Letters to the Editor
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In Case This Turns Into a Rational Argument
RichEmery is right: like everything else the freakazoids and wingnuts spout, it's got nothing to do with the facts and everything to do with terrifying people into obeying Dear Leader.
However, on the off chance that someone might want to discuss this rationally, here's one reality-based point to get things started:
The Fairness Doctrine has nothing to do with censorship or keeping people off the air for saying anything, no matter how racist, obscene or stupid (although other FCC rules obviously do.)
The Fairness Doctrine simply demands equal time for differing points of view. Under the Fairness Doctrine, Limbaugh could have called democrats every name under the sun, as long as he gave Bill Maher the exact same amount of time at the same time of day to call republicans every name under the sun.
Freakazoids and wingnuts are unable to compete under the Fairness Doctrine not because of censorship, but because their "ideas" cannot compete on a level playing ground.
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Bravo uncommon sense
No need for me to add, just applauding a thoughtful letter I read twice because I enjoyed it. Conservatives, please!!
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As a Liberal...
I'd like to go on record as saying that I have no interest whatsoever in seeing America outlaw Rush Limbaugh's speech.
I would explcitly NOT support any public figure who wanted to see that happen.
The liberals I vote for are defenders of the Constitution who understand that Limbaugh has a right to continue his public gas-baggery.
That said, if any private indivdual representing the interests of a private corporation decides to fire Limbaugh's drugged bloated screeching vasterical ass...you won't catch me crying.
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Imus was no liberal
I was against Imus being fired, and I enjoyed his show on occasion, but the notion that he was a liberal is absolutely laughable. It is right-wing spin to say he was a liberal -- they want to make him a martyr of "political correctness" so they have something to bloviate about. This is reminiscent of their claim that March of the Penguins supported intelligent design.
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I advocate the extermination of all Republicans everywhere
On an industrial scale. And that my friends is political speech. If there was, hypothetically speaking, a death squad that went out and assassinated notable conservatives in the media and politics the country could be saved from their clutches. And that too is political speech. I am fine with living by their rules.
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Does Limbaugh Insult Kids?
Imus called the girls and young ladies of Rutgers whores. It was not political, and you can leave out the racist component. Still you have a great case for dumping Imus: Insulting kids.
Does Rush do that? If he does, can him. But we have to put up with him if he insults and lies about adult public figures.
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Right Wing Talk
Terrific reporting....It appears that conservative radio hosts fear their franchises beginning to fade....I don't think most of them actually believe the nonsense they spew but their base of older people and rednecks want to hear it without any opposition view.
One of the major slimeballs of the right, Dick Morris, makes a nice living sliming the Clintons. I wonder if he's making enough to pay for his toe sucking fetish?
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Limbaugh Attacking Kids
The college aged women of Rutgers are women, not kids, and I remember Rush saying some pretty vile things about Chelsea Clinton being the "family dog" when Chelsea was twelve and her father was being sworn into office.
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debonair73,
liberals are not going to take down Limbaugh. The conservaties are going to do that themselves. Rush is going to get caught one too many times going to a sex trade destination (such as the Dominican Republic) with a suitcase full of viagra and cash (sound familiar?), and someone somewhere (probably some ambitious jihad preacher) is going ask the question: Why is a single born-again Christian going to a destination specializing in the sex trade with cash and viagra?
Limbaugh is going to be outed as a closeted gay man and then his so-called supporters will abandon him. The right can forgive drunks, drug addicts, chicken hawks, drug pushers, scammers, adulterous conduct (as long as it's straight and not gay)and all manner of slime (Falwell, Robertson, Scarborough) but it can't handle gay. You heard it here, first. Rush is a closeted gay man, and one day, he'll be outed. And the cons will have done this one themselves.
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Fairness
How depressing when "fairness" becomes a dirty word. What exactly is wrong with the public airwaves representing the public? Actually trying to prevent a balanced approach is IN FACT censorship.
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My but how conservatives...
love to play victim. You would think the hypocrisy would get to them, but then I remember that hypocrisy is one of the only unchanging "values" on the right.
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Racism okay; Sex not okay?!?
Kincaid drew a similar distinction in an interview with Salon, saying he favored the FCC's monitoring of broadcasts for sexual indecency, but that he would not support similar measures against racist speech.
"Then you're getting into political speech," Kincaid said, "and what one defines as, quote, 'racism.' How do you define the term? I don't want the FCC to define that."
One can reasonably argue that sexual content - and the decency or indecency therein - is subject to political implications, and should have similar protection under the first amendment from federal or state infringement.
The FCC should mainly be concerned with protecting media access and enforcing fair licensing requirements of what remains, so far anyway, a public trust. With so much diversity of programming and parental controls, content regulation is no longer needed (if it ever was).
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Impulses
My first impulse: From your keyboard to God's monitor!
Second: Yes, let's go after Limbaugh. And let's not stop there. Sean Hannity, (m)Ann Coulter, Michael Savage, Laura Ingraham, Gordon Liddy, Oliver North, Michelle "internment camps" Malkin, and lesser forms of lowlife such as Jason Lewis, Michale Smerconish, and all the local blowhards and blusterers, the purveyors of what the Vanity Fair phrase-turner James Wolcott referred to as "Thud and Blunder".
Third: It's been a long time these wingnut "crybabies have had the airwaves nearly to themselves. Time for them to feel heat. Extreme heat. I like the idea of fear spreading in the right wing community. For far too long, they've thrived on dispensing it, fear in others is nourishment to these sickos. Let them feel some, and may it be well justified.
Fourth: Once things settle down after the Great Talk Radio Purge, let's all grow the hell up as a nation and find better things to do with our time than listen to the pathological rumblings of the delusional right. Read, perhaps? Take a walk along a river, in the sunshine. Get to know someone outside our usual circles. It's only in near-total isolation from the real world that anyone could possibly accept what any of the above-mentioned balloon-juicers utters as even possibly true.