Posted on 11/10/2008 1:19:49 PM PST by Ouderkirk
Talk radio lost this federal election in two big ways. Its candidate, Republican John McCain, got creamed. And its most dedicated enemies, who want to trim talk radio’s sails, were massively empowered.
Elements of the team of Presidentelect Barack “Hussein” Obama, as they were fond of calling him, and the expanded Democratic majority will move to remind broadcasters of a fundamental tenet of broadcast law.
That is, that the airwaves do not belong to the station “owners,” as they call themselves, but to the people of the United States of America.
The concept that station “owners” were mere licensees who kept their permits on grounds of good behavior and community service was undermined by President Bill Clinton in 1996 and then totally lost under President Bush.
As station ownership became more consolidated, talk radio became more virulent, if not violent, and one-sided.
Statistics on licensees are hard to come by. But Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., noted that in just seven years the number of owners nationwide was cut by 25 percent; that four owners control 80 percent of the New York City market.
Minority ownership fell by 14 percent between 1996 and 2003. So did women ownership.
“Prior to 1996,” Feingold said, “one company couldn’t own more than 20 AM stations and 20 FM stations. Now two companies [nationally] control 42 percent of the content that reaches listeners and 45 percent of industry revenues.”
In the Buffalo Niagara market, ownership is similarly concentrated. From rough data I cobbled together from the Center for Public Integrity and other Web sites, at least 20 of the 34 stations serving the region are owned by only four companies, including one firm that controls seven outlets. With consolidation came irresponsibility.
The basic service that a broadcast
licensee owes a community is truth. As the election neared, that commodity was in short supply.
Obama was compared to Hitler on the “Mark Levin Show.” Obama would open the United States to an “invasion” of Muslims, according to the “Gunny” Bob Newman show. On the Lee Rodgers show, critics of Obama were going to “be jailed or killed.” Host Neal Boortz wanted to know how many prayer rugs Obama owns.
Bill O’Reilly falsely claimed on the radio that Obama did not vote to condemn a Moveon.org ad that lampooned Gen. David Petraeus.
With concentration of control, there is no effective way to answer the lies and smears on the radio. The Internet, whose ownership is still under question, is a useful way. But that’s a subject for another day.
Some Democrats, such as Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, want to restore the equal time rule, abolished under President Ronald Reagan. Rep. Louise
M. Slaughter, D-Fairport, chairwoman of the House Rules Committee, has also backed the return of this rule, which would require broadcasters to air opposing views.
There are constitutional issues related to imposing equal time. So the Democratic route seems to be to roll-back media consolidation.
Slaughter is co-founder and cochairwoman of the (congressional) Future of American Media caucus. She sponsored a resolution that could overturn a Bush administration rule relaxing even further restrictions on media consolidation.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N. Y., is a co-sponsor of the Senate companion. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N. Y., is not. In the House, 58 Democrats backed Slaughter’s bill. Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, is not among them.
The legislation landed in committee. It is sure to be reintroduced in the next Congress. The fetid puddle of falsehoods and coarseness that talk radio has become was 12 years in the making. The work of flushing it out starts in January.
XM and Sirius is fee for service and on a specific narrow band. They’re not public airwaves. I suppose Obama could charge exhorbinant fees to launch anynew sats but I think the French would be happy to pick up the slack. I expect Sirius XM will be where Rush and Sean and a few others will wind up. At that time I’ll sign up for sat radio.
When I was a teen I became a long distance radio nut. I was a big sports fan and loved listening to the pirates on WWVA in Wheeling, which introed me to country music. I began to enjoy just listening to the varied voices of America and Canada. One station that came through in the clear at night was around 800 on the AM band. It was a religious show from Bonaire in the Netherlands Antilles. They must have been using a 500KW transmitter. If the international agreements haven’t changed I suspect that conservative talk radio could find such a home,if necessary. Of course it would limit talk to the evening,but the idea of a Radio Free America does have its interesting possiblities. This would also test the current radio personalities’ committment to a conservative ideal.
Do we get to talk about the “chill wind” yet?
Cacique, this cannot happen. Check your Freepmail...
Hey, I wonder if Voice of America’s charter is still good.
What fools the fascist leftists are. Dangerous fools.
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