Posted on 07/30/2008 8:52:08 AM PDT by Reagan Man
I distinctly remember when my phone at my Washington hotel room rang at 1 AM during the spring of 1996. A distraught President Clinton was calling. “We’re getting killed on radio,” he blurted into the phone as soon as I picked it up.
“What do you mean?” I answered blearily trying to get a grip on what he was talking about.
“Hillary’s mothe r just drove here from Pennsylvania and all during the trip she heard them saying the most awful things about me on radio,” the president explained.
“On whose show?” I probed.
“Rush Limbaugh,” Clinton replied.
“He’s been on your case for years,” I answered.
“Yeah, but its getting serious,” he insisted.
The next morning, I got in touch with Terry McAuliffe at the Democratic National Committee to discuss setting up a war room to feed talking points to liberal talk show hosts to counter the pernicious influence of Rush!
Now that the wind blows at my back – no longer in my face – Rush sure comes in handy when its time to put the liberals in their place. There is, quite simply, nobody like him.
After all, before there was talk radio, there was Rush.
And before there was Fox News, there was Rush.
And before there was NewsMax, there was Rush.
And before their was Sean Hannity or Neil Boortz or Michael Medved or Dennis Prager or Mike Gallagher, there was Rush.
No other modern political commentator can lay claim to founding a branch of political discourse.
Honoring Rush for his contributions to America is not an empty exercise. At this moment, the liberal forces that hope to come to power with Barack Obama are set on a course to destroy the very institution that Rush founded – talk radio. Through a rigid application of the so-called fairness doctrine, they threaten to drive talk radio off the air and onto the Internet. Who knows if the listeners and the advertisers will follow?
Their goal is not to assure that liberals will be heard on the airwaves, but to guarantee that conservatives will not. The liberals know that left wing talk radio does not attract an audience and is a financial black hole. The collapse of Air America attests to that fact. NPR, black radio, Hispanic stations, and radio aimed at young people creams off the bulk of the would-be audience for liberal talk radio. So if stations can only air Rush or Sean or Neil if they also air the likes of Al Franken, they’ll probably cancel all talk radio and play music instead.
In our new book Fleeced, my wife Eileen McGann and I also raise the prospect that the left will seek to enforce sections of the FCC law which require “community participation” in the “ownership and management” of radio stations. As the National Review has pointed out, this can be a cover for infiltrating boards of directors and programming departments with liberals – an effort to hijack talk radio.
The liberals wouldn’t be trying to destroy talk radio if it weren’t working. And it was Rush who founded it and Rush who still leads the parade. Having attempted to discredit him, imprison him, silence him, or cow him, they have failed miserably. And, as a result, Rush still rules….and rocks!
Even then, the media outlets were about equal, so White's Opinion was about 20 years behind the technological curve. Today, almost half the daily newspapers which existed then, have disappeared. Meantime, media outlets have exploded into tens of thousands (TV) and hundreds of thousands (radio). And that's not counting the Internet, pod casting, etc.
So, the factual basis of the Red Lion case has not only disappeared, it has reversed. Only a grossly dishonest Supreme Court could possibly stand on Red Lion and uphold a new Fairness Doctrine, regardless of whether it came from a new FCC or a new Congress.
Of course, that discounts the possibility that President Obama would appoint dishonest Justices who would rule the way the politics dictated, and say to Hell with the Constitution.
Congressman Billybob
Ninth in the ten-part series, "The Owner's Manual (Part 9) -- The Bill of Rights"
Still, Rush deserves kudos for advancing conservatism.
I vividly recall sitting in my office parking lot during lunch hour to catch my first Rush show (on recommendation from my brother).
I was awed, delighted, and amused. That was the summer of 1992.
The Fairness Doctrine plot is a bit overblown IMO. There is overwhelming public and commercial support for unrestrained talk radio. The emergence of satellite radio and Internet podcasts makes the entire purpose of the FD to seem a bit antiquated. I don’t think the public would ever permit such a gross intrusion of the government into free speech on the airwaves.
Finally, the reason Clear Channel paid Rush $400 million isn’t merely his commercial status, but because he is their best insurance against the Fairness Doctrine. It will take only one Rush talking 3 hours every day against it to make certain that the FD is never put into place again.
The Issue:
Once again, liberal leaders are pushing the so-called “Fairness Doctrine” to silence conservative leaders like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin. Their goal is clear -- silence conservative speech over the radio airwaves. Read MRC’s Special Report: Unmasking The Fairness Doctrine (.pdf)
The Media Research Center
Bump ditto
Bbut, isn’t “black hole” racist?
They mix conservative hosts with people like Randi Rhodes and Stephanie Miller.
The idea is a pretty good one (for their sakes) because if I tune in to hear Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, or Neal Boortz - sometime I get burned by the liberal idiots.
The funny thing is that their strategy is to use the popularity and inertia of conservatives to carry the liberal message.
Congrats, Rush! wow...20...
I will say this...even I get fed up when he spends hours talking about football or namedropping. Come on! People listen for the politics, guy!
If only McCain listened to Rush!
[sigh]
You’re a moron... Post your drivel on the Savage thread... After all, Weiner’s your idol. He’s an absolute lunatic Skum.
Great... one of the most influential conservatives in the country, and you want him silenced... Fess up, you’re really a liberal, aren’t you?
Only to racists!
Really?
True. OTOH. At one time, McCain was a conservative. If only McCain hadn't abandoned Reaganism.
Rush will be the last to go. Rush brings in enough listeners and advertising money that stations could afford to put on three hours of dead air to balance him - and a leftist show wouldn't have too much lower rating than that. Local and national hosts with small numbers of stations will be the first ones replaced with garden or sports talk shows.
I think so too. As I recall, the FD only applies to either public broadcasts and/or actual news casts and conservative talk radio falls under entertainment. Government laws to stop talk radio would be censorship and would surely be challenged in court for decades if need be.
Congratulations on 20 years!! You are Talk Radio!!
Don’t be to sure. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that the Left doesn’t like conflicting opinions. They were shouting people down forty years ago at the universities, and they’re still trying to do it today.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.