RUSH: Cameron in Hartford, Connecticut, great to have you on the program, sir. Hi.
CALLER: It is indeed an honor to talk with you on the people’s airwaves.
RUSH: Yes. Thank you, the people’s airwaves.
CALLER: Well, you’re gonna see that, Rush, in the topic of what I called about, but let me first mention that when you say, ‘Where are you from, Dmitry?’ it echoes one of your mentors in a way that is heartwarming to me. Your emphasis on ‘from’ is right out of the book of the guy who started it all. Where are you from, Dmitry? I don’t know if you recall back in New York —
RUSH: Ah, okay, you mean Bob Grant?
CALLER: Bob Grant, I guess, one of the fathers of what you do. But I called about the effect of —
RUSH: And one of the mothers.
CALLER: And one of the mothers.
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: Precisely. We’re gonna miss the Golden EIB Microphone, and I often meant to ask you if that microphone is named after someone, as the Golden EIB Microphone, or if that’s the composition of it.
RUSH: No, it’s the composition, not named after anybody. It’s actually gold-plated here.
CALLER: I had to ask.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: But I called about the loss of the EIB microphone through the enactment of what was given in a speech by the FCC chairman at the Columbia University School of journalism —
RUSH: You’re talking about Michael Copps.
CALLER: I’m talking about the end of talk radio, and I’m talking about Michael Copps, you’re very right, as you always are, 99 whatever, and we’re gonna be lost without you, Rush, and we’re gonna wish we had the Farris doctrine [sic] — is it called the Farris doctrine?
RUSH: It was called the Fairness Doctrine.
CALLER: Oh. Well, now, we’re gonna wish we had that because if the Fairness Doctrine were brought back we would have equal time with the propaganda from the secular progressive left.
RUSH: Well, I don’t want to get too technical here, but people often confuse the Fairness Doctrine with equal time, and they’re not the same thing. People try to implement the Fairness Doctrine under that premise but it’s really not equal time. At any rate, what is your fear?
CALLER: Well, my fear is something that happened Thursday night, and he laid down a game plan which will be followed, which will require each radio station to be scrutinized with what is called a public value test. If a station passes the public value test, it of course keeps the license it has earned to use the people’s airwaves.
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: If not, it goes on probation for a year.
RUSH: I saw him say this. I’m familiar with his remarks.
CALLER: Well, it gets better because the news item that reported it Friday morning goes on to list the seven secrets about what it will take to stay on the airwaves, and you pass none of them.
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: The one that is tucked perfectly in the middle of seven, you can imagine item number four is neither in the top three nor the bottom three. In the true wisdom of the secular progressive left, item four is called, ‘Reflecting diversity,’ and this exposes the people with the short cropped hair who are behind this. And it reads, ‘Copps noted that people of color own only about 3.6% of full powered commercial television stations, but he also said that diversity encompasses how groups are depicted in the media, too often stereotyped and caricatured,’ et cetera, et cetera. ‘The FCC’s diversity advisor council has spent years providing us a specific target of recommendations to correct this injustice.’
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: Copps said, ‘How sad it is that most of these recommendations have not been put to a commission vote. It is time to right this awful wrong.’ And that’s the end of it all, Rush, because he’ll take away the Internet through the WikiLeaks excuse, and now he takes away the talk radio, and now you have to meet me in the street. And I don’t think I’m gonna see you there.
RUSH: Well you’re right about that.
CALLER: Well, I’m right about most things. That’s why I try to stay tuned to this station.
RUSH: Well, I’m aware of what he said. It’s been a wet dream of theirs for who knows how long, to be able to have these kinds of regulations, limitations, and so forth. But if they do that, and if they ever do succeed in this massive restriction of commercial broadcasting, there are other places to go that are not regulated and they don’t have their mitts into yet. Regardless, just like the Fairness Doctrine, I know what these guys have in mind, I know what their game plan is, I know how they’re gonna go about it. Basically use intimidation, license renewal, fines, all this kind of thing. But for some reason now, it may just be my eternal optimism, and unlike you, I have not written myself off yet. I don’t mean that personally. I’ve not written off the industry. I don’t think these guys are gonna totally succeed. People won’t put up with it, people are simply not gonna put up with it.
CALLER: Well, there was a wet dream called control of our lives through the Obamacare. That’s O-b-a-m-a, Obama, like Alabama, A-l-a-b-a-m-a is Alabama.
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: So Barack Obama has his health care and that was a wet dream that came true, and now they have the financial reform bill, which has further put the nail in the coffin, and those two things are enough to kill the airwaves — not the airwaves but to kill the country, so we’ve lost the country and we won’t be able to talk to each other as we go down in flames.
RUSH: Well, but we haven’t yet. We’re gonna repeal health care or we’re gonna go down trying. There is a concerted effort taken to do this. I appreciate your concern out there, I really do, but I don’t want you to panic. I’ve always said I’ll tell you when it’s time to panic, and it isn’t yet. If they ever made an official move on that basis, it would be seen by everybody for what it is, and the whole intellectual notion of diversity can be swatted away like a mosquito, like a fly. The fact is that there are more points of view, there are more opportunities. When I started this program there were like 125 talk radio stations in the country. And today the number has hit, what is it, 2500? I mean it’s huge. And you’ve got everything from Chinese opera to favorite carrot cake recipes during the holidays programming, it’s all out there. And nobody is denied, nobody. Now, ownership, that’s a whole different thing. If they want to try to legislate that then we’re not really even talking about ownership, we’re talking about subsidy, which even now takes place.
But this stuff does not happen in a vacuum, and the victims of this kind of thing are not just gonna sit around and let it happen. They’re not gonna just say, ‘Okay, Mr. Copps, fine. Well, you know what? Fine. I’ve been talking about going to Singapore, New Zealand, I guess it’s –‘ that just isn’t gonna be the way it will go down, but I appreciate your concern, I really do. You’re sounding a nice alarm bell for people who are not aware of what Copps had to say. But whatever, these guys have two years, and the Republicans win in 2012, whatever they do can be reversed just as easily as these guys can do whatever they want to do, and believe me, it would be if this were to ever happen. Cameron in Hartford, thanks very much for the phone call. I appreciate it.