About Censorship And Courting The Right

A letter from Jeff Borden to Romensko explains quite clearly how ABC Political Director seems to have sold out to the right-wing conservative talking heads: So, Mark Halperin doesn't vote to maintain his journalistic purity, but he runs panting after a second-tier conservative talk show host's approval and slanders the entire press corps as anti-military in the process? I know these self-absorbed DC creatures have some strange ideas, but what's up with this? It doesn't say much for Halperin's abilities as political director for a major network news operation that he fears casting a vote behind the privacy curtain of a polling place will hurt his reputation but transforming into a lickspittle for a rightwing radio host doesn't. I'll certainly be looking elsewhere for political coverage. Of course this should be no surprise to the rest of us since we have known and gotten fed up with Halperin in the past. All Halpern's actions only verify what was posted on this blog last night: An internal ABC Radio Networks memo obtained by Media Matters for America, originally from a listener to The Peter B. Collins Show, indicates that nearly 100 ABC advertisers insist that their commercials be blacked out on Air America Radio affiliates. According to the memo, the adverstisers insist that "NONE of their commercials air during AIR AMERICA programming." Among the advertisers listed are Bank of America, Exxon Mobil, Federal Express, General Electric, McDonald's, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, and the U.S. Navy. I think Mr. Halperin and ABC should both take a long look in the mirror and ask themselves why they hate America and its' people so much that they can sit idly by watching the erosion of civil rights, and censor what the population is allowed to listen to through their sponsors