Why does the media give Ann Coulter and Robert Zimmerman Jr air time?

1. 62

   Anne Pettitposted 10 years ago

   Why does the media give Ann Coulter and Robert Zimmerman Jr air time?

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   Superkevposted 10 years ago

   Why not? They give people like Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Chris Matthews and Lawrence O'Donnell air time every day. Not a functioning brain cell in the lot.

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      Bruce Feierabendposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I disagree with Superkev's last sentence (they wouldn't be able to speak if it were true), but the point that there are numerous equally controversial or provocative  people given airtime on both sides of the issues.

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3. 73

   d.williamposted 10 years ago

   the media likes to air things that are controversial.  The more controversial the better. It is entertaining and amusing most of the time.  But when you have the radical right listening, they take their inept comments as gospel, so they can be dangerous in one sense, especially when they rile up those with no sense at all.

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      ChristinSposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I totally agree - it's all about riling people up for ratings.

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   MizBejabbersposted 10 years ago

   Those answers hit the spot, but as a former broadcaster familiar with FCC rules, I will add this. At one time there was such a thing as the Fairness Doctrine, or as we called it, the equal time provision. If you allowed a Democrat 30 minutes, the law said you had to allow a Republican 30 minutes. It wasn't just politicians, it was anything public. If you had a white preacher like Pat Robertson on, then you had to allow the black Jesse Jackson equal time (well, still politics, I guess). In the beginning, management was terrified that equal time would wreck the stations financially, After deregulation, these rules no longer applied, but the media tries to police itself (up to a point). They also found that equal time actually works in that these controversial figures do bring in the viewers, as in the other hubbers' answers. Then I think they lost all touch with reality and forgot anything about equal time. I believe that they are now going for the sensation.
   Or you might look at it this way. They are still giving equal time. If they allow an intelligent person 30 minutes or an hour, they have to allow a stupid one equal time!

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      Bruce Feierabendposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      The real problem is that intelligent and reasonable persons on both sides are the ones lacking equal time in most cases.

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      MizBejabbersposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Yep, because they aren't raising hell like the others.

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   Mitch Alanposted 10 years ago

   Because the media is in business and business requires customers. Without consumers of the this media, there would be no add revenue. They, as businesses, should be able to decide who they allow to appear on their shows. They also have the right to allow people like Jackson and Sharpton. This is freedom. While I disagree with Jackson and Sharpton on just about, if not everything, it is the right of a media outlet to decide what they air.
   On what basis would you think that "someone" should stop a media outlet from airing a specific person's view? What specific issues do you have with these two citizens?

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6. 66

   LandmarkWealthposted 10 years ago

   Why shouldn't they.  Just because you disagree with Ann Coulter doesn't mean she should be silenced. Or maybe it does to some of the totalitarian thinkers out there.  Clowns like Jesse Jackson have gone on national TV and made anti-semitic racially charged statements and he is still on television and considered a leader in the civil rights movement...or at least civil rights for some people...but not all.
   
   It's amazing to hear people complain about Ann Coulter getting air time when liberal media outlets give non stop air time to their favorite pundits on a daily basis across every media outlet dominated by the left, and routinely make outlandish statements.  Outside of talk radio...which for some reason liberals don't listen to long enough to keep a liberal thinker on the air and get any serious ratings, FOX news and once in a blue moon on CNN, there is barely a conservative voice expressed.   I guess ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNC, NPR, CNN, and nearly every media outlet in print across the country is not enough ideological domination of the expression of ideas. The funny thing is that even though the political left in this country already dominates the media, they are the ones who have fought to bring back the fairness doctrine.  Conservatives are more than happy to let the people decide what media outlets they choose to listen to.  I guess why wouldn't they want to be able to regulate which conservative meets the standards of their definition of a conservative and worthy of air time.     What's even more funny to me is how the media so often portrays a point of view as a general consensus when the ideological political divide in this country is split down the middle.  Yet that is hardly represented in the journalistic community.

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