Rush Limbaugh & Sean Hannity Skirting the Law?

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Levin and other conservative talkers have been working their listeners into a lather over the fairness doctrine, a repealed FCC rule that dictated that political speech should be balanced on broadcast TV and radio.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]

Radio Treason? Right Wing Talkers Skirted Disclosure Law

. . .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

The Fairness Doctrine: The Right-wing's Kryptonite

Image from source, LTR

Does anybody out there remember the "Fairness Doctrine?" It was an FCC regulation that required equal time to both right and left opinion on public airwaves. It seemed pretty fair, and there were ways around it for the very determined. But it disappeared during the Reagan administration. That--not coincidentally--is around the same time of the birth (and afterbirth) of right-wing talk radio. Wall-to-wall conservotalk became the norm on AM radio, with some hosts like Rush Limbaugh even competing against himself on multiple stations.

I'm not sure there is a very strong push to reinstate the doctrine, but the very notion makes people lie Sean Hannity very, very nervous. And anything that does that deserves more discussion!

[Excerpt]

Fairness, schmairness and panic in the streets

. . .So, what is this "Fairness Doctrine?" It was enacted in 1949, and mandated that various viewpoints be represented on the airwaves. Sounded okay in theory, but as time progressed, it became clear that you can't lead a horse to water and expect it to drink. In short, you can't force broadcasters to do quality radio. . .

Read more at: LTR - Liberal Talk Radio