Weekend update

Thought I'd do another one of those catch-all entries, rounding up a bunch of articles, emails, press releases, opinion pieces and whatnot.

Is the Tyranny of Right-Wing Radio Coming to an End? That question was posed by filmmaker and journalist Rory O'Connor in a well-circulated piece a few days ago. You can read what he has to say here. Here's an interview O'Connor did with BuzzFlash. My take? I don't think a return of the Fairness Doctrine would work. As the saying goes, you can't put the shit back in the horse. I predict conservotalk radio will just imitate itself to death, it's rather old listener base will either die off or move on to something else, or it will go the way of the pet rock and 8-track tapes. Give 'em enough rope to hang themselves is my motto.

Also on OpEdNews, Nova M's Mike Malloy has been quite busy as of late writing. You can see what he's been up to here.

A few days ago, Shelly at Air America dropped an email about Thom Hartmann, who will be doing this week's shows from Denmark, of all places. Here's what they say:

The Thom Hartmann Program will be"live" from Denmark in partnership with The Danish Broadcasting Network. Politicians to students will join in as we find out...Why is Denmark the happiest place in the world? What is the secret of this small country with dreary weather, heavy smoking and drinking, and taxes between 50-70% that keeps the Danes so happy?

For those that missed it (and I almost forgot to add these links), here are a few articles in the mainstream press about new Air America afternoon host Ron Kuby.

Here are a few articles about rising Air America/MSNBC star Rachel Maddow, including an interview and Greenlee Gazette demanding more TV face time for her. And no, she won't get the Meet The Press gig this year - Tom Brokaw will be filling the late Tim Russert's chair through the election. But many do predict good things to come for one of Air America's highest-profile personalities.

Elsewhere in television land, in case you missed it, here's Bill O'Reilly's sad sack producer trying to ambush a real journalist, PBS' Bill Moyers, at the National Conference for Media Reform, of all places. A double mistake, in that he went after a serious veteran journalist who cut his teeth working for Lyndon Johnson, one of the most hard-assed presidents in our history, and did so in an environment where O'Reilly and his ilk are roundly despised. Watch with glee as Porter Barry leaves the shindig with his tail between his legs as he himself gets harassed by much more aggressive journalists. It's great viewing, and I feel ashamed I didn't mention this earlier. Naturally, Mr. No Spin spins the hell out of it to make his guy look like a hero. Evidently, he must think his viewers are really that stupid. Scary thing is, they probably are.

And that's Weekend Update, and I'm outta here!