Radio station owners, spines and the Left’s censorship
Last week, Mitch Berg wrote a brilliant series of articles about U of M Professor WB Gleason’s threat to file an FCC complaint against Late Debate’s Jack Tomczak. Specifically, Gleason threatened to file the FCC complaint over some tweets made by Jack.
As Mitch highlighted in this post, the FCC doesn’t have jurisdiction over tweets:
Of course, Channel Five doesn’t phrase their requests for interviews with terms like “asshole“. Which was Tomczak’s sole mistake. But, I hasten to add, that took place on Twitter – a place where the FCC has no jurisdiction.
Despite conservatives’ warning the station that they shouldn’t cave to Gleason, that’s precisely what 95.9 did. To say that this touched off a firestorm amongst conservatives is understatement. Jen DeJournett, co-founder of VOICES of Conservative Women, sent this letter to Andrew Lee at AM1130:
His April 22, 2012
Dear Mr. Lee:
VOICES of Conservative Women (VOICES) would like to encourage your radio station to pick up the highly regarded show called the “The Late Debate”. I have participated numerous times as a guest of the show and been a frequent listener to the program. I have found their guests and the issues they discuss to be relevant to the political dialogue in Minnesota. In addition, “The Late Debate” has had numerous conservative women as guests on their program. Just last week, they hosted a “Mom’s Table” where every guest was a mom and responded to the timely topic of Hilary Rosen. No other radio program has had the sheer number of women guests in their tenure. Allowing our perspective to be heard is critical and appreciated.Founded just a few years ago here in Minnesota, VOICES of Conservative Women has grown to become one of the premier women focus organization in the upper Midwest. Our current supporter base is 25,000 women from all over the country. VOICES of Conservative Women is a 501(c)4 national non-profit, nonpartisan organization that works to encourage women to be more involved in public policy and run for elected office. We also work to educate on issues that relate to our core mission: fiscal responsibility, limited government and free market principles.
Our 527 political fund (VOICESPAC) works to elect strong, qualified women candidates who support our mission.
VOICES has worked very hard since our inception to encourage women to get involved in politics and has a strong, proven track record of electing qualified women to office.
We hope that you will seriously consider bringing “The Late Debate” to your radio station. Their willingness to be unique and newsworthy has made them a delight to listen to and a much needed voice in the Twin Cities radio market.
If you need any additional information from our organization, please let us know and we will provide it to you.
Best Regards,
Jennifer DeJournett, President
VOICES of Conservative Women
This is the highest profile letter to Mr. Lee to pick up Jack’s and Ben’s show. It isn’t the only letter or email that Mr. Lee has received from conservatives.
Rather than just focusing narrowly on the situation confronting Jack and Ben, it’s important that conservatives recognize some important facts. First, the far left is waging war agains talk radio. That’s what’s driven the Left’s attacks against Rush Limbaugh.
They didn’t have a prayer in hell of taking him down. Ever. The Left’s goal was to get station managers to volunarily put silencers on ‘controversial’ talk radio hosts like Jack and Ben. In this instance, controversial is defined as people brave enough to ignore the Left’s false premises and baseless attacks.
Another definition of controversial might be effective in exposing the Left’s agenda of intimidation and creating controversy from thin air.
Jack and Ben will soon return to the airwaves. They’re too talented and too informed not to be part of talk radio’s lineup in the Twin Cities.
Comments welcome at Let Freedom Ring.