Thursday, March 19, 2009

One-sided opinion

I think rightwingers like to rant on and on and on about the mythical re-emergence of the Fairness Doctrine just because they know it ticks off liberals.
They know full well that there is no chance of the Fairness Doctrine ever coming back, but they go on about it anyway just to rub liberals noses in the fact that they are almost totally marginalized in the media.
There is no other way to explain how these conservatives who dominate the radio and television airwaves can possibly claim with a straight face that the Fairness Doctrine would result in their being censored.
A majority of voters in San Antonio voted for Obama this past election. And three of the four congressman representing the city are Democrats. But you wouldn’t know that from listening to the local talk radio stations. Here is the lineup from WOAI 1200, the biggest talk station in town:



A solid six-pack of wingnuttia for our everyday consumption. So what about the other talk radio station - KTSA 500? Surely they offer some variety, some alternative for people who don’t relish hearing non-stop far-right propaganda and lies 24-7. Nope. They simply offer the left-over wingnuts that WOAI discarded, like Bill O’Reilly and Neil Boortz along with local rightwingers Trey Ware and Jack Riccardi.
I was listening to Riccardi’s show this morning. For some reason I had gotten the impression that he was a liberal or at least moderate on some issues. But after listening to him trying to blame the Democratic Congress for the current Bushian fiscal nightmare we are in and then looking at his blog where he supported Mitt Romney for president, it is clear that he is just a slightly toned-down rightwinger, only moderate in comparison to the certified lunatics like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity.
Interestingly enough, the local stations don’t even make an effort to have any ethnic or gender diversity in their lineups, much less ideological diversity.
Most San Antonians have responded to this situation by simply not listening to the local radio shows anymore, leaving just a small, concentrated audience of like-minded rightwingers to provide the stations with the excuse they need to continue ignoring and dismissing the vast majority of the local community.
I don’t know what a Fairness Doctrine would do, but it is quite clear that we currently operate under an extreme version of the Unfair Doctrine.

Update
I left out the one other station in San Antonio with a news/talk format: KLUP 930 AM.
Here is their weekly lineup: Bill Bennett, Mike Gallagher, Dennis Prager, Michael Medved, Michael Savage and Hugh Hewitt.
All white, all male and all far-right looneytunes everyone. Yippee!

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