In
1987 President Reagan ordered his FCC chairman to cancel the Fairness Doctrine,
a 38 year old doctrine that required news related mass media to broadcast both
sides of any issue of controversy in order to be licensed. This was created in
1949 (and later validated by the Supreme Court) from a post-WWII understanding
how truth and knowledge became manipulated and twisted in Nazi Germany and
Fascist Italy. A Democratic Congress passed a law to make the Fairness Doctrine
permanent, but Reagan vetoed it.
Less
than a year later in 1988, Rush Limbaugh, a college drop-out and failed radio
deejay (now one of the richest men in the world), began his Conservative
political radio program, as did others. They had free reign to say or present
whatever they wanted, fact or fiction-no matter. It was all about getting
listeners and selling advertising.
Since then there has been a
relentless 30 year attack and demonizing of Liberalism and Liberals (Mark Levin prefers
to call them “statists”) and then turning around and placing anyone or any
organization that questions post-Reagan Conservative policy as being entrenched
in that demonic category. It has become the mythical "Deep State" that hangs like a dark cloud in minds of their listeners.
“Liberals hate America, Liberals
hate Christianity, Liberals hate their neighbors, Liberals want to take away
all your money and give it to people who refuse to work, Liberals have no
morals, and they have no values. Liberals will take away your guns (and cut off
your index fingers), and Liberals kill babies. Liberals love Government, as close to Communism as it can get. Everything a
Liberal says is a lie”.
Picked up by Rupert Murdoch (the Emperor of Sensationalism) and Fox
News, there is now possibly a 35% segment of our Nation that watches and
listens to nothing but fear mongering
tirades, then listens to Republican politicians (who secretly love Government) echo back the same
rhetoric to keep their support. Now they have a President who personifies the
opposite of knowledge and decency and they
can see nothing wrong in it.
What happened to the strong counter-balance the Republican Party and Conservatism brought to this Nation? Where is
the call for fiscal responsibility? They mock dollars for social planning while running
trillion dollar deficits. Where is the call for strength in foreign affairs?
They yawn while foreign adversaries attack our institutions and we tragically
abandon our allies. Where is the call for family values and decency? They cheer
their leaders who traffic in foul language and personal denigration.
Now it’s all about who you’re not. Rush Limbaugh makes nearly a hundred
million dollars a year selling hate and fear and President Trump wants every
one of his listeners to ignore the “fake” news that says otherwise. That fake
news which just happens to be all the news there was before 1987. Where have you gone, Walter Cronkite? Our
nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
