[MD] The MoQ.org STRANGLES Creativity

[Arlo J. Bensinger]

[Arlo]
Preservation of public lands, state and federal, in the form of parks, wildlife
preserves, forests, etc., is probably one of my strongest political issues.

[Case]
I am pretty much a yellow dog democrat but I have a similar problem with public
trust of the airwaves. There used to be a fairness doctrine to stimulate public
discourse, and public access to cable TV and limited ownership of media in
given geographic regions to promote local ownership. Now the radio is polluted
with right wing politics and religion and in my part of the U.S., Clear Channel
Communications owns nearly every radio station in the entire state. This
abomination has been perpetrated as aggressively by democrats as republicans.
In fact when the FCC gave away $4 billion dollars worth of spectrum licenses;
the media ignored it, of course, and the only ones complaining were Bob Dole
and John McCain.

[Arlo]
Agree, Case. In "The Future of Ideas", Lawrence Lessig lays out a strong
argument for (what he calls) "the commons". He discusses at length the
airwaves, and the ongoing slow-burn that is selling them off to corporate
interests.

As for Clear Channel, well, you remind me of another Johnny Cash story. Seems
Clear Channel wanted a "country image" devoid of boozin' and russlin', and so
was giving airtime (on country radio) only to acts supported by the 18-25 year
old female demographic. Cash had, then, cut a collection of covers, including
Nine Inch Nails' song "Hurt" and The Clash's "Redemption Song". They refused to
play it. This pissed off a lot of country fans, who tired of the incessant
"Maria Osmond" image country had become. Cash took out a full page ad in
Billboard, saying "Thanks Clear Channel" (in effect), with Cash flippin' the
bird.

>From a web article on the story...

""I expected there to be trouble with that album, and there was," Cash wrote in
his autobiography. "I got a lot of flak from the Columbia Records bosses while
I was recording it -- though Frank Jones, my producer, had the sense and
courage to let me go ahead and do what I wanted -- and when it was released,
many radio stations wouldn't play it. My reaction was to write the disc jockeys
a letter and pay to have it published as a full-page ad in Billboard. It talked
about them wanting to 'wallow in meaninglessness' and noted their 'lack of
vision for our music.' Predictably enough, it got me off the air in more places
than it got me on."

Even in the 1960s, Cash said, "craven worship of the almighty dollar" was
interfering with the ability of artists to get good music heard.

Thirty years later, as Clear Channel and other radio conglomerates sucked what
life there was out of radio, Cash would argue, "The very idea of unconventional
or even original ideas ending up on ‘country' radio in the late 1990s is
absurd."

In 1998, after Cash won the Grammy award for best country album, American
Recordings purchased a full-page ad in Billboard that was addressed to country
radio programmers who had failed to play his music. The ad featured a picture
of a much younger Cash with his middle finger held high in a fierce gesture of
defiance."

Imagine, Johnny Cash too "harsh" for country radio. 

Arlo