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.
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.
About this whole thing, maybe I’m just naive about the industry…but okay, give us a 3-hour conservative show followed by a 3-hour liberal show – or vice versa. I’m sure the advertisers will spend their money where the listenership is. I mean, what’s so hard about that?
I get that the Bigs are trying to limit Conservative talk by limit licensing stuff and all…but in the end, isn’t it the fans and money in the end? No football fans….no football. No baseball fans….no baseball. No golf fans…nevermind you guys get it.
Whatever – renewal of license yearly, monthly, whatever…when there are Conservative radio shows, I will listen because that is what is interesting to me – and obviously what is interesting to most. When there is liberal drivvel, I will not listen – simple as that. If it’s not on the dial, FM or AM, I will search the internet for people like Tammy. For you in the biz…what am I missing?
I used to live in south FL, and would sometimes inadvertently listen to Rhodes for a few minutes here and there. She has a following of NE liberal transplants settled in Palm Beach, Broward and Dade counties. The only time I agreed with her was during the OJ trial because she did not hide her belief that he was guilty. I was a little surprised to hear she wanted to clear the playing field in liberal markets so conservatives would have no choice but to listen to her; she used to brag as if she relished the competition. She was so ecstatic to get the Air America gig to be heard nationwide. Liberal talk radio fails everywhere for all the reasons already stated by the TAMs led by Pat_S. AA stayed propped up by frequent cash infusions from wealthy leftists. They had no listeners and thus could not get advertisers.
Side note: She’s had quite a bit of cosmetic surgery. ..probably the reason for the bangs to cover scars. Imagine how ugly she was before. Is that too mean? Sorry. I can’t take it back, it’s already typed.
It all comes down to MONEY. Liberal talk radio just can’t pull the numbers it needs to make any advertisers want to spend their dollars there. If stations are forced to air programming dictated by the government they will be out of business. Maybe we need a radio czar?? (kidding)
Oh, and not using her brain… Randi Rhodes is very good at it. I will give her that much. 🙂
OK, in the spirit of the (ahem) “Fairness Doctrine”, I went in search of Randi Rhodes – never heard of her before this CNN series and PatPOST. Found some archived broadcasts online, tried some samples. Fingernails on chalkboard. Found her website – wants $kibbles$ in exchange for current audio, but alas I ate my allotment for today. Perused her blog for 10/21/09~ after one muddled paragraph on health care she dives into refreshing new territory: “Now here’s your blast from the past: He’s baaaaaaaaaack! And he has advice!” Yup, breaking news on George W. Bush.
May I be excused please? I have to go outside and eat some grass.
I get a little bit of what is going on by some information (fatter than me ) Bob Bickel gave out the other night. He said he did some internal polling for the slop bucket aka the DNC. He found that Hannity’s listeners were only 50% Conservatives and the rest were Independents and Democrats.
So what Randi- Foul- Mouth- Rhodes would get a shot at is the potential of persuading the Indy’s and Demos to her way of thinking.
Dick Morris is always hinting at the Indy target group,also. He says that group should be catered to if Republicans want to take back the White House.
I personally cannot stand a fence sitter. I take in information and decide early what I want thus making me very unlikely to be persuaded by a sales pitch after that point.
The first time I heard Randi Rhodes I listened intently to her. I wondered how someone could be so crude without really saying anything substantive.
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Pat Es…, I just now had a feeling that your posts must have been what it was like to tag along with Matt Drudge when he first began. I am still on the kick that you would be interesting to listen to if you had your own talk radio show.
Anyway…we will always find on the dial you and Tammy and others like you and probably not pay too much attention to scummy polls and Obama Thug take-overs.
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So if I say – It is no longer “The White House” – but “The Mao House” – I need to have Anita Dunn confirm it? –
Yeah, way back when Randi did a local show on WIOD here in Miami. That worked out so well she ended up moving to a station in West Palm Beach.
Funny… Oh yeah, that’s right. She still reached the same lib audience. Is she still on down there? I assume yes. (I’m now in central FL) Remember that Rogers guy? He was even more obnoxious.
Her little plaque says “Fairness On The Air” “Right, Left, and listeners in the middle.” That implies the listeners are just passive recipients. So “talk” has to be brought into a leftist idea of “fairness.” What they can’t stand, what their real problem is, the listeners are NOT passive. The listeners recognize the solid reasoning, the historical sense, the factuality, integral to conservative thought, and gravitate to it despite the endless sea of fringe media, television and Hollywood liberal propaganda. Truth is so powerful they must silence it. Localism crapolism. These creeps are just trying to leave people with no free speech sources for the truth. They want to strangle conservative talk while grabbing up the money to finance more propaganda. The rule of opposites applies here. Liberals effect the opposite of what they claim to intend. By localism they really mean centralism. Central Governmental control of the peoples access to free speech.
There used to be a lot more local radio stations. What killed it? TV. The economic model didn’t work anymore. What we’re seeing is the economically viable model. Any major attempt to mess with that will kill talk radio, and AM radio will just play sports and evangelical preachers, with the occasional news break.
For those who want local radio, there’s public radio. I have a public radio station in my town.
Czars are more than just an end run around Congress. They are a symptom. When laws are so codified that they apply universally they comply with what defines “rule of law” when laws require a Czar to apply them selectively, it is an end run around rule of law. What we see now is arbitrary. Quoting F.A Hayek in “The Road to Serfdom”:
“It is very significant and characteristic that socialists (and Nazis) have always protested against “merely” formal justice, that they have always objected to a law which had no view on how well off particular people ought to be, and that they have always demanded a “socialization of the law,” attacked the independence of judges, and at the same time given their support to ……movements….” Ring a bell? Anyone hear a highly placed politician bemoan civil rights changes having relied greatly on the courts? Refer to social justice and movements to effect redistribution in his speeches? Maybe played back on Glenn Beck?
Hayek certainly knew his Fascists.