Posted on 01/31/2008 9:18:02 AM PST by coffee260
Lets say youre attacking someone every day, criticizing some perceived enemy in a tone that is bitter, highly personal, spiteful and relentless. Now imagine, for the sake of argument, that at the very climax of your over-the-top abuse, the object of your assaults makes a point to defend your right to continue to slime him.
Wouldnt it be appropriate to interrupt your derision for a few moments at least, to acknowledge the other guys courage and integrityand to salute his support for the First Amendment?
Why, then, no acknowledgement by the most prominent conservative talkers on the radio of John McCains principled and appropriate efforts to block Democrats who seek to reinstitute the awful Fairness Doctrine?
Please check out this brief, but hugely important piece by Mike Sunnocks for the Phoenix Business Journal from June 29, 2007:
McCAIN INTRODUCES TALK RADIO LEGISLATION
Arizona Sen. John McCain has introduced federal legislation to protect talk radio shows from the reinstatement of past rules that required dissenting voices be given equal time on their shows.
McCain and fellow GOP Senators John Thune of South Dakot and Norm Coleman of Minnesota have put forward legislation preventing the reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine.
The Fairness Doctrine was done away with in 1987 but previously required political radio shows to offer equal time to opposing viewpoints as part of their Federal Communications Commission licenses.
A number of Democrats and liberal advocates want the Fairness Doctrine put back in place. They do not like the fact talk radio is dominated by conservatives such as Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage and Laura Ingraham.
McCain said imposing such rules would stifle free speech and there are plenty of political viewpoints in the marketplace.
Conservative radio talkers have criticized McCain for his stance in favor of immigration reform.
Reasonable people will agree, I think, that this last line is an almost comical understatement. Conservative talkers didnt just criticize McCain on immigration they ripped him, reamed him, smeared him every hour of every day, particularly in the middle of last summer (with immigration hysteria at its height).
In other words, at the very moment that talk show hosts concentrated their angry fire on McCain himself (more than any Democrat), the Arizona Senator introduced legislation to defend them from big-government/liberal interference. (A similar bill to block the Fairness Doctrine was introduced in the House by Congressman Mike Pence of Indianahimself a former radio hostand passed easily).
I became aware of McCains role in this issue as part of my efforts to defend the Senator from the ridiculous charges that he has no respect for free speech or the Constitution. It occurred to me that he could counter such current attacks by standing up strongly against the Fairness Doctrine. I planned to communicate with the Senator to convey my bright idea, but after researching the issue I discovered he was way ahead of me: hed already introduced his Free Speech Protection legislation some six months ago.
There are two important points that need to be made about this issue:
Its important to me as a talk show host and as an American that John McCain has already stood up to defend conservative talk radio even while its most prominent practitioners used their microphones to defame the man every day. A lesser politician might easily succumb to the temptation to deploy government power or even the threat of government power to silence the chorus of hysterically strident voices raised against him. McCains refusal to do so says something powerful about his character.
And the fact that leading talkers have never acknowledged the Senators integrity and leadership on this issue also reveals something significant about the character of his critics.
HIllary News
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1962796/posts
Pass it on to Medved
Ted Kennedy = chapaquidic.
He will never get my vote. Never!
John McCain = Keating five.
He will never get my vote. Never!
It’s a shame, because I have always considered Medved the best and smartest guy on talk radio. I guess a stopped clock can be right twice a day and a really smart guy can let his bias think for him on occasion.
I strongly disagree with him on this one. And it actually goes far beyond the keating five. It is just that the keating five is all that is needed. It is the fatal wound.
>>Will conservatives begin to turn him off?<<
Not me. I will give him more than one strike. Although his belief that there may be sasquatches is another strike.
If the Fairness Doctrine is reinstated, will stations that carry Medved’s show be required to give equal time to a conservative?
Listen to Mark Levin on now
http://wm-eon.vitalstreamcdn.com/live_eonwmss_vitalstream_com_abc-wmalam1
I have stopped listening to Medved. I think he has become a RAT again.
He is trying to ram McCain down my throat.
He is doing exactly what he says other talk show hosts are doing.
What a hypocrite.
Now that’s funny.
So would McCain. Even if the only way he could get the new improved Fairness Doctrine passed would be to let Hillary et al. sell this country down the river, he'd do it. When have you ever seen McCain offer any opposition to liberals beyond a "yes" or "no" vote?
McCain is not going to bite the hand of his masters at CNN...
An understatement. Meved started out by lamenting negative campaigning, and ended by sneering at Romney's profligate spending & rationalizing McCain's dishonest smear tactics.
But what really drives me nuts is how he prefaces an attack on anyone (but McCain) by declaring what a nice guy he is. As if that sets him above those other nasty talk show hosts involved in negative attacks.
Because of a change in programming I've listening to him for several weeks, but he's really pulled my chain lately. Can't do it anymore.
We carried the Medved show when we first went News/Talk...it was the only we option we had since ABC was asking big dollars for Hannity.(Rush is expensive enough!) After a couple of years, and quite a few nasty emails and phone calls, our listeners seemed to accept him and settled down...until the immigration (amnesty) bill. It was amazing how many of our listeners turned on him; it got ugly ALL over again. Then...divine providence arrived.
Last August, ABC came to their senses and offered us Hannity with no cash outlay...it was the perfect opportunity to rid ourselves of such an unpopular host. I did so. I took 5 negative calls about dumping his show. I took them gladly, made sympathetic sounds, and sped them on their way. Granted, Hannity’s no prize, but he’s better than Medved.
Google Shuts Down Anti-Obama Sites on its Blogger Platform
Publius’ Forum | 6/29/08 | Warner Todd Huston
Posted on 06/29/2008 1:53:36 PM PDT by Mobile Vulgus
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2038256/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/fairnessdoctrine/index
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