It seems like at least 75% of the posts on here are about the damn, asshole Republicans, which is understandable since they ARE the dominant political party (even though they're outnumbered) but EXTREMELY frustrating!
Then again, they ARE like the little brat in kindergarten who won't shut up and you can't ignore--and an increasingly credible, and insufferably obnoxious menace to democracy, not to mention good taste.
What the GOP does have is a distinct advantage in the propaganda wars, with Fox News, Newsmax, ABN, and ESPECIALLY, the near monopoly on AM talk radio--and even FM radio is not free of it.
AND ITS NOT ABOUT RATINGS!
Clear Channel and the other radio giants are Right-Wing fanatics who've forced us into a corner and put a dunce hat on our heads. IT'S DELIBERATE, PEOPLE!
This is possible, of course, because Reagan ended the Fairness Doctrine, and Democratic administrations since then have refused to restore it.
It's an overwhelming, apparently permanent, advantage, and thoroughly UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
Before anybody looks elsewhere, think about that. It's the glaring, ugly black Elephant in the room everybody seems to ignore..
All we seem to want to talk about are the symptoms, which come down like acid rain with toxic monotony, each one more corrosive than the one before.
But this drumbeat, this constant IMMORAL stink, s ignored by their enablers, the radio hate jockeys, and there is no comparable, countervailing voice with a mass audience on the other side to shine a light on it.
Even WITH the Fairness Doctrine, it'd be a long time before lefty voices made a dent, but if it continues in THIS direction? Forget it. It's over.
My question: CAN anything be done to stop this clear violation of our 1st Amendment right to free speech, and in the process possibly spare us all this brain rot?
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.I feel your pain, bro, but have already put forward all I can think of. It might actually hurt Dem's that comics are the main source of our mass audience voice. Maybe people just don't equate us as serious voices so don't vote for us or support who wins for long? @Dyl1983 just posted an article about frontal lobe damage affecting humor. Possibly damage can be other than physical to affect humor's effect but it remains an intrinsic feature of humans. That means it's needed for survival so rather influential on some level. Dem's do have stars but they tend to be funny ones. Franken, Maddow (she tries to be funny), and Ari Melber(sp) are examples. Serious ones, like Lawrence O'Donnell, tend to have lower ratings. A dear friend of mine from Jr High, a Democrat, liked listening to Rush for his so-called humor. People are odd on both sides.
rainmanjr
Level 8
Nov 8, 2021
0
Liberal radio and TV will always lag behind because liberals, except most on the far left, are not continually pissed off. Remember Air America? The Republicans learned long ago that the ignorant and the stupid are continuously afraid and pissed off, so they have played on this since Reagan, the most overrated President in our country's history. They feed these people what they want to hear, which is their lot in life can be blamed on everyone else but themselves. They ignore facts and truths to hold on to this belief that all liberals are communists and all foreigners, especially those with darker skin, are here to take their jobs. I have no idea how this can be fixed.
Sticks48
Level 9
Nov 8, 2021
2
If that was all there was to it, that'd be different: hey we're not entertaining enough, no sense of "humor."
But the owners of Clear Channel and other radio giants are Right-Wing fanatics, not just businessmen with an obsession for ratings.
This is a deliberate attempt to shove leftist voices off the airwaves and into the corner with their dunce caps on.
AND it's unconstitutional, and dangerous.
@Storm1752 it is that simple and it is about the money. Air America failed because it could not get enough audience or sponsers. If you listened to Rush Limbaugh in the 90s he was a Republican, but he wasn't the nut job of the later years. He had to go farther off the rails to keep up with the other right wing nuts popping up on the radio. Rupert Murdock would have started a liberal TV network if he could have made more money than with a conservative network. In America it is almost always about the money. I grew up in and worked in radio and television before changing to a career in music. I know exactly how it works.
@Sticks48 Air America was always doomed to operate out of the smallest radio stations with the weakest signals. You had to be within a certain radius to even pick them up.
So they were always on or below the poverty line, ratings-wise. It wasn't because they wouldn't have succeeded with more corporate support, but that support wasn't forthcoming because their content wasn't simplistic rantings about the left, or sports, or mainstream religion, or anything which kept people's minds off what was REALLY going on.
Sure ratings had SOMETHING to do with it, WITHIN THAT BUBBLE.
But ideology had a lot to do with it too.
But, admittedly, there's no way to prove that.
d--n? Is that damn? Do you have software that does that, or is that you? You should just say damn Republicans. Better yet motherfucking Republicans. This country always teetered on fascism, hopefully we can avoid that in the near future, but it'll happen eventually.
barjoe
Level 9
Nov 8, 2021
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