[Jimmy Valentine's brother]

Um, Freezie CBS has violated a public trust. It requires Federal licenses to operate. It has failed to perform its constitutional duty.

Just spit balling here but isn't CBS in some sort of lea gal danger?

"In Red Lion, Justice White explained that differences in the characteristics of various media justify differences in First Amendment standards applied to them. Thus, while there is a protected right of everyone to speak, write, or publish as he will, subject to very few limitations, there is no comparable right of everyone to broadcast. The frequencies are limited and some few must be given the privilege over others. The particular licensee, however, has no First Amendment right to hold that license and his exclusive privilege may be qualified. Qualification by censorship of content is impermissible, but the First Amendment does not prevent a governmental insistence that a licensee ''conduct himself as a proxy or fiduciary with obligations to present those views and voices which are representative of his community and which would otherwise, by necessity, be barred from the airwaves.'' Further, said Justice White, ''[b]ecause of the scarcity of radio frequencies, the Government is permitted to put restraints on licensees in favor of others whose views should be expressed on this unique medium. But the people as a whole retain their interest in free speech by radio and their collective right to have the medium function consistently with the ends and purposes of the First Amendment. It is the right of the viewers and listeners, not the right of the broadcasters, which is paramount.''

I am not a lawyer nor do I play one on TV ;>)

[FreeTheHostages]

You are correct.

The FCC can and should be more aggressive on all of this.

The "as she sees it" stuff at the time of the Gore 2000 debacle was pretty blatant, too.

On the other hand, Rather is *like* (not is) a racist in that sometimes it's nice to have the bias be so overt and blatant, rather than subtle and hidden, so you can see what you're dealing with and defeat it. Rather's nothing if not wearing his political heart on his sleeve.

Still and all, it's a scandal that CBS didn't fire him.

Hope you're doing well.

Courage!,