Wake up, America! Talk radio is in
trouble. Your favorite hosts are coming under
increasing fire from a political Left that wants to silence
them. The worst-case scenario for talk radio would be
the election of Hillary Clinton.

If you enjoy your daily dose of Rush, Sean and their
fellow hosts, a Clinton White House would be a disaster. While a variety of liberal voices regularly disparage talk radio
for being “too one-sided” or “not fair and balanced,” Hillary is the only
prominent politician whose fingerprints are all over the sordid affair
that actually got one talk host removed.

Ask someone on the street about the Don Imus case,
you’ll probably be told that The Rev. Al Sharpton got Mr. Imus kicked
off. Sharpton played his role, but he was simply a tool
used by an organization known as Media Matters for America.

The question as to why Mrs. Clinton was not happy
with Imus is simple to answer. Although he’s not a
conservative, he was famously on record for having referred to her as
“Satan” and “a witch.” Anyone familiar with Imus knows
that he’s an equal opportunity insulter ? going after anybody and
everybody. Hillary failed to see the humor, and with
her plans for higher office, she saw Imus as an enemy.

So Media Matters, a group with connections to
Hillary, billionaire financier George Soros and MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann,
started rolling tape, waiting for Imus to slip up. When
he commented on the Rutgers women’s basketball team, it was time to
act. Media Matters distributed the sound bite and was
no doubt pleased when the Rev. Sharpton took up the cause.

As Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media (AIM) writes in
our new book The Death of Talk Radio?, “In firing Imus, NBC News and CBS got rid of
one of Hillary’s major political enemies in the media. The campaign against Imus should be seen as a trial run for how the
Fairness Doctrine might work in practice.”

The Fairness Doctrine is that outmoded, likely
unconstitutional regulation requiring balance on the air. But since newscasts are excluded, the Doctrine made it possible for
ABC, CBS and NBC ? and especially the left-leaning Public Broadcasting
System ? to be as liberal as they wanted. But talk
radio was stifled.

During the Reagan era, the country had about 125 talk
stations. Since the demise of the Doctrine we have more
than 2,000 of them with hosts espousing every conceivable opinion that
free speech can muster. It’s just that most of those
opinions are from the Right, and that drives Mrs. Clinton and the
Democrats nuts.

They have tried hard to use the “hate radio” label to
drive Rush Limbaugh off the air. They did get him fired
from his ESPN sports gig over a simple opinion that was deemed
racist. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid tried to
smear him with an out-of-context comment about “phony
soldiers.” But Rush took Reid’s letter, signed by 41
Democrats including Hillary and auctioned it off for $2.1 million for
charity ? making Reid look like a fool in the process.

But the threats to freedom on the radio dial are real
and they keep coming. As of now, Sen. Bernie Sanders,
Rep. Dennis Kucinich and Rep. Maurice Hinchey are announced supporters of
returning to the Doctrine. New York Congresswoman
Louise Slaughter has introduced the MEDIA ACT, HR 4710, to reinstate the
Fairness Doctrine and “ensure that broadcasters present discussions of
conflicting views on issues of public importance.” This
will go nowhere under President Bush, but might succeed under President
Clinton.

Fortunately, Rep. Mike Pence has introduced THE
BROADCASTER FREEDOM ACT that would keep the airwaves free. All Republican members of the House have signed on but just a
single Democrat. Obviously, that Democrat is NOT
Hillary Clinton. Mrs. Clinton is well known for being a
control freak and if she ascends to the White House, talk radio is one
thing she will try to control.

 

Guest columns do not necessarily reflect the views of Accuracy in Media or its staff.

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