Side"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0The other day, when talking about the Dems’<\/a> plan to try to reinstate the “Fairness Doctrine”, I noted that there really are only two sides to this debate; you support free speech, or you believe that federal bureaucrats should control it; the exact words were “authoritarian thug”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We have a vote for\u00a0thug<\/a>:<\/p>\n

But the Fairness Doctrine<\/strong><\/a> is back or at least being talked about again, with Congress set to challenge the FCC<\/a>. The thought is already driving conservatives nuts<\/a>, with more here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, with Jeff Goldstein<\/a> his usual obtuse self. QandO offers more<\/a>. One blogger calls it Free Speech\u2019s Abu Ghraib<\/a>. [waves]<\/em> They’re all nuts [Doh!\u00a0 I’m “nuts”!\u00a0 I’m disintegrating in the face of the logical onslaught!<\/font>]. They’re also very happy with controlling the radio waves.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Let’s stop right there for a minute.<\/p>\n

The woman writing this bit – Taylor Marsh – bills herself as a “radio host”.\u00a0 Her “radio show” is, of course, an internet-only stream.\u00a0 Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it explains how so much of what she says really has nothing to do with the reality of the radio industry.<\/p>\n

Conservatives “control the airwaves” because we provide a better product that more people want to listen to.\u00a0 Example:\u00a0 My NARN pals and I (who broadcast on a real station<\/a> as well as a real internet stream<\/a>) “control the market” among political talk on Saturday afternoons not because of “corporate support” (Salem vs. Clear Channel?\u00a0 Puh-leeze).\u00a0 No, we bitch-slap both KTLK-FM and <\/em>the local Air America affiliate like a prison laundry-room beat-down because people want to listen to us, <\/em>for whatever reason.<\/p>\n

Ipso <\/em>Limbaugh, Hannity, Hewitt and the rest of us.\u00a0 Nobody holds a gun to an audience’s head and makes them tune in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Looking at Ms. Marsh’s take on history is interesting, inasmuch as it shows the left hasn’t changed their talking points in over a decade:<\/p>\n

The short version of the Fairness Doctrine is that in 1987 Reagan had it scuttled. Shortly after that Rush Limbaugh began his journey and right-wing radio was created and gradually took over the airwaves, with the help of their corporate friends<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’ve often wondered what Democrats think <\/em>they mean when they say this?\u00a0 Was it that…:<\/p>\n