First Amendment, Round Two: Talk Radio Restricted

[DRZinn]

So because the space on the airwaves is limited, the government needs to regulate the airwaves and license specific segments of the spectrum to specific entities.

Space on my local beach is limited. Should the city government issue licenses to families granting them a particular spot on the beach, that they and they alone may use?

"The public" does not own the airwaves. The only way in which the government should be involved in regulating broadcasting is Censuring anyone who intrudes on a frequency that is already being used by someone else.

Your argument that because you can't operate a radio station without permission, you shouldn't be able to operate a radio station without permission is the worst example of circular reasoning I've seen in a long time.

Edited to add that one very important letter.

 

[lunaslide]

So regulation of frequency distribution entitles the government to regulate the content of what is broadcast on those frequencies? How does that make any sense?

The goal of campaign finance reform was supposedly to keep corporations from dominating political speech to the exclusion of individual voices and points of view. It's effect has been exactly opposite. Carlson and Wilbur are not huge, moneyied interests trying to edge the little guy out of having a voice in the political process. They ARE the little guys trying to give the people a voice in a state where the government won't listen, and it's the big moneyed interests and the government itself who are trying to drown them out.

As for having choice in radio, the market is addressing the problem as is always the case. People want choice and because they are not getting it on the public airwaves, they are going to satellite radio. The Clearchannels of the world only have power if people are listening to them, because that is where their advertising revenue comes from. Less and less people are listening to them because they don't care for what they are playing or what they have to say. Problem solved.

But of course, to paraphrase Bono, thats the great thing about radio: anytime something serious comes on, all you have to do is just change the channel...

 

[AZRickD]

GNR, I'm having trouble keeping up with this discussion because your positions are illogical and self-contradictory (when they are not outright incoherent).

I'll step slowly away from this thread before something real ugly happens here.

Ciao.

Rick