Catastrophe - Dick Morris [60]
The report said that “any effort to encourage more responsive and balanced radio programming will first require steps to increase localism and diversify radio station ownership to better meet local and community needs.”211 He suggested three ways to restore “balance” to the airwaves:
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THE LIBERAL PLAN TO KILL TALK RADIO
“Restore local and national caps on the ownership of commercial radio stations.
“Ensure greater local accountability over radio licensing.
“Require commercial owners who fail to abide by enforceable public interest obligations to pay a fee to support public broadcasting.”212
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Defending himself from conservative criticism, Senator Durbin noted that the requirement for “diversity in [station] ownership…is not a new rule. It’s been around for sixty years. The other part of the Durbin amendment said that broadcast licensees had to operate in the public interest. That’s also been on the books for almost fifty years.”213
But Durbin’s amendment requires the FCC to take “‘affirmative actions’ to ensure that radio station ownership is diverse and that broadcasting licenses are issued strictly in the public interest.”214
Senator Inhofe explains where the Durbin amendment might lead:
What is most concerning to me is the enforcement procedure for breaches of localism and diversity promotion regulations. The revocation of broadcaster licenses is a real possibility, which at the very least will threaten the willingness of broadcasters to appeal to conservative listeners. Senator Durbin’s amendment requires affirmative action on the part of the FCC…. It doesn’t stipulate what actions…but instead leaves the enforcement mechanism up to the determination of the FCC, which will likely be emboldened by the affirmative language of the amendment. I find this to be extremely dangerous, and so too should everyone who tunes in to talk radio. New regulations coupled with the threat of license revocation completely undermine the free market of the broadcast industry.215
ACTION AGENDA
The new liberal approach to muzzling talk radio is dangerous—especially because if it is enacted, it could become permanent. By taking away radio frequencies from their current owners and reassigning them to minority owners or liberals, the administration may be able to change decisively what we hear over the airwaves.
At the very least, the regulations could prompt stations to turn to music—no controversy there. But it’s more likely that the Obama administration, through FCC fiat, would force radio stations to change owners, managers, and ideological orientation.
Imagine if comparable changes were forced on the print media. Any such move would be recognized as a gross violation of the First Amendment, sending up howls of justifiable protest. What if a Republican president ousted the owner and editorial staff of the New York Times and insisted on putting in conservatives (who represent the business community in New York) instead?
But the justification that radio uses “public airwaves” shields this action from First Amendment scrutiny—and permits the administration to gut talk radio behind closed doors.
We must fight this change with everything we have. Once the stations change ownership, it will be almost impossible to change them back!
It should be enough for us to demonstrate our loyalty to certain stations and their programming by listening to them every day. But in the strange world of Barack Obama, this demonstration of fealty may not be enough to assure the FCC that the community supports its station. Instead, a group of left-wing advisers could sabotage a radio station’s ownership and mount a coup to topple it. They might even find a way to profit from the change in ownership!
We must work with our talk-show hosts to demonstrate our commitment to our radio stations and the programming they offer. We are sure that Sean and Rush will tell us when the