[narby]

Actually, I do worry about the media being owned by too few companies.

All it takes is for one Ted Turner to buy up all the media and decide to program the useful idiots out there to follow him to the commune.

Competition is good.

[The Wizard]

can you spell c-o-w

[HumanaeVitae]

The U.S. now ranks 17th, below Costa Rica and Slovenia, on the worldwide index of press freedom established by the Reporters Without Borders.

Wow. I bet they're just as unbiased as Medicins Sans Frontieres... (Doctors Without Borders)

[Nick Danger]

One company, Clear Channel, owns more than 1,200 stations

And they bought them up just as satellite-based digital radio was being perfected. Their mistake.

[fightinJAG]

Memo to Molly:

No matter who owns radio stations, for example, they usually own them to MAKE MONEY.

Stations MAKE MONEY when they play stuff that people want to hear, and thereby expose themselves to advertisers who PAY MONEY.

If there was a massive audience for one of these left-wing hosts, that host would have burst upon the national scene by now.

Sorry.

[YoungKentuckyConservative]

On the two Eugene talk stations, Monks found: "There are 80 hours per week, more than 4,000 hours per year, programmed for Republican and conservative talk shows, without a single second programmed for a Democratic or liberal perspective. . . . Political opinions expressed on talk radio are approaching the level of uniformity that would normally be achieved only in a totalitarian society. There is nothing fair, balanced or democratic about it."

That's because brainless morons, "aka", liberals, cannot think for themselves. Radio involves an intimate relationship with the discussion and arguments. It requires analytical computation and cognotive processing. Television, on the other hand, requires you to push buttons on a remote and nod your head in agreement when the "leftist" zealot mashes lies into your eardrum.

I can't foresee a liberal making it on talk radio. You can only say the same rhetoric, without exposing the facts and logical conclusions that stem from them, for so long. It's the "facts" and "logic" that make talk a radio such a hit. The intelligent underground of America is glued to their radio and has unplugged the cadre of newspeak. The liberals are flaming mad about it and I expect a full blown attack on radio in the upcoming years.

[spunkets]

" On the two Eugene talk stations, Monks found: "There are 80 hours per week, more than 4,000 hours per year, programmed for Republican and conservative talk shows, without a single second programmed for a Democratic or liberal perspective. . . ."

To Molly the red: You leftists own and operate the nations largest propaganda network and more than half of it is funded with taxpayer dollars. These folks do their shows with their own resources and effort. You odn't like their success, so you bitch. How typical of the left to insist they be forced to shut down, because they have succeeded.

[L.N. Smithee]

Is the free market not supposed to encourage competition rather than lead to its disappearance? The U.S. now ranks 17th, below Costa Rica and Slovenia, on the worldwide index of press freedom established by the Reporters Without Borders.

Oh, really, Molly. Well, the U.S. is #1 in press freedom on the worldwide index established by Me Without A Post-Office Box and Stationery.

[driftless]

There is absolutely nothing, including lack of money, stopping liberals from setting up their own radio big mouth. The fact is they stink at the talk radio format. If they were successful at getting some idiot to achieve good ratings, it wouldn't bother me in the slightest. The fact is they're enormously irritated at the reality of their long-time dominance of media being over. And they're worried sick that liberalism may have come to a dead end.

[goGOP]

I once saw MS Ivins at the Rep State Convention in Ft Worth about 10 years ago, I mistook her for a homeless person in front of the convention center. All seriousness aside there were homeless people that were better groomed than she at that convention.

A couple of years ago she did a column in the local liberal rag detailing how the day she was diagnosed with breast cancer her father was also diagnosed with lung cancer & blew his brains out. After reading that column I pittied rather than loathed her.

[punster]

Moly Ivins is an absolute, utter idiot. She needs to be institutionalized, so she can be properly cared for.

[Steve_Seattle]

"the constitutional requirement . . .for the widest possible dissemination of information . . ."

Generally, I agree with her point about the negative effects of consolidation of media ownership into a few hands, but it is bulls**t to suggest this is grounded in the Constitution. If anything, the Constitution would tend to oppose government regulation of the news media, even if the ostensible purpose is to enable "diversity." If government has the power to legislate diversity, it would also have the power to legislate uniformity. It has the authority to do neither, in my opinion.

[Steve_Seattle]

"Eugene, Oregon"

Eugene is held under the spell of Rush Limbaugh? Mr. Monk has lost his mind. Eugene is one of the most liberal places in America.

[He Rides A White Horse]

We already know what happens when the free market zealots remove restrictions on ownership.

Very telling phrase...............free market proponents are called zealots.

We have a word for those who are opposed to free market principles and private ownership of property.

We call them 'communists', Molly.

[VRWC_minion]

The FCC is doing this in an almost covert way

If its covert, how did this info end up in a nationally syndicated column ?

[BillF]

Is the free market not supposed to encourage competition rather than lead to its disappearance? The U.S. now ranks 17th, below Costa Rica and Slovenia, on the worldwide index of press freedom established by the Reporters Without Borders.

The ranking by this organization has NOTHING to do with any media domination or ownership concentration.

From the Reporters Without Borders (RWB) website:

Costa Rica better placed than the United States

The poor ranking of the United States (17th) is mainly because of the number of journalists arrested or imprisoned there. Arrests are often because they refuse to reveal their sources in court. Also, since the 11 September attacks, several journalists have been arrested for crossing security lines at some official buildings.

Although it's true that journalists in the U.S. are sometimes jailed for refusing to reveal sources, many states in the U.S. have shield laws allowing journalists to maintain confidentiality of their sources, under certain circumstances. Those states that don't have express shield laws will often allow journalists to keep sources confidential.

RWB faults the U.S. for arresting journalists for crossing police lines? They should also deduct points from the U.S. because U.S. police also give reporters speeding and parking tickets when the reporters are chasing a stories.

RWB is a France-based organization that may do some valuable work for reporters covering various despots, but their evaluation of the U.S. has no credibility.

RWB ranks France ahead of the U.S. in press freedom. France, where police seized books for national security violations because the text claimed that the late French leader Mitterand lied about his health, has much less press freedom than the U.S.