Tag Archives: Radio

Freedom of speech propaganda

December 8, 2005 – 8:48 pm

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military has secretly paid Iraqi newspapers to run dozens of pro-American articles written by a special military task force, The Los Angeles Times reported on Wednesday.

The newspaper also reported that the “Information Operations Task Force” in Baghdad has bought an Iraqi newspaper and taken control of a radio station, and was using them to disseminate pro-American views as well.

The Bush administration has also been found to have tried to influence domestic media, including having federal agencies distribute video packages to U.S. TV stations that could be broadcast as news stories and paying media commentator Armstrong Williams to tout Bush education policies in television appearances and in his column.

By JB | Posted in Blog Posts | Also tagged , , | Comments (9)

Bill O’Reilly: redefining “jackass”

November 11, 2005 – 6:33 pm

From Media Matters:

oreillyCriticizing a ballot measure passed by 60 percent of San Francisco voters urging public high schools and colleges to prohibit on-campus military recruiting, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly declared on the November 8 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, “[I]f Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we’re not going to do anything about it. We’re going to say, look, every other place in America is off-limits to you, except San Francisco.“

From the November 8 broadcast of Fox News’ The Radio Factor with Bill O’Reilly:

O’REILLY: Hey, you know, if you want to ban military recruiting, fine, but I’m not going to give you another nickel of federal money. You know, if I’m the president of the United States, I walk right into Union Square, I set up my little presidential podium, and I say, “Listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you’re not going to get another nickel in federal funds. Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead.”

And if Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we’re not going to do anything about it. We’re going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead.

PS - Congratulations to the city of San Francisco for passing such a wise measure. It’s sick how they convince kids to basically sign away years of their lives for the promise of a college education that they otherwise may not be able to afford.

By JB | Posted in Blog Posts | Also tagged , | Comments (0)

Double standards

November 7, 2005 – 10:18 am

[Mercury News article]PASADENA, Calif. - One of the state’s largest and most liberal churches could lose its tax-exempt status because of an anti-war sermon that a former rector delivered two days before the 2004 presidential election, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

In his sermon, the Rev. George F. Regas did not urge parishioners at All Saints Episcopal Church to support either George Bush or his opponent, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. But he was sharply critical of the Iraq war and Bush’s tax cuts.

The IRS in a June 9 letter warned the church that its tax-exempt status was in jeopardy because the federal tax code prohibits such organizations from intervening in political campaigns and elections. The church’s current rector, J. Edwin Bacon, told his congregation about the problem on Sunday.

If this happens it will be ridiculous. It would honestly be difficult to count the number of pro-Bush Christian organizations that were very outspoken in the last election, but for some reason this one that was on the other side is being threatened. All you have to do is turn on the local Christian radio station any day of the week and you will probably hear a violation of this code within a few hours.

A long time ago I used to occasionally listen to a show by James Dobson’s organization; back then they called the show “Focus on the Family”, but I’m not sure what they changed the name to after they switched it to being a 30 minute session of telling their loyal followers to call their congress people and telling them what to say and how to vote.

In any event, I really hope that this particular church stands their ground, regardless of whether they keep their non-profit status. Although it would certainly be an unbalanced application of this law, it would be worth it to stand your ground and maintain your principles.

The most encouraging part of the article…

He said the IRS recently offered to drop the proceedings if the church admitted wrongdoing. The church declined the offer, he said.

By JB | Posted in Blog Posts | Also tagged , , , | Comments (0)

FOX polluting the radio

July 31, 2005 – 6:22 pm

I was kind of surprised this weekend to find the audio of a FOX TV station (SD channel 6) being simulcast on 87.7 FM in San Diego. The frequencies between 87 and 92 are supposed to be reserved for noncommercial radio. This is usually a great thing, since in any town you go to you can head for the “bottom” of the dial and find at least one decent station. I would have thought this would be a violation of a law (or at least an FCC regulation).

By JB | Posted in Blog Posts | Also tagged | Comments (4)