Hate Radio

You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught. ~ South Pacific

We've all seen it. The look of fear in an old person's face when they spot someone with dark skin. We've all seen faces all twisted and distorted in hate when they see an Obama t-shirt, or orange spiky hair, or a proud Hispanic, or two men holding hands in public. It's hate. Pure hate, unleavened hate, visceral unthinking hate. It doesn't come from nothing. There is actually an industry cultivating, teaching hatred. For Muslims that industry is conservative madrasah. In the United States it is talk radio.

Hate has to be taught. It doesn't come naturally to hate a homeless person because your job sucks. It is not natural to hate gays because your sex life is boring. It doesn't make sense to hate an autistic child because you had a drunken father. It is irrational to hate teachers because your child is smarter than you are. Hate radio provides a service to people who are uneasy over life. It teaches them whom to blame, whom to hate. It teaches them that all of their problems are caused by "those other people."

The worst of the lot is Michael Savage (real name Michael Weiner). I've actually listened to him briefly. His is a dirty, vile rant-fest. Plainly put, he is a Jewish neo-Nazi who has advocated mass deportations and concentration camps for liberals, gays, and hispanics. His hatred of women goes beyond misogyny. I could continue the list of hate-mongers but I have a low disgust threshold and Media Matters does a better job of it.

Hate radio is a disease upon the nation. It is common on commercial radio because it is cheap and is a multi-million dollar skirting of campaign donation laws by Republicans. While I dislike censorship I support restoring the Fairness Doctrine to the publically licensed airwaves. Broadcast signals are limited by the government so when companies like Clear Channel can, and do, create monopolies in certain markets and use those monopolies to promote a radical political agenda it is the government's responsibility to respond. Eliminate the monopolies allowed by the Bush era FCC. Two signals per market; maybe four for nonprofits. And reestablish some rules that businesses who lease public broadcast signals have a duty to provide balanced viewpoints.

Fun With Hate Radio
FAIR's Hate Radio Guide
Be the Media