Bee-otch of the Day/Week Chuck69.com

Name: The Republican Party
Age: 167
Occupation: right-winged fakes
Last Seen: Washington, DC
Bee-otched for: everything wrong in politics
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Once upon a time, the world of broadcasting was simpler.

Individuals could only own one TV station, one FM station and one AM station. If they owned a newspaper in the same city as one of their stations, they had to have a waiver.

There was the Fairness Doctrine, passed in the late 1940s, which ordered broadcasters to present two viewpoints to every situation. If a TV station presented a commentary, the FCC ordered that same station to allow free air time to someone who opposed it, free of charge. After all, the FCC ruled that We the People owned the airwaves.

Over the 20th century, there were many reasons for the FCC to revoke TV and radio licenses. One radio station in Washington, DC had its license taken away in the 1970s because they aired a preacher who hid the results for a numbers game in scripture. RKO General had their licenses revoked in the 1980s over corporate misconduct. As a matter of fact, WBZ-TV was the sole "big three" TV station in Boston to never lose its license.

However, the Fairness Doctrine did cost a few stations their license, most notably WLBT-TV in Jackson, MS. Their owners, Lamar Life Insurance was under fire by several community groups for doing nothing for the African American community, which made up a third of their viewing area. In 1971, those groups got their wish and Lamar was forced to give up their license to a non-profit organization.

Being founded by the great Franklin Roosevelt, the FCC was supposed to put Americans first in terms of broadcasting. They made sure that if a radio station was broadcasting with too much power, they were fined. If a newscast was too opinionated, ditto. However, one thing that the FCC was against it seems was the First Amendment. And it was all because of a little drive through New York City.

At about two in the afternoon, a man named John Douglas was driving with his 15-year-old son, Dean when he heard the George Carlin routine "Filthy Words" at WBAI, a Pacifica radio station. A member of the ultra-right-winged Morality in Media, he wrote to the FCC and WBAI was handed a notice of apparent liability. The case was challenged in several courts until the FCC themselves challenged the case to the Supreme Court in 1978. At the time, five out of the nine justices were conservative and some were Nixon appointees. Well, the FCC got their wish. The high court ruled in favor of the FCC and broadcasters now had a definite list of words you couldn't use on radio or TV.

Since then, things have only gotten worse. MUCH worse.

In 1987, the Reagan-led FCC ruled that the Fairness Doctrine was outdated, so they eliminated it. Just a year later, an overweight loudmouth from Cape Girardeau, MO named Rush Limbaugh started syndicating his daily talk show. With the Fairness Doctrine dead and gone, it allowed radio stations to go full-blown conservative talk 24/7. And it's been downhill since.

In 1996, we had the Telecommunications Act. One individual could own two AM, seven FM and in some markets, two TV stations. There was no longer a cap on how many stations one individual could own. Things only got worse in 2004 when Janet Jackson had her accidental wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl. Obviously, religious groups like the Parents' Television Council and the FCC pushed to jack up fines for so-called indecency. Today, it's $325,000.

In 1934, the motion picture industry enacted the Hays Code, which basically made movies virtually squeaky clean for all to see. Part of the reason was fear that the US government would censor movies themselves. However, in 1952, the Supreme Court ruled that movies were protected under the First Amendment. But, in the case of broadcasters, it's about making sure that young ears don't listen to the original version of "WAP" by Cardi B. and Megan Thee Stallion or the last minute of "Killing In The Name" by Rage Against the Machine.

Sadly, the Republican-led FCC has been beyond lax when it comes to making the media better for people. Instead, it's about what's best for the iHeartMedias, the Cumuluses and Entercoms of the world. It's pathetic knowing that Rush has 600 affiliates and can be heard in virtually every town here in Michigan. However, the #1 liberal talker in America, Thom Hartmann only has one real affiliate here in the Wolverine State: a tiny, low-power FM in Detroit. Obviously, he had a ton more affiliates, but iHeartMedia threw him onto several low-rated AMs and watched him rot.

The tragic truth is that right-winged talk radio and TV is filled to the brim with lies and brainwashes people. Remember the news story from 2013 where a man abducted a young boy and hid him in a bunker? It turned out that the abductor, Jimmy Lee Dykes was a huge fan of right-winged talk radio and feared that he needed the boy to bring new life onto Earth. Dykes had plenty of bombs in his bunker and believed in many of the conspiracy theories that was rambled on the shitty shows he listened to.

Sadly, it's not just right-winged talk radio anymore. Since Drumpf became president, too many Americans have passed fake news as real. NBC, CBS, ABC and CNN = bad, Fox News, OANN, Infowars and The Blaze = good. And because of this, we end up with the melee in Washington 12 days ago.

Folks, I'm originally from northern Michigan. Since I moved to Grand Rapids 19 years ago, the media up north has gotten much worse. Their "big four" TV stations are now owned by two companies. One of them just happens to be Sinclair, who has reduced their newscasts to cookie cutter operations with right-leaning horseshit per Sinclair brass. Two of the "big three" radio station owners - Midwestern and MacDonald-Garber - own conservative talk radio outlets with Rush. Plus, there's many silent radio stations, all run into the ground by poor management.

Even worse, there's good 'ol "Trucker Randy" Bishop, who has the daily Your Defending Fathers radio show, heard on tiny WCHY 97.7 in Cheboygan. As I've mentioned on past BOTDs, he's a convicted felon and should not own a radio station, or even worse, a gun. As a matter of fact, his wife, Victoria, is the de facto owner of WCHY. Plus, WCHY's "main studio" per FCC documents is at his home in Antrim County, way out of WCHY's listening area. Sadly, I've read Randy's Twitter feed and he's attacked Republicans who want Drumpf impeached. Not only that, he even went to the Michigan State Capitol and bitched about how the 2020 election was "stolen".

Under old FCC rules, WCHY would have had to have a studio in Cheboygan. Plus, the fact that Victoria is not a convicted felon while Randy is for not paying his taxes scares me.

You know, this is what happens when Republicans run the world. They don't want much government and as a result, we end up with a douchebag dressed like a buffalo standing at Nancy Pelosi's lectern. Drumpf spread lies and Fox News, OANN and AM talk radio amplified it. The average American citizen knows better and because of this, we only have one more day of this shit.

Sadly, I doubt that Biden will overturn the FCC. But then again, there's some sort of hope. He is, after all, planning on boosting the minimum wage to $15 per hour, a huge request from pure progressives like Bernie Sanders and AOC. Plus, more stimulus checks to help Americans, especially those hurt by COVID-19.

It's a shame that I'll be 40 in May and we've only had 16 years of Democratic leadership, eight of those by Clinton, who was really a conservative. He wasn't perfect, but Obama was the better of the two. Now, it's up to Biden to fix this sick, crazy world.

We need real leadership to run America, not The Village People.

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