2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Enough. [View all]certainot
(9,090 posts)reagan killed the fairness doctrine in 87 and the radio monopoly- was already very successful by ten years later when the telcom act came along and that was pushed by talk radio and the republican congress it was instrumental in electing. the talk radio base was pushing hard for deregulation and looked like a legitimate popular base of support for deregulation because the left /dems paid it no attention, it was very loud, well misinformed, and well coordinated. talk radio was already doing great for them, like with trashing anita hill, selling reagan and iran contra excuses, obstructing clinton, stopping single payer, etc.
even if they couldn't own all those stations they'd be owned by more republicans and the same few headliners like limbaugh on hundreds of stations and their local wannabes would all be singing the same chorus on all major issues.
the tel com act helped but i'd credit loss of the fairness doctrine for much of the decline of democracy the last 25 years.
talking about npr, limbaugh just played a clip of an npr reporter calling this a talk radio election with trump and cruz, if trump won it'd be the first talk radio presidency, etc.
that is the first time in 25 years i've heard on any national media talk radio getting the credit it deserved.