A while back, I mentioned that I overheard the creation (or at least an early stage) of a new conservative "meme" while listing to just a couple of minutes of The Mark Levin Show. I do not recommend this listening activity, by the way. And it turns out I was right. Sean Hannity--who liberal talker Randi Rhodes maintains gets virtually all of his shtick from Levin--has been using the phrase "censorship doctrine" instead of "fairness doctrine" on his show.
This is sort of a spin of a spin. Rush Limbaugh, Hannity, Levin and other conservative talkers have been working their listeners into a lather over the fairness doctrine, a repealed FCC rule that dictated that political speech should be balanced on broadcast TV and radio. They maintain that Democrats are eager to reinstate it, and that it will restrict their "free speech." But the fact is, there is only tepid support by mainstream Democrats for such a thing. It's just spin to create a new bogeyman. And changing "fairness" to "censorship" is just one more layer to their stinky onion.
But are they breaking the law? I sure hope so, because seeing any of these guys--particularly Hannity--in an orange jumpsuit, with a cell-mate named Bubba would be almost as good as seeing Karl Rove in the same scenario. . .
[Excerpt]
. . .Airing this week on talk radio shows have been a slew of "538" ad buys, confusing listeners into thinking a revived Fairness Doctrine would muzzle partisan talk. Hannity in particular began referring to the law as the "Censorship Doctrine" but quickly laid bare in an L.A. Times piece, we saw the effort was an intentional "cry wolf", meant to begin a messaging campaign - that is, conditioning listeners to have kneejerk reactions at any mention of the Fairness Doctrine. Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, who calls it the "hush Rush" bill should perhaps be gearing up to answer different questions about disclosure requirements on public airwaves. . .
Read more at: OpEdNews
No comments:
Post a Comment
Have something to say to us? Post it here!