Clear Channel Cuts

Even the New York Times noticed the DJ bloodbath at Clear Channel this time. This is not normal business practice. This is incredibly extreme.

Here's my favorite part of the article, a quote from Clear Channel's spokesperson about the hacking of local hosts across the country: “The content our listeners hear will be more localized, not less, even though some of the hosts won’t be living or working in those local areas."

That quote could have come right from the pages of $everance.

Just as an aside, $everance has recently found a whole new audience. My publisher offered it as a free e-book download (check ENC Press on Facebook if you're interested), and I've been hearing from people all over the country--including a bunch from the Occupy Wall Street crowd. Thanks for all the kind words, everyone. I take no joy in being right about the future of the media and Wall Street. I would have rather been wrong.

Free $everance?

Until Nov. 15, my $everance publisher ENC Press is offering a free download of $everance as an e-book (PDF). For details, visit their page - www.facebook.com/ENCPress - and click on the Welcome tab under their profile pic.

$everance

Between now and September 28th, my publisher ENC Press is doing a contest giveaway with my novel "$everance" at the Good Reads website.

If you'd like a chance to win the book, click here.

(At the very least, click on the Good Reads site and give me a nice review. You know I'd do it for you.)

The Fairness Doctrine is gone

From this morning's Tom Taylor column at Radio-Info.com...

“The Fairness Doctrine and other obsolete provisions are deleted”, says the FCC. A total of 83 “outdated and obsolete media-related rules” have been wiped off the books, says Chairman Julius Genachowski. It’s not a surprise that the Fairness Doctrine, which was shelved back in 1987 but not deleted, is one of them. Genachowski and President Obama have said they weren’t in favor of reviving it, despite the dire warnings of many folks in talk radio.

There was never a danger of it coming back, but this was one of the boogeymen conservative talk radio hosts have been warning people about for years now. I got into a rather heated debate with one about this subject live on the air during my publicity tour for $everance. That host was afraid that I made a pretty good case for bringing it back in my book, and he wanted to smack me down.

Just for the record, I never advocated bringing it back. Once the genie was out of the bottle, you couldn't shove him back in. I was just pointing out in my book how bad it has been for this country since it stopped being enforced. In my opinion it's one of the main causes of our inflamed political discourse.

It's very easy to win every argument when you don't have to hear the other side. You start believing that you're always right. You know who is always right? As far as I can tell, there's only been one in history. Plus, some of the less scrupulous broadcasters have realized that you don't even have to tell anything remotely connected to the truth...because no one will call you on it.

Once you're inside the bubble, anything goes, including pushing the bogus notion that the liberals were hell bent on restoring the Fairness Doctrine.

I say getting rid of it was a disaster, but it's been dead and buried now for nearly twenty five years.