And the biggest fear of these rightwing broadcasters is that the “fairness doctrine,” which their hero Reagan killed, will be re-instituted. Radio managers weren’t too enamored of the government monitoring whether each minute of rightwing tit was met with an equal in length leftwing tat, so they often replaced talk radio with soft rock, or a gardening show, to spare themselves the headaches.
There's a lot of talk about whether Rush Limbaugh's latest asshole outburst will earn him a permanent leave of absence from the EIB golden mic. It won't, most likely. The most preferable plan of action for his paymasters is to wait for the whole thing between him and Sandra Fluke to blow over and die within the ADHD-addled minds of American media consumers.
The above comes courtesy of Lee Haven of Jack and Jill Politics. I doubt the Fairness Doctrine will be resurrected any time soon, even when President Obama finally achieves "lame duck" status and has to no longer gingerly step through the conservative minefield just to stay in office. "Lame duck" status gives him the keys to the minesweeper, but it's up to him if he wants to put the flails to the mines littered all over the landscape.
But what if Rushbo's stupidity finally made reimposing the Fairness Doctrine on the nation's airwaves a once-more viable and appealing solution? It's far-fetched, but enough people could finally be so disgusted that the idea could be put in motion without as much opposition from conservatives.
I doubt that'll happen. For starters, most people simply turn the dial when they get sick of Rushbo's shit. That leaves his adoring legions of "dittoheads" and die-hard conservatives. His steadfast fan base will cry foul if any mention of the Fairness Doctrine is made, as such a thing would be seen as a way to "muzzle" their golden boy. The president himself currently opposes any move to revive the Fairness Doctrine and it's uncertain if this incident will change his mind. The FCC recently removed language referring to it from both its rulebook and from the Federal Register, making it even less likely for any sort of sudden revival.
The best course of action for people who want Rushbo to feel some sort of consequence for his actions is to hammer his advertisers. He has to do what the money tells him to do and so far, the money's telling him to tone it down a notch. After all, he's just a mouthpiece.
I'd love to see pill-popping sex fiend be shown the door, but like cockroaches and early 1970s home decor, he'll tenaciously cling to that golden mic. It took a rather sudden case of death to end Andrew Breitbart's hackery and with Limbaugh's shaky health, the same might happen to the grand champion of asshole/fuckwad behavior.
By the way, I forgot to mention how Bill O'Reilly jumped into the fray with the following comment:
"Let me get this straight, Ms. Fluke, and I'm asking this with all due respect," he said. "You want me to give you my hard-earned money so you can have sex?"
I guess when you're constantly skirting the edges of irrelevancy, you have to do or say something to remind people you actually exist.
