The Dirty Little Secret of Network News

[Octafish]

2. Absolutely. If Williams didn't do what he was told, he'd be gone same day.

ABC and the Rise of Rush Limbaugh

by Jim DiEugenio

With little doubt, the two most revolutionary developments in radio in the last 40 years --- since the ascension of rock music --- have been the talk radio format, and then the conversion of that format to a politically conservative tone. No single personality is more responsible or representative of that explosive movement than Rush Limbaugh. If you ask the average informed person: "Who sponsored Limbaugh?" the answer you would probably hear would either be Clear Channel or Fox. The real and correct answer though would be ABC.

Once the Cap Cities takeover of ABC was complete, the move by ABC television to a more politically friendly stance was not abrupt or dramatic. For instance, it took until 1993 for Peter Jennings to announce in an interview with TV Guide that his nightly news show would now be paying more attention to conservatives because in his view their ideas were "more provocative and less predictable on some issues." But there was one front on which CC/ABC could move suddenly and potently and that was radio.

Why? Because CC/ABC had a huge advantage in ownership outlets that it could capitalize on. Of the 11,000 radio stations in America, CC/ABC either owned or rented space to about half of them --- an extraordinary advantage that the FCC did not challenge at the time of the purchase. Since the Fairness Doctrine had been disposed of in 1987, CC/ABC could now begin to broadcast a more conservative brand of radio without fear of being petitioned for equal time.

Edward McLaughlin, President of ABC Radio began searching for a talk show host to lead ABC's new direction. He found him in Sacramento. Limbaugh was doing an AM talk show there at the time and he was defending the actions of people like Oliver North and William Casey during the Iran-Contra scandal. McLaughlin noticed him and brought him to New York City for a one-month broadcast trial at CC/ABC's flagship station WABC. McLaughlin liked what he heard and ABC promoted him by placing him on their fast track, handling all his marketing, advertising and promotion. To provide a fig leaf for ABC, Limbaugh formed his own media company, Excellence in Broadcasting. But Limbaugh broadcast out of ABC stations for decades. And for a long time, the man who followed Limbaugh on WABC was Bob Grant who continued the tirade against "bleeding heart" liberals and once called New York's black mayor David Dinkins a "washroom attendant".

McLaughlin promoted Limbaugh initially by arranging appearances for him on other talk shows like Ted Koppel's Nightline, Donahue, MacNeil/Lehrer and a primetime, and rather fawning, interview with ABC's Barbara Walters. These appearances were all meant to give Limbaugh more mainstream exposure and publicize his show.

When Limbaugh tried to branch out into television in September of 1992, his producer was Roger Ailes, the longtime Republican strategist who specialized in attack ads, most notably in the 1988 Bush-Dukakis race. Of course, the timing of the show was on the eve of the 1992 election so many people complained that Limbaugh's show was clearly fronting for the Bush campaign and demanded equal time. Limbaugh replied "I am equal time." Of course, he is not. Limbaugh featured guests who were from his point of view, blocked out all opposing views, screened callers and their questions in advance, labeled feminists, "femiNazis" and blamed all of America's problems on "big-spending Democrats, the lazy poor and trouble-making minority rabble-rousers." He was so offensive that the show was pulled because major advertisers did not want to be a part of it. Signifcantly, the ill-fated television show was distributed by one of CC/ABC's partners, Multimedia. Recently, when Limbaugh made his comments about Donovan McNabb of the Philadelphia Eagles being overrated and a beneficiary of racial sympathy, it was on another subsidiary of ABC, ESPN.

CONTINUED...

http://www.ctka.net/limbaugh.html

The public is noticing that something ain't right with the news. Bush II sez "Money trumps peace. Heh heh heh" and kills a million people for their and oil walks free. Snowden says NSA is spying on Americans and has to run for his life. It happens and people never get the information they need to know why they should care, let alone what should be done for Justice.