Letters to the Editor
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Dems sealed their fate by not going after righwing talk juggernaut
Why on earth has the Dem Congress not held hearings into the right wing talk radio disinformation juggernaut, which dwarfs Fox and all other elements and exceeds anything Goebbels ever dreamed of.
The prestigious Annenberg School at Penn (funded by the conservo TV GUide fortune) has studied talk radio for a dozen years and finds massive "false certainty" on every issue affecting 50 million listeners who have swung the past 5 out of 6 elections. Kathleen Hall Jameson of Annenberg would be an excellent key witness in high-profile hearings designed to educate the public as to how their politics became so false and nasty, and to pressure ownership to being bringing some balance back to the AM radio dial.
Lacking this, the media corporations intend to keep AM radio entirely slanted to the right, as the recent rollout of Dennis Miller's new show on 100 stations proves - Rosanne debuted at the same time with exactly one station, tiny KCAA in Riverside, California (she had a live interview with Madonna which was as powerful as it was unheard).
You simply cannot win against these guys lacking a perfect storm of scandal and failed war. They hold the balance of power in this country with unchallenged ability to endlessly lie and distort 24/7 on most big AM stations in every market large and small. Yet their utter falsity is itself a scandal that would stun the majority who don't participate and aren't duped, yet experience the media food chain that promotes fantastical lies into conventional wisdom.
Meanwhile, tiny Air America as a failing business was beating many of the right's titans in assorted markets around the country, and is credited by Howard Dean in helping to swing a dozen 06 races. Even this was too much of a threat since Clear Channel began shutting down AAR affiliates (all 3 in key Ohio) right after the election on false premises. College Republicans openly targeted AAR at their convention for a dirty tricks brigade of bloggers and saboteurs. The right will fight to the death to protect the machine they used to take over and wreck the government. Only Congress can save us.