Letters to the Editor
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Look at what gets an Editor's Choice star these days
I can't believe Salon starred a barely literate letter just to get "balance." It didn't even make its "conservatives are right" point.
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Rush Limbaugh next?
I never even gave that a thought but the idea sounds appealing. Why does it never occur to some people that things happen because of the way they are. Democrat liberals? The suggestion is silly. Imus did it to himself. The black people and many of us whites feel that he has been insulting one too many times. If Limbaugh and Beck are so afraid , I have one suggestion. Clean up your act. Don't act so almighty superior to everybody. They are sure running scared since the Democrats got in, aren't they? redwhiteblue
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Calling all Conservatives....
I got this e-mail basically outlining right-wing radio's greatest racist hits, and I'm wondering if anyone can confirm whether not these things were actually said.
'From Michael Savage referring to inner-city children as "ghetto slime,"
to Rush Limbaugh saying, "The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies,"
to Bob Grant, who in hanging up on black callers would dismiss them with, "I don't need my toilets cleaned today!" or "I don't need my windows washed today!"
to Doug "Greaseman" Tracht, who, joking about the lynching of James Byrd, played a snippet of a Lauren Hill record, then cracked, "No wonder people drag them behind trucks, "
to Bill O'Reilly, who once cracked about a black singing group that was late for a live performance he was hosting, "I hope they're not in the parking lot stealing our hubcaps, "
to William Bennett, musing that "you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down,"
to Niel Boortz, who described the appearance of African-American Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney as like a "ghetto slut"...
I mean...yikes.
I live in LA, and I thought Kevin & Bean making fun of 'midgets' was bad : (
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realname
Why is it that a guy, the ONLY guy on commercial radio that said, EVERYDAY, that EVERYONE in the Bush administration is a war criminal, is now a rightwing conservative? Even Pravda is intrigued. Admit it, you only listened to the dirty parts.
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Most telling quote from this story...
"In fact, the prominent conservatives, addressing a crowd of 30 on the ground floor of a Washington row house, described what sounded like a conspiracy. "
Crowd of 30...what does that tell you about their "marketshare" in our culture today?
Besides, Rush Limbaugh got bitch-slapped a few years ago for making racist overtures about McNair...so you might say he's already had his moment of truth, before Imus...
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ohh that Dick Morris is such a mensch!!
Talking about Imus. Talking about Rush. And the fairness doctrine....what we he do for a living?
Heck. Dick Morris sealed my appreciation of him and his value system when he took time away from a $300/hr hooker to phone the president. Not only was it a shrewd move to impress the young lady, but at what? $5.00 a minute and probably taking $40-50 of "play or pay" time, well..you get my point. The man values principle by the second. He is perfect to defend Rush Drugbaugh?
Besides how can you hate anyone who is such a weasel? Don't ya' love animals?
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again on "the children"
Taking any political leanings out of the equation, let's say you had a daughter who was in the top rank of her sport. Let's also say that her college team actually made it to TV (still difficult in this day in age, considering the emphasis on boys' spots). Anyway, the pride you feel in your heart upon seeing your little girl kick ass on the court is enough to burst out of your chest cavity when, out of nowhere, some troll-faced talking head (whether a right-winged redneck or a Hot '97 dickhead) calls her a "ho" for no reason at all.
"Nappy-headed," in such context, is bad enough as a literal racist insult, but the dark place from which this sentiment is shat affects the girls of any race affiliated with a college sports team (though obviously not to the degree of the African American girls).
WTF? I'm not even a parent, and the thought of such a scenario is heartbreaking. It's interesting how the arbitrary age of 18 allows you to fight in Iraq and open yourself to insults from syndicated assholes, yet (many of) these ladies can't even legally order a shot of whisky to deal with the stress of the whole incdent.
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."
Because hot male-on-male action is infinitely more dangerous than racism?
I won't even comment on the Rush-Chelsea comment, since you would truly have to be a cretin to follow his rantings.
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Dirty little secret about the Fairness Doctrine: IT WORKED!
At least in my home town. I can remember throughout the 1960s and 70s that after the local TV or radio newscasts there would be a "WWWW Editorial" in which an official of the station would pontificate on some local or national issue. There would then be an announcement "welcoming reponses" to be aired at a later date. The "respondent" could be anyone from a local public official to an "ordinary housewife," who would articulate a contrary view in the same time slot, and with the same time constraint, as the original speaker. More often than not this made for some good intelligent discourse.
Of course Johnny Carson got considerable mileage from less-than-articulate "concerned citizens" with his satiric portrayal of "Floyd R. Turbo, American."
How the Reaganuts got us to believe that the F.D. prevented rather than encouraged a variety of opinions to be broadcast is one of the great mysteries of the last century.
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daisygirl
There is no dark plot. Stop imagining there is. Imus is as right wing as they come. Does he, as a former Marine resent the Administration for sending other Marines into a pointless bloodbath? You betcha. Would he follow Bush to hell and back if Bush promised to abolish the two party system and annoint himself God's Warden on Earth? In a heartbeat.