Posted 8:38 AM by Scoobie Davis

Rigging the System in a “Fair and Balanced” Media World

Bill Hartung has a thought-provoking open letter to Bill O’Reilly (via Atrios). Hartung was a victim of a common practice of right-wing talk radio jocks: when the going gets tough, mute the caller. Let me elaborate on this practice—it occurs whenever I go on talk radio. When the caller either brings up a good point or starts mopping the floor with the host, then the host hits the mute button. The caller is talking but the audience can’t hear him/her. This allows the host to recover and save some face.

It happened to "Greg from Orlando" when he was creaming Pimple-Ass Limbaugh. I also was a victim of the Limbaugh mute (click here and here). It seems that I can’t get a sentence in on O’Reilly’s radio show without being muted (click here and here). Sean Hannity knows how to use the mute button, too.

People familiar with my blog know about these events. One they don’t know about occurred before I was blogging (I hope I didn’t lose the tape). In December of 2001, Hannity was praising the gruesome twosome: Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. I got on and pointed out how Falwell broke the commandments against stealing and bearing false witness against thy neighbor. I also pointed out what an intolerant bigot Robertson was (click here for the example I used). Hannity muted me several times in the “conversation” but I was able to get my points across nevertheless.

In a way, this is disheartening. The right not only has a bigger megaphone; it has an unfair advantage when we try to confront them on their turf. On the other hand, it shows that we’re right. They’re pussies. Not only do they try to avoid tough opponents (click here and scroll down to the last paragraph), but also when they find that they’re outmatched, they silence the person through technological means. It reminds me of how Stalin would edit out pictures from the revolution of Trotsky . That is their idea of “fair and balanced.”