The last day of the series. Carol Costello examines the question of fairness. That Fairness Doctrine thing is long gone. Not even Obama wants that. Noooo. Localism, well that’s something else.
Randi Rhodes demonstrates the liberal talk talent to speak out of both sides of your mouth without using your brain. She’s in the D.C. market but for cryin’ out loud, the conservative shows rule the airwaves even there. Randi insists that for the sake of diversity, there should be less conservative radio in liberal localities. That’s localism. On the other hand, she’d love to get a shot at conservative audiences. That’s fairness.
Camille Paglia uses her brain and nuked the BS in one sentence.
I find the motivation for this, all this talk about the local show, is actually covert, actually a way to ambush rightwing radio which is indeed raising up as a powerful force in response to the shutdown of conservative thought in the major media.
Carol Costello to her credit remained consistent that talk radio is just a business.
The CNN series may be over, but the air war isn’t. This administration goes after its critics and has no tolerance for opposition. Stay tuned.
How much power does talk radio have? No psychiatrist today to help us on that. For some inexplicable reason those insecure, bully-loving listeners don’t necessarily do what the talk show hosts tell them to do. Go figure. The imagery and subliminal messages that talk radio is populated by weird loud people with extreme views continued.
Camille Paglia sees the opposition party quality of conservative radio these days as a sort of a shadow government and not a problem in a democracy. If you ask me, it’s what democracy is all about.
Michael Harris of Talk Radio Magazine attributes Al Franken’s successful bid for the Senate to his stint as a talk radio host. Yeah, that and some fortuitous discoveries of previously uncounted ballots.
So Obama got elected in spite of talk radio, but will the country be safe from the harm of talk radio forever….time will tell.
I’m getting a sense that Carol Costello thinks we listeners are some kind of dupes being lured in by talk radio con artists. As she pointed out yesterday as though letting us in on a secret, it’s entertainment and about making money. Maybe like a circus, eh Carol? A sucker born every minute? It’s so much fun seeing something so familiar to you analyzed by someone who is clueless.
I’m a news/politics junkie and I love radio. Forty years ago I was listening to shortwave broadcasts from all over the world. My original SW was a hand-me-down. It was gigantic and it had tubes. I sent in my reception reports and received QSL cards in return. Dang, I wish I still had them. I would send a letter to Radio Moscow and two months later get a notice that my letter would be read by Vladimir Posner (future friend of Phil Donahue) on Moscow Mailbag the following month. I never thought that would become a “well, back in my day” story.
Talk radio is like family to me. I’m sure the psychiatrist would make something else of that, but you know what I mean. I’m so grateful to Tammy for how much she’s done to bring like-minded people together. I’ve had the opportunity to exchange emails, tweets, have blog discussions and even personally befriend very wonderful people through the Tammy connection. They are salt of the earth decent people who are as concerned as I am about the fate of the country we love. That kind of power is incomprehensible to Carol Costello.
Who listens to talk radio? To find out, Carol Costello went to bitter-clingy central PA, hopped a ride in a local’s pickup truck and listened to cowboy hatted local WHP host Bob Durgin (He rants and raves!). Then she asked a psychiatrist.
“Anger in the Air, What listeners don’t know about talk radio”. Since I’m an avid listener I wanted to find out what it is I don’t know about talk radio. I still don’t know, unless it’s that it’s all about anger and that listeners are looking to befriend a bully.
Today, Tammy spoke about what’s “normal” depends on your point of view. That’s why Fox News is biased in the eyes of liberals, but not CNN. From CNN’s point of view the secret behind talk radio’s success is the intoxicant of anger that appeals to conservative personality types. Yes, I’m angry. I’m not an angry person; I’m a person who is angry. Bullies scare me. Bullies like ACORN, SEIU, the White House and Congressional Democrats. That’s partly what’s making me angry.
Carol was delighted by Bob’s analysis of liberal talk radio—too compassionate. Compassion is a badge of honor for liberals and you can never be too compassionate. Randi Rhodes doesn’t think compassion is undermining the success of liberals on the air. It’s that they’re not on the air all that much. It’s obvious to Rhodes that liberal talk radio would be much more popular if only there was more of it. Brilliant.
The post report chitchat was revealing. Kiran Chetry noted that some of the listeners are angry at talk radio. Great point, says Carol. In fact, she says, 56% of listeners are independent. Ah!, but what does she mean by that? Do 56% of listeners disagree with talk radio? Should we ask Randi to figure it out?
For those who have hang ups about looking at other people’s laundry, be prepared for a flap. There’s a trend in the wind to override homeowners association rules in favor of making your whites greener.
In the last year, however, state lawmakers in Colorado, Hawaii, Maine and Vermont have overridden these local rules with legislation protecting the right to hang laundry outdoors, citing environmental concerns since clothes dryers use at least 6 percent of all household electricity consumption.
Florida and Utah already had such laws, and similar bills are being considered in Maryland, North Carolina, Oregon and Virginia, clothesline advocates say.
There’s a lot of contention over the issue.
The new laws have provoked a debate. Proponents argue they should not be prohibited by their neighbors or local community agreements from saving on energy bills or acting in an environmentally minded way. Opponents say the laws lifting bans erode local property rights and undermine the autonomy of private communities.
There’s even going to be a documentary about it, Drying for Freedom. These people really get their underwear in a wad over laundry.
I’m kind of partial to the born free philosophy of life myself. I grew up in a clothesline laced world. It’s real life and the laundry does smell good after a day in the sun.
The world changes (for the better up until recently) and so do communal norms. I now live in a subdivision with a homeowners association that forbids clotheslines. I don’t feel as though I’ve lost a part of the authentic life. Not that I really thought about it at all until now.
The environmental nazis aren’t motivated by nostalgia or chafing at the chains of suburban conformity. They want to sell us the idea to live un-electrically for the good of the environment. Folded into their campaign which incorporates words like “liberty” and “freedom” is a future of drudgery, regimentation and poverty.
We do live better electrically since we were “sold a bill of goods” by GE in 1945. We also live better under the Bill of Rights since 1791. You can have my dryer…and washer…and refrigerator when you wring them from my warm, smooth hands.
BTW Don’t they get it that the shooting was about the property line?
Angry activists gathered outside a Richmond, Virginia strip club decrying abomination! and sounding alarm over the deteriorating standards in America. Prudish church ladies? No. It was the NAACP. The self-described libertarian owner of Club Velvet, Mr. Samuel J.T. Moore III, had unfurled an Obama as The Joker banner outside his building.
“This country is going to hell in a handbag,“ Moore said, “and the current administration is making things irreversibly worse.“
Mr. Moore is not the ideal champion of liberty.
Moore’s club is awaiting a state Alcoholic Beverage Control hearing on alleged violations. Earlier this year Moore was convicted of three misdemeanor charges related to having sex with a minor and another woman at his apartment in the club, and filming it illegally.
The bold Mr. Moore sent one of his “dancers”, Kaitlyn McGee, out to read a statement.
“Mr. Moore would like to say that anyone who believes that his banner is racist is an ignoramus.”
The ignoramuses from the NAACP said–
“…the Joker banner was typical of what they called escalating attacks on the president – from depictions of Obama as Hitler at rallies to South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson’s “You lie!” outburst during Obama’s recent nationally televised address to Congress.”
“Racism is as American as apple pie,” Khalfani [King Salim Khalfani, president of the Virginia NAACP] said. “The presence of a president that as African blood is very, very troublesome to many in this country.”
“As far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t really bother me,” she said. “You could say a lot worse things about him.”
It isn’t clear from the reporting to which man she is referring. You could say that about either. In fact, I think it is a neat response to the race card. Just imagine the reaction.
There are an array of jokers in this mix at implausibly named Shockoe Bottom, but the assault on free speech is no laughing matter. No situation is too small—or too ludicrous—for the enemies of liberty.
Just when you thought you’ve heard everything there’s this.
International reporters were not allowed in the area of fighting where the Tamil Tigers were defeated. There were large numbers of civilian casualties and suspicion of war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan army. A few weeks ago a video of executions was aired on the UK Channel 4 TV station. It shows what appears to be members of the military killing blindfolded, naked civilians. Channel 4 says the video was taken by a soldier with a mobile phone.
The Sri Lankan government claims the video is fake. The UN called for an independent investigation to determine the authenticity.
To bolster the government claim, an editorial writer for the Sri Lankan publication The Island offers in evidence the resurrection of Michael Jackson. I tried to avoid coverage of Michael Jackson so I missed this startling news. Maybe you did too.
A German broadcast group, RTL, decided to make a hoax video showing Michael Jackson walking out of the ambulance at the coroner’s office. The intent was to show how easy it is to establish conspiracy theories and have them spread on the Internet. The video was up on YouTube for one day and had over 880,000 views. Websites picked up on it and the story spread.
This, according to the writer, gives credence to the claims that the execution video is manufactured by enemies of Sri Lanka. There’s so much fakery going on all over the place and people are so gullible.
At the same time this really means nothing. The Obama Youth Worksheets for teachers have been sent and are widely available on the net. The call for teachers to weave the Obama narrative into their curriculum has been set. Obama’s 9/8 speech to students itself will likely be mundane; the real agenda here is not a one-day message from Dear Leader–it’s the opening of the door for the public school system to separate you from your children. Look, your kids likely have more time at school than they do with you. The effort to remove you as the moral tutors of your children has been an ongoing effort by left for decades. This is nothing new, the difference is we’ve reached the tipping point. Enough is enough.
The Obama administration is rethinking its course recommendations for students ahead of President Obama’s address to the the nation’s schoolchildren next week, rewriting its suggestions to teachers for student assignments on how to “help the president.”
White House aides said the language was supposed to be an inspirational, pro-education message to America’s youths, but its unintended consequences were evident.
Among the activities initially suggested for pre-K to 6th grade students was to “write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president.”
Another assignment for students after hearing the speech was to discuss what “the president wants us to do.”
The suggestion about writing letters has since been changed to: “Write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their short-term and long-term education goals. These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals.”
White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said the changes to the language are intended to make the lesson plans clearer. He added that the speech is not a policy speech, but is intended to encourage kids to work hard and commit to school.
So let me see–Urkel’s mob thinks it’s better now to admit this is not a ‘political’ effort, but an exercise to introduce the idea to your child that someone other than you is the moral tutor of your child.
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it
– Omar Khayyam
“He paid his debt to society” is a detestable phrase. I cringe every time I hear it.
I’m not focusing on Michael Vick, a man who delighted in savage cruelty to imprisoned animals and now wants the slate wiped clean. All the beneficiaries of this fictional ledger keeping are criminals. Often they committed more than one crime, diligently trying to avoid discovery. There was nothing in their hearts to make them stop on their own. After being caught they lie. They are given a trial where lawyers can use the generous technicalities of the law to their clients favor and avoid punishment.
Trials and sentences are about punishment not redemption. Incarceration is not a bizarre installment plan to pay off a moral balance. That isn’t possible. The crime is not undone. The victims are not uninjured. The effects of crime on the innocent are everlasting.
People like to muse about what they would do differently if they had their lives to live over again. A futile exercise. We can’t cancel out what’s been done. There’s no going back other than through our conscience. Our past incorporates into our conscience to determine what we will do tomorrow. We are judged everyday by others and by ourselves. This is what keeps a lot of people from committing crimes in the first place.
The law-abiding who are successful as a result of hard work are constantly told they owe a debt to society. Their nebulous debt has no limit, no expiration date. Why should we be less demanding when it comes to criminals?
This England never did, nor never shall,
Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror.
—- Shakespeare
Alas, today they will curl up anywhere for a nap. Britain has been conquered by fast food and Internet shopping. In a recent survey 73 percent said they had too little energy for sex. Just as well since two-thirds are too tired to play with their children.
The Brits need more exercise the experts say. How does this happen in a land with socialized health care?
A report meant to highlight the health concerns prompted by rising obesity levels has found that almost three-quarters of the people it surveyed in Britain — 73 percent — said they regularly had too little energy at the end of the day for passion with their partners. More than half — 52 percent — couldn’t be bothered to walk their dogs.
The survey by independent researchers at Nuffield Health, Britain’s largest health charity, concluded that a national reliance on remote controls, ready meals and even Internet shopping had prompted many people to put fitness plans on the back burner.
“The decision to exercise more is important for every individual, for one’s children and, it would appear, for one’s dog, too,” said Dr. Sarah Dauncey, medical director of Nuffield Health. “If we don’t start to take control of this problem, a whole generation will become too unfit to perform even the most rudimentary of tasks.”
“The only thing I’m tired of is being constantly called lazy and unhealthy by the government and doctors,” he said. “Every week we’re getting knocked by the government, or this survey or that. It’s a free country and perhaps if they spent some money on the ground where it counts rather than these surveys, we’d all be better off.”
They might do well to remember their heroic response when all Churchill had to offer was blood, toils, tears and sweat. How can they remember when they aren’t bothering to teach the kids about Churchill any more?
Margaret Thatcher once said what Britain needed was an Iron Lady. That would be the best medicine today too.
Are you familiar with Plato’s Cave? I’m not really making a political point here. But when I heard Tammy talk about the insular world of the Beltway, the cave allegory came to mind. Click “More” for a bit of basic philosophy. [click to continue…]
Race? I think not. This is White Collar Elites vs. Blue Collars
The Beer Meeting between Obama, Sgt, Crowley and Louis “I’ll talk to your Momma” Gates has apparently been set. Everyone, of course, refers to it as “Obama’s Beer Diplomacy,” when all initial reports indicated it was Crowley’s idea.
Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and the Cambridge police officer who arrested him June 16, Sgt. James Crowley, will hoist a cold one with the president Thursday evening, officials told ABC News…
Obama called Crowley and Gates on Friday and proposed that the three get together to discuss the incident at the White House over a beer. The White House is now hoping to turn the debate into a dialogue about racial profiling.
“I think the president sees this as an opportunity to get dialogue going on an issue that has… been historically troubling and one he has worked on,” White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Let’s set aside here for the moment Urkel and his Mob taking credit for Crowley’s suggestion. That malevolent White House crew has now announced they’re hoping to use this situation to make this class-based debacle into “a dialogue about racial profiling.” Even after the 911 tape confirmed it was not a race-based call, and the other officers at scene, of all complexions, confirmed this was a good arrest based on behavior, not skin color.
As Obama’s approval numbers crash and his agenda to bankrupt this nation crumbling, Obama is desperate to turn the tide the way he knows best–by stoking racist divisions. Bottom line: all this happened because Americans keep victimizing blacks, treating them with a different set of rules. As I noted on Tammy Radio and in my Special Report podcast on the issue, this is an issue of class, not race–White Collar Elitists versus Blue Collar Law Enforcement. After all, how dare someone beneath the President and his Harvard University professor friend dare to even enter their charmed and privileged lives?
President Obama did a walk-in during the White House press briefing this afternoon. Earlier today the Cambridge police asked for an apology from the President for his now infamous castigation of the officers arresting Prof. Gates as acting stupidly.
The President’s subsequent statement is in no way an apology. He regrets his words left an unfortunate mistaken impression. He says he should have calibrated his words differently. Then he scolds everyone else for over reacting. Was it not over reacting for the President to make a one-sided conclusion without having the facts?
He starts by admitting he contributed to ratcheting up the incident and ends by claiming the attention to the issue speaks to historical African-American sensitivity. He continues looking at this with bias. He sees only half of it. There was a response to the President’s insults because America is getting fed up with the race card.
Obama calls this a teachable moment; we should spend more time listening to each other. I thought that was supposed to be his forte. He disagrees with those who say he shouldn’t have stepped into it because he is the President. He thinks it is within his portfolio to step in because race is still a troubling aspect of our society. It is not within a President’s portfolio to pour gasoline on a fire. Obama will not step out of his community organizer, radical agitator role.
He couldn’t help but notice this issue took precious time away from discussing health care. No doubt that is the real incentive for his remarks today. I don’t think the issue will fade as quickly as Obama would like. He ends it humorously by sharing exasperation with Sgt. Crowley about the press trampling the lawn and invites Crowley and Gates over for a beer. Nice try for the common touch. The magic is starting to sputter. The halo is starting to fall.
*UPDATE The Fox Panel weighs in. Obama gets slammed by all.
CNN: Talk Radio – Fairness
by Pat_S on October 21, 2009 · 11 comments
A post by Pat
The last day of the series. Carol Costello examines the question of fairness. That Fairness Doctrine thing is long gone. Not even Obama wants that. Noooo. Localism, well that’s something else.
Randi Rhodes demonstrates the liberal talk talent to speak out of both sides of your mouth without using your brain. She’s in the D.C. market but for cryin’ out loud, the conservative shows rule the airwaves even there. Randi insists that for the sake of diversity, there should be less conservative radio in liberal localities. That’s localism. On the other hand, she’d love to get a shot at conservative audiences. That’s fairness.
Camille Paglia uses her brain and nuked the BS in one sentence.
Carol Costello to her credit remained consistent that talk radio is just a business.
The CNN series may be over, but the air war isn’t. This administration goes after its critics and has no tolerance for opposition. Stay tuned.
{ 11 comments }