Democrats' first move: kill conservative talk radio

When the Democrats take over, apparently the first thing they are going to do is kill conservative talk radio.

Meanwhile, the government continues to fund liberal NPR.

Comments

[The Undiscovered Jew]

Drudge is reporting the Democrats expect to have 58 Senate seats and a strong majority in the House.

So, the only restraint on Pelosi and Reid will be Obama.

[APH]

The concept of a "Fairness Doctrine" makes me puke. From the Orwellian name to the hypocrites who promote it - Shame on anybody who supports that; it's indefensible.

[Sgt. Joe Friday]

It's not just talk radio and Fox News these people want to silence, they want to shut down Drudge and any blogger they disagree with also.

Obama says he's not in favor of resurrecting the FD, but he doesn't have to be. Pelosi and Reid will do the heavy lifting, and a bill will arrive on Obama's desk without his having lifted a finger. The chances that Obama will veto the legislation are nil.

[John Dent]

Evil times are approaching. Absolutely right that free speech will be one of the first casualties as we lurch leftward.

Sickening.

[fact-slap]

"Meanwhile, the government continues to fund liberal NPR."

Yeah, something like a whopping 2 or 3% of their budget. The horror.

[Patrik]

It is laughably overt government censorship and serious encroachment upon free speech. As usual, led by the 'Liberals', who are anything but 'liberal' in the classic sense of the word.

BTW apparently 'round Washington, it is referred to as "Hush Rush".

American liberals are following their base socialist instincts. After all, this is the party, post-JFK that openly sympathized and still sympathizes with the Communists....

[Patrik]

*****"Meanwhile, the government continues to fund liberal NPR."

Yeah, something like a whopping 2 or 3% of their budget. The horror.*****

@fact-slap

1) Why the fuck should my taxes support smarmy liberal anti-American garbage that I am diametrically opposed to?

My guess is that you wouldn't want, say, Michael Savage's radio program to funded by public funds, even if it was only 2-3%, no?

2) The 2-3% is a red herring. From Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Public_Radio

"About 2% of NPR's funding comes from bidding on government grants and programs, chiefly the Corporation for Public Broadcasting; the remainder comes from member station dues, foundation grants, and corporate underwriting.

Typically, NPR member stations raise about one-third of their budget through on-air pledge drives, one-third from corporate underwriting, and

!!!!!!!one-third from grants from state governments, university grants, and grants from the CPB itself.!!!!!!!"

So much for that 2-3% government funding...

[ASDF]

Does the fairness doctrine mean that NPR will have to express conservative viewpoints as well?

[SFG]

I'm actually going to split with my party on this one. Strikes me as a freedom-of-speech issue.

[jayphive]

they should probably do the same with republican bloggers.

you're pretty insane HS.

[Rain And]

AP News says Obama is president:

"Obama wins, first black to gain presidency"

"Barack Obama was elected the nation's first black president Tuesday night in a historic triumph that overcame racial barriers as old as America itself."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/election_rdp

[ResidentCynic]

Oh Christ, the liberals are going to fucking ruin this country just like that fucking Clinton...

[SFG]

EEEHAHAHAHAHAHA!

The free market is history!

[SFG]

That said this is pretty shitty for hbd research. Obama will probably shut it all down. Let's see if they throw Razib in jail.

[tommy]

"Obama wins, first black to gain presidency"

Democrats also widened their margin in Congress. George Bush, Karl Rove, and the oh-so-smart Jewish neocons have completed the destruction of the Republican Party.

We live in interesting times.

[Nathan]

Obama is scum.

[kharne]

This is a flagrant, hypocritical move on behalf of the leftists. I have no problem that the New York Times stands as a liberal publication. Nor do I have any beef with Fox being a conservative source of news as well, but this is a violation of the first amendment. If this "fair content" bullshit doctrine becomes popular in the states, its spread will be inexorable, and we don't need that shit up here. We have enough as it is.

Let those right wingers rant their ass off over the airwaves and those effete liberals sip on their Mocha Lattes while they talk about the plight of the poor people but have never met one in their life. Free speech is free speech, and anyone who tries to erode this fundamental right should be condemned.

[James]

LOL McCain got PWNED!!!!!!
Obama and the Dems now have a serious mandate.

I think it's time for Republicans to reinvent themselves as Libertarians.

[tommy]

"I think it's time for Republicans to reinvent themselves as Libertarians."

More likely, the Republicans will reinvent themselves as Democrats Lite: it's the Latin Americanization of U.S. politics.

White separatism just looks better and better.

[Peter]

Thank God this freaking election is over. Now the blogosphere won't have its collective knickers in a constant twist.

[APH]

kharne - I am equally disgusted by this. If the Dems' make a serious effort to reinstate the "Fairness Doctrine" I will donate a good chunk of money to whomever is fighting it. I have never donated money to a political cause, but this just irks the hell out of me.

[tommy]

In any event, congrats to Obama for a game well played.

[Patrik]

[those effete liberals sip on their Mocha Lattes while they talk about the plight of the poor people]

Clearly, you have never met a liberal --- it is organic fair-trade shade-grown soy chai mocha lattes they're drinking....sheesh....

[Patrik]

Welcome to Neo-Socialism. We're fucked.

[zzz]

Obama won. Take you racist, bitter nerds.

[tommy]

"Obama won. Take you racist, bitter nerds."

The only thing worse than a sore loser is a sore winner.

[Nathan]

Obama is an animal. I know he will fail (he is black after all). The only good thing is that Republicans can come back in 2010 & 2012. Hopefully, after Obama fails, this country will never elect a black man for president.

[Patrik]

Mark Steyn is his usual fucking hilarious self:

[Historic Moment [Mark Steyn]

Far more stunning and unlikely to me than electing the first black man to be President is that America has just elected the first Joe Biden to be Vice-President.

Amazing.

11/04 11:54 PM]

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDMxODEyMjQ5M2QyZTUyZGIyZjZhMmVjMTc4ZTZlZjU=

[Florida Man]

Oh, Nathan, you and the Republican Party are a joke. This country is changing. You and people like you need to accept that. And the Republican Party has to come to terms with that as well. If Republicans want to succeed again, they'll have to stop pandering to religious freaks and xenophobes. They'll have to be more inclusive and tolerant of minorities, who tend to be socially conservative. They'll have to start using their forebrains from time to time and stop voting for people like Palin and Bush--it's just illogical to support incompetent people. What has happened to William F. Buckley's Republican Party?

[Eltin]

I think HS is pleasuring himself to thought of a fallen Palin.

[tommy]

"This country is changing. You and people like you need to accept that. And the Republican Party has to come to terms with that as well. If Republicans want to succeed again, they'll have to stop pandering to religious freaks"

The evangelicals were one of the few fairly reliable sources of support for McCain.

"and xenophobes. They'll have to be more inclusive and tolerant of minorities, who tend to be socially conservative."

No, they aren't. Few Hispanics care much about issues like abortion after living in the United States after a generation or two. You can hardly credit a population with a 50% illegitimacy rate with much conservatism. What little social conservatism they might possess doesn't include any great appreciation of individualism, self-determination, or hard work--in other words, those things that have been traditionally valued by Anglo-Americans. Individual blacks and Hispanics can be great contributors to society but, collectively, they are a burden for the white population. So long as whites fail to look out for themselves, that burden will only grow heavier.

"They'll have to start using their forebrains from time to time and stop voting for people like Palin and Bush--it's just illogical to support incompetent people. What has happened to William F. Buckley's Republican Party?"

In othe words, they have to become the Democrats Lite? What's the point? We might as well have a single party state. As for Buckley, it was establishment conservatives like him who didn't have the foresight or courage to stand up to the neoconservatives.

Again, let the white liberals and their dusky, low IQ friends send the greatest nation that has ever existed down the sinkhole. Racially conscious whites need to find ways to insulate themselves from non-whites in every possible way and increase their numbers over time. The time is coming to withdraw.

[Asher]

tommy, get over this "white separation" crap. It's not even remotely politically viable.

[superdestroyer]

I believe that the Democrats will go after initiative and referendum. The Democrats are not going to tolerate deep blue states like California voting to ban gay marriage, affirmative action, or new taxes.

I would also guess that the Democrats will move to close their primaries. AS the Republican party collapses, the Democrats will have to find ways to keep former Repulbicans out of the Democratic primary.

[Russ]

Give me a break. Do you really think the fairness doctrine would survive a court challenge?

It will just accelerate satellite radio.

[EdC]

Of course, reality has a well-known liberal bias.

I sure don't mind my tax dollars going to support the honest efforts of NPR as a balance to the corrosive, cynical megadittos programming that otherwise skews and pollutes our airwaves.

If the Fairness Doctrine is restored, it will be something the right wing has brought onto itself. In the absence of the Doctrine, rank (several meanings apply) partisanship has run wild and done real damage to American society.

I don't see how any honest, intelligent person could dispute that.

The question now is how to rebalance the situation, and the Doctrine is the handiest available tool.

[The Undiscovered Jew]

Turnout across the country may not have been as high as expected, despite all of the Hoopla and extensive get out the vote efforts:

http://corner.nationalreview.com/

McCain, the Base, and Turnout [Byron York]

On those vote totals again. At the moment, Obama has 62.4 million votes, while McCain has 55.4 million. In 2004, Bush won 62 million votes, and Kerry 59 million.

So if there wasn't this vaunted through-the-roof turnout, what do the numbers say about McCain's supporters? I'll have to look at this more closely, but if 2004 was, as everyone says, a base election, and Bush got 62 million votes, my guess is that McCain didn't do as well with the Republican base as Bush did.

It appears that finally, on election night, McCain's long-time problems with the GOP base caught up with him. He did a lot to alienate that base back in 2000, and he began this race knowing that he would have to patch things up. He accomplished some of that, but not all of it. I can't tell you how many Republicans I met out on the campaign trail who expressed a marked lack of enthusiasm for McCain's candidacy. Just last week, I met a very loyal Republican in Chillicothe, Ohio who said he felt a "Carter malaise" after McCain won the GOP nomination — and he wasn't re-energized until McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate. So from Super Tuesday through the Republican convention, this normally active Republican sat on his hands.

In this sense, I don't think the choice of Palin hurt McCain. His problem was that he had to use a decision as momentous as his choice of vice president to shore up the support of a group, the GOP base, whose support he should have already had. At the end of August, McCain was already in a hole with the base, and he never got completely out. Things just catch up with you.

11/05 08:09 AM

[JewishAtheist]

OBAMA DOES NOT SUPPORT BRINGING BACK THE FAIRNESS DOCTRINE. Do some research. Avoid hysteria.

It's a great day to be an American.

[Half Sigma]

Response to JewishAtheist:

Obama will sign anything that Schumer and Pelosi support.

Why, on Earth, does anyone think that Obama, who has one of the most liberal voting records in the Senate, would veto legislation given to him by the Democrats in Congress?

[Wanting]

"Obama won. Take you racist, bitter nerds."

Take what?

[Lane Honda]

As his first act he should urge Congress to pass a bill that will raise the average black IQ to 100.

[Obama is The One]

This is what we have all been waiting for. From now on, everything will be different. Take the cue and join the march. No turning back. Take the ripe plump fruit, it is hanging in front of your face.

[Moolie]

"Take the ripe plump fruit, it is hanging in front of your face."

Is eggplant a fruit?

[JewishAtheist]

HS:

Obama will sign anything that Schumer and Pelosi support.

Why, on Earth, does anyone think that Obama, who has one of the most liberal voting records in the Senate, would veto legislation given to him by the Democrats in Congress?

Yeah, just like he totally caved into Hillary and her supporters by choosing her as his VP.

Give the guy a chance. He's one of the good ones.

[M]

"Hopefully, after Obama fails, this country will never elect a black man for president."

HS, does it ever bother you that your fans say stuff like this?

(And per the topic, I agree the "Fairness Doctrine" is horrible, but I also don't think it will get anywhere. Obama doesn't support it, but even that is probably moot. The assumption is that all Congressional Democrats will support it, but I seriously doubt that. You don't think there are eight democratic senators who will say no to this?)

[Lane Honda]

JewishAtheist,

How many times did you have to change your underwear this morning?

[Asher]

"Take the ripe plump fruit, it is hanging in front of your face."

Sounds kinky.

[icr]

The Dems could lose the support of a lot of those highly-educated people with anti-free speech legislation like this. I doubt that many of them are crypto-Stalinists.

And Schumer had a perfect SAT score. Hubris can make you stupid.

[JewishAtheist]

"And Schumer had a perfect SAT score. Hubris can make you stupid. "

Oh I love this site. Intelligence as measured by IQ and/or the SAT is the most important thing in the world -- except when it comes to electing dumb Republicans over smart Democrats. Then it's all about how smart people are stupid.

[kharne]

"Of course, reality has a well-known liberal bias."

If you believe in postmodernism, than yes, reality has a “liberal bias.” Of course, that tripe is what liberals rely on to justify their views. What they believe in contravenes with reality, so they simply deny it.

"I sure don't mind my tax dollars going to support the honest efforts of NPR as a balance to the corrosive, cynical megadittos programming that otherwise skews and pollutes our airwaves."

Turn off the radio.

"If the Fairness Doctrine is restored, it will be something the right wing has brought onto itself."

They brought it onto themselves by *existing* and voicing their opinion.

"In the absence of the Doctrine, rank (several meanings apply) partisanship has run wild and done real damage to American society."

Ha ha ha, don't be so ludicrous. The only damage I see has been wrought upon America is by the ignorance of others. (Read: every politician out there.)

"I don't see how any honest, intelligent person could dispute that."

I don't see how any honest, intelligent person, with a modicum of rationality, could support the fairness doctrine.

"The question now is how to rebalance the situation, and the Doctrine is the handiest available tool."

The people who want to implement it should shove it up their already stretched out assholes. To Hell with this fascist nonsense! Some of you may try to dispute me, but I believe that freedom of speech is a sacred, fundamental right, and we should take all measures to protect it.

Posted by: JewishAtheist | November 05, 2008 at 08:44 AM

Just in time for my lols, JA.

"OBAMA DOES NOT SUPPORT BRINGING BACK THE FAIRNESS DOCTRINE. Do some research. Avoid hysteria."

We cannot be certain about that. Yes, it is true that he doesn’t support the fairness doctrine, but will he cave in to the pressure of the Dems to implement it? We have yet to see. I certainly hope that you are correct, but I doubt that it will be vetoed. Not to mention Obama is erratic in his viewpoints, so he might change his mind on a whim.

“It's a great day to be an American.”

Oh yes, we did not elect a Xian baby eater! Rejoice, o acolytes, for we have won the war against the hegemony of the post colonial white male racists! No longer will they be able to suck on the blood new born babies, and savor their flesh! The victory of this jihad augurs well for us! We shall starve them of their diet, and they will wither away under the sun! Paradise on earth brethren!

"Yeah, just like he totally caved into Hillary and her supporters by choosing her as his VP."

There is a major difference between running a country and vying for its leadership. You do realize that, don’t you?

People, people, we shouldn't quibble about such matters, for we all know that Obama is going to eventually be assassinated. (At least, that's what everyone is saying on my end of the line.) So how fast do you think an assassination attempt will be made?

I'm betting 20 dollars for the first month of his presidency, 60 dollars for the next two months, 200 dollars for four more months, and 7,000,000 for four years.

Anybody care to join? Maybe I could set up a website devoted to this topic and profit.

[kharne]

"Oh I love this site. Intelligence as measured by IQ and/or the SAT is the most important thing in the world -- except when it comes to electing dumb Republicans over smart Democrats. Then it's all about how smart people are stupid."

I have no idea why it hasn't sunk in yet, but you do realize that IQ tests are a legitimate way to measure intelligence? Most people who try to assess the intelligence of other people without such tests measure it by gauging how much the other person's viewpoints coincide with theirs.