Don’t Be Fooled By Sinclair’s Shell Games

By Dana Floberg/Free Press

The Sinclair Broadcast Group announced last week its intention to divest some of the local-TV stations it will gain, including WGN, from its unprecedented merger with Tribune to comply with the remaining shreds of media-ownership limits that FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has yet to sweep away.
But even those minimal sacrifices come with some major caveats. Sinclair’s proposed “divestitures” look like nothing more than the same old shell games.
Let’s break it down.

Posted on February 26, 2018

Archie Bunker On Gun Control

As Logical Today As It Was Then

“Good evening, everybody. This here is Archie Bunker of 704 Hauser Street, veteran of the big war, speaking on behalf of guns for everybody. Now, question: What was the first thing that the Communists done when they took over Russia? Answer: Gun control. And there’s a lot of people in this country want to do the same thing to us here in a kind of conspiracy, see. You take your big international bankers, they want to – whaddya call – masticate the people of this here nation like puppets on the wing, and then when they get their guns, turn us over to the Commies . . . ”

Posted on February 21, 2018

Behind Sinclair’s ‘Project Baltimore’

By The Real News

“An extended discussion on Sinclair Broadcasting’s ‘Project Baltimore,’ an investigative project that looks for flaws in the public school system – without addressing the root causes – and pushes for privatization.”

Posted on February 20, 2018

FCC Inspector General Investigating Sinclair Rulings

By Tim Karr/Free Press

The FCC inspector general’s office is investigating the appearance of quid pro quo behind agency rulings that have helped pave the way for Sinclair Broadcast Group’s proposed takeover of Tribune Media.
In response, Free Press on Thursday called on Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to recuse himself from all decisions related to the proposed move. Free Press has raised serious concerns that the FCC chairman was acting deliberately and with extreme bias to lift any public-interest safeguards that would prevent the massive merger from being approved. In August 2017, Free Press filed a formal challenge to the proposed deal stating that the transfer of station licenses would give Sinclair a broadcast reach far in excess of congressional and FCC limits on national and local media ownership, and would harm the public interest.

Posted on February 15, 2018

WGN Anchors Ask Fashion Blogger About Nuclear War Because . . .

She Didn’t Sound ‘American’

“I was on WGN for a live interview last week, and was asked to speak about my work and my book, but when I gave answers the hosts didn’t like, their questions (and comments) started to get hostile, literally telling me I ‘don’t sound American,'” Hoda Katebi writes on YouTube.
“I also published a few quick thoughts about this interview (which they also refused to publish online, or give us access to the clip), as I feel it serves as a good example for a bit of commentary that can be applied to so many conversations happening now, and relevant to the work that is happening on JooJoo Azad.

Posted on February 14, 2018

MLK And The Ram

By Laura Flanders/Common Dreams

Super Bowl 2018 drew the smallest audience of any national championship game since 2009, but that didn’t quell the ruckus stoked by one of the mid-game ads. Listen carefully and there it was: Martin Luther King pitching the Dodge Ram.

What really got my goat – no pun intended – was that the sermon in question was all about the dangers of hucksterism, extreme materialism and greed, and those – ahem – huckster leaders who use their power to drive people into desperation, and distract them from what’s really going on, in no small part by selling people things they don’t need and can’t afford.
Delivered 50 years ago to the day, King talked about people “taken by advertisers.”

Posted on February 13, 2018

24 Hours With FM

A Lot Of Dope $H!T

No static at all.
1 a.m.: Dope $H!T
2 a.m.: FM19: Weekly Countdown
4 a.m.: Doggie Style
4:30 a.m.: Paid Programming
5 a.m.: Doggie Style
6 a.m.: Hella Old School

Posted on February 5, 2018

TV Violence, 1976

Did Kojak Cause A Rape?

“Nicholas Johnson is best known for his controversial term as a dissenting Federal Communications Commission commissioner, 1966-1973, and his book, How to Talk Back to Your Television Set. He currently teaches at the University of Iowa College of Law, with an emphasis on communications and Internet law.”

Posted on February 1, 2018