Sharpton to FCC: Remove Rush Limbaugh from Airwaves
While the rest of us our holiday shopping and happily baking Christmas cookies in the coming days, a huffy Al Sharpton, with his eyebrows knit, plans on marching straight to the FCC's offices in DC next week and demanding that Rush Limbaugh be taken off the air. This is a threat that the reverend has been repeating for weeks now, and which he restated last night on MSNBC. Watch it below.
Rush "doesn't have the right" to use public airwaves to broadcast his radio show, the reverend said. Sharpton proposed that the FCC sets "standards" (read: a speech code) for what is and isn't allowed on the air.
Rush Limbaugh has the right to say whatever he wants to say, he does not have the right, though, to do it on publicly regulated airwaves. The FCC has the responsibility to set standards...You can't say -- in the name of free speech, you can't say anything you want...We're not talking about stopping free speech...We're not telling Rush don't say what you want to say, say it at home, not on public airwaves.
The public has the right "to not be offended," Sharpton said.
...the public also has the right to not tune in to Rush's program, just like we have the right to not tune into the reverend's own radio show (a right that I vigorously exercise on a daily basis).
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Aug '10
Re: Sharpton to FCC: Remove Rush Limbaugh from Airwaves
It appears that Reverend(?) Al has finally heard Rush's parody song and the 'Justice Brothers' skits about him.
Jul '10
Re: Sharpton to FCC: Remove Rush Limbaugh from Airwaves
I'm surprised the good Rev'rend can even pick up Limbaugh's show. The cognitive dissonance must jam radio reception for hundreds of yards around him.
Sep '10
Re: Sharpton to FCC: Remove Rush Limbaugh from Airwaves
nordman: It appears that Reverend(?) Al has finally heard Rush's parody song and the 'Justice Brothers' skits about him.
· Dec 7 at 7:10am
The fact that the Sharpton character is always speaking through a megaphone is pure comedic gold. The best humor is always based in reality, and Sharpton unwittingly provides ample material.
Edited on Dec 7, 2010 at 7:25amRe: Sharpton to FCC: Remove Rush Limbaugh from Airwaves
One of Al Sharpton's great virtues is that he says what most liberals think. Crushing conservative talk-radio was one of the Obama administration's aims. The midterm elections gave us a reprieve.
Sep '10
Re: Sharpton to FCC: Remove Rush Limbaugh from Airwaves
"...say it at home, not on public airwaves"
The airwaves are not public. Not at all. They are private. They may be regulated by the government but they are not owned by the government, or even the people. If that were true then I want all commercials on all "public" airwaves banned. I hate commercials. Why should we have to listen to pitches from profit driven companies on the "public" airwaves?
No, NPR is public radio, and Limbaugh doesn't appear on public radio does he?
Re: Sharpton to FCC: Remove Rush Limbaugh from Airwaves
Mark Belling Fan
nordman: It appears that Reverend(?) Al has finally heard Rush's parody song and the 'Justice Brothers' skits about him.
· Dec 7 at 7:10am
The fact that the Sharpton character is always speaking through a megaphone is pure comedic gold. The best humor is always based in reality, and Sharpton unwittingly provides ample material. · Dec 7 at 7:23am
Edited on Dec 07 at 07:25 am
And the more earnest and vitriolic he gets, the funnier it becomes!
Sep '10
Re: Sharpton to FCC: Remove Rush Limbaugh from Airwaves
Sharpton saying this on MSNBC and not "at home" is a little ironic...
Re: Sharpton to FCC: Remove Rush Limbaugh from Airwaves
Franco: "...say it at home, not on public airwaves"
The airwaves are not public. Not at all. They are private. They may be regulated by the government but they are not owned by the government, or even the people. If that were true then I want all commercials on all "public" airwaves banned. I hate commercials. Why should we have to listen to pitches from profit driven companies on the "public" airwaves?
No, NPR is public radio, and Limbaugh doesn't appear on public radio does he? · Dec 7 at 7:46am
That's a good point, and a good distinction to draw. If we go by Sharpton's reasoning, then why wouldn't we also be able to regulate television, too, since TV is under the FCC's purview?
May '10
Re: Sharpton to FCC: Remove Rush Limbaugh from Airwaves
Mr. Sharpton assumes that AM/FM radio should be regulated by the government "on behalf of the public interest." This is his premise and he concludes from it ultimately that the government via the FCC should determine who gets licenses in accordance with his notion of whats in the public interest. If this is the case, then why would Sharpton end with AM/FM radio? An implicit assumption here is that if AM/FM was full privatized, the public interest would not be satisfied and that, concomitantly, only some form of government regulation and supervision can properly satisfy the public interest.
Before you know it, the government will begin regulating industries in order to provide itself with the pretext required to justify the revocation of licenses and the removal of entrepreneurs. Dr. Rahe is right - Sharpton is a clumsy, tactless statist.
Edited on Dec 7, 2010 at 8:15amAug '10
Re: Sharpton to FCC: Remove Rush Limbaugh from Airwaves
Someone once told me, according to himself a good authority, that Al Sharpton's real father was James Brown.
The hardest working man in race complaining business, like his daddy, just won't get dragged off the stage. He just keeps coming back, even with the cape they hang on his shoulders, even with the sweat , and the bass kicking up again. Sad that his schtick has cost so much in lives, reputations,money, and coexistence.
Please ,please, please...............leave.
Edited on Dec 7, 2010 at 8:20amRe: Sharpton to FCC: Remove Rush Limbaugh from Airwaves
Is there any chance that the FCC will actually hear Sharpton out and take his complaint seriously?
Edited on Dec 7, 2010 at 8:33amMay '10
Re: Sharpton to FCC: Remove Rush Limbaugh from Airwaves
I'd like to see Congress take his complaint seriously, and utilize its opportunity to stop regulating the airwaves.
I don't think that there will even be hearings where Al can grandstand. FCC Commission member Copps has already stepped in it with his trial balloon. If they couldn't sell this with the environment of the last two years, they never will.
Good news copy, though.
Oct '10
Re: Sharpton to FCC: Remove Rush Limbaugh from Airwaves
How does any news producer put this clown on television? Not only is he a facist he is a completely ignorant one. If the First Amendment covers any persons right to say what they will on a public streetcorner, to print what they will in a newspaper and distribute it to the public, how does it make sense that a person cannot say what they will on a radio program?
One of the stupidest things I've ever heard. You just ruined my whole morning Sharpton.
Nov '10
Re: Sharpton to FCC: Remove Rush Limbaugh from Airwaves
Emily Esfahani Smith, Ed. : Is there any chance that the FCC will actually hear Sharpton out and take his complaint seriously? · Dec 7 at 8:32am
Edited on Dec 07 at 08:33 am
I thought they were already taking this stuff seriously. Didn't Michael Copps talk about the Public Value Test recently?
Nov '10
Re: Sharpton to FCC: Remove Rush Limbaugh from Airwaves
Oops, doing the Repeater. Thanks, Duane.
Sep '10
Re: Sharpton to FCC: Remove Rush Limbaugh from Airwaves
Al "phoney rape claim against New York police department" Sharpton has accused me of hate speech is the one line retort from Rush Limbaugh.
Sep '10
Re: Sharpton to FCC: Remove Rush Limbaugh from Airwaves
I await the sound of David Frum leaping to Rush Limbaugh's defense because of Frum's unequivocal commitment to free speech.
Waiting, waiting, waiting...
Jul '10
Re: Sharpton to FCC: Remove Rush Limbaugh from Airwaves
Calicocaptive
Emily Esfahani Smith, Ed. : Is there any chance that the FCC will actually hear Sharpton out and take his complaint seriously? · Dec 7 at 8:32am
Edited on Dec 07 at 08:33 am
I thought they were already taking this stuff seriously. Didn't Michael Copps talk about the Public Value Test recently? · Dec 7 at 8:50am
Yes. and Mignon Clyburne, daughter of James Clyburne became a Commissioner on December 1.
May '10
Re: Sharpton to FCC: Remove Rush Limbaugh from Airwaves
If they had not lost control of the House, here is how the FCC would have taken on Rush:
Rush says something against the Mexican government and someone along the border complains. And then they identify complaints made from Canadians about Rush's opinions of their healthcare system. So now, instead of going after Rush, they go after his affiliates for internationally spreading hate speech. That would eliminate him from border states and the AM powerhouses. It wouldn't kill him but it would economically cripple his syndicator and the radio chains that carry him.
And the administration would point to some buried provision in an international treaty and say that it wasn't them, their hands are tied, the law's the law.
Jul '10
Re: Sharpton to FCC: Remove Rush Limbaugh from Airwaves
Yet another example of how the Commerce Clause can be used for mischief.
Most people don't know how the Feds came to be in charge of the "public airwaves". The original rationale - a legitimate one - was to assign radio frequencies and regulate signal strength so that there would not be thousands of broadcasters stepping on each others' signals. Without such common-sense regulation, radio would have become a useless cacophony.
But once you let the camel get his nose into the tent...