Right Wing Radio and the California crisis

[nadinbrzezinski]

anybody listen to the Speaker of the California House on the Maddow show?

Now the power that Right Wing Radio has over Republicans tells you all you need to know about WHY we need something akin to the Fairness Doctrine and the break up of the media.

It will come

The GOP is doing this to themselves

Oh and incidentally...we might be seeingthe end of the GOP.

[SharonAnn]

1. Here in TN during a budget crisis, the Right-wing radio encouraged

stone throwing at the state legislature building. It was pretty serious.

BUnch of rabid pack animals!

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. that crosses the line from free speech to hate speech

as I said, before this is over we will see regulations come online

[DBoon]

3. yup. see this

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=141x33492

Hate to "pimp" my own post, but here it is

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. These guys have crossed from free speech to exhortation of violence

where is the FCC?

[Pushed To The Left]

4. It's absolutely INSANE the power right wing radio has over these politicians

I called Senators Maldonado and Cox (2 Republicans who might vote for the bipartisan budget, only 1 more vote needed) and told their people that right wing radio doesn't run California...the people run California!

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. We need heavy regulation and to stop this hate speech on the radio

on the bright side...justlike Coughlin in the 1930s, they will give us all the tools we need to regulate the media

[GreenTea]

7. !!

[KharmaTrain]

8. So Let's Impose Censorship...

Yes, hate radio is a problem...but to say "let's ban it" or similar verbage is gonna make it go away? Or somehow there will be a law that mandates that anytime Rushbo opens his claptrap, he must be confronted by an anti-Rushbo or he can't be on the air? When you use the word "fairness"...it's a double-edged sword. Your "fairness" is not always mine and visa versa.

The issue isn't "fairness", it's access. It's not who speaks into the microphone as much as who owns and controls it. Reregulation and the repeal of Telcom '96 would represent not censorship but the returning of the airwaves to local control and open the airwaves to more voices and opinions.

The GOOP has marginalized itself off the political abyss...and hate radio is pushing them further over the cliff.

[DBoon]

9. More from today's LA Times

Their near-sacred opposition to taxes ran headlong into a deficit so large that even some within their ranks say it cannot be dealt with by trimming fat from government alone. Still, these true believers have refused to submit, energized -- and intimidated, some say -- by national conservative figures, local talk radio hosts and bloggers.

In this crisis, some senators and their supporters see an opportunity to spotlight a bloated bureaucracy, to change contracting and employment laws that benefit unions and to address other pet peeves that cost the public money.

"That 'chicken in every pot' philosophy is a load of crap," a reader, Gregg Palmer, wrote on a conservative blog in response to a note from Cogdill shortly after his late-night ouster. "If the state need(s) to close its doors for a few weeks, so be it. We'll be better off.

...

Local politicians fear the conservative radio hosts of the "John & Ken Show" on KFI-AM (640). And Jon Fleischman, an influential Orange County blogger who publishes "The Flash Report" online, suggested in an interview that Hollingsworth could "buy some time" before new taxes are approved because Democrats might enact deeper cuts "the more dire circumstances become."

...

Much has also been made of the anti-tax pledge circulated by Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform in Washington. Most of the Republicans in the Legislature have signed it.

Norquist, reached by telephone, compared California Democrats who are upset that Republicans won't authorize new taxes to "the alcoholic who complains someone won't keep buying them liquor."

With Grover "drown government in a bathtub" directly behind this

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-republicans19-2009feb19,0,3813815.story

[Johonny]

10. Having heard her I think Dems should use this to help them

Basically use the GOP Joe Lieberman plan. If a rethug would vote for the bill but isn't because of fear of losing his seat in a primary tell them " The Democratic party will not challenge you". We will let you run as a Dem or and Ind and finance you and even promote you to our party. The Dems need to start picking off sane conservatives from the Republican party. They already picked them off at the voter level.