{"id":4262,"date":"2009-02-19T21:19:00","date_gmt":"2009-02-20T03:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/02\/like-sheep-to-the-slaughter\/"},"modified":"2009-08-22T05:49:46","modified_gmt":"2009-08-22T11:49:46","slug":"like-sheep-to-the-slaughter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/02\/like-sheep-to-the-slaughter\/","title":{"rendered":"Like sheep to the slaughter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2009 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.\u201d – George Washington<\/a><\/p>\n

The talk in our nation\u2019s capital is about the need to silence conservative talk radio using the misnamed Fairness Doctrine<\/a>. With the majority of the media in the political fold of the Democrats, it is the one slice of mass media they cannot intimidate.<\/p>\n

When radio first started and few channels existed, perhaps there could have been a concern. Today we have thousands of channels with no problem finding points of view from Rush Limbaugh<\/a> and my favorite, Glenn Beck<\/a>, to Air America<\/a> and another of my favorites, National Public Radio<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Differing views from progressive to conservative have their own constituencies. The only local and national programs on the air are those that fill the needs of a group. Without listeners, no one in radio can continue.<\/p>\n

Eight years ago this week I went into local talk radio. It was a bit odd that a college professor would do this, but I have always been unconventional. Six years later I returned to academic pursuits, but talk radio still is held warmly in my heart.<\/p>\n

I fear for talk radio when I see political attempts to silence the scrutiny of their actions. George Washington said, \u201cGovernment is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master.\u201d<\/p>\n

While there are a few blogs and newspapers that do not take sides, talk radio is intentionally partisan, as are its listeners. That said, I was not so partisan, though I received a fair share of criticism from both sides for being too liberal and too conservative at the same time.<\/p>\n

Mostly what I wanted to do with my local time of 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. five days a week was to interview as many diverse and interesting people as I could find. I had people from the far left and from the far right and those who were not on the political scale at all. I was very thankful that radio station KSNM-AM 570<\/a> provided this time for me.<\/p>\n

Talk radio has the voices of my fellow citizens talking about the problems we face. Often it has been the only way these voices can be heard in a timely manner.<\/p>\n

From time to time, anger<\/span><\/p>\n

I did anger politicians and others from time to time and they did squawk. When a local politician was arrested for possession of marijuana, I quipped, \u201cMy favorite \u2018pot-a-ti-cian.\u2019\u201d No more Christmas cards.<\/p>\n

A school official quit talking to me after a rancher said in a phone call that the school had sent home a note saying he should become a vegetarian to show he cares about animals. He said, \u201cThey may as well have asked me to become a dern communist.\u201d<\/p>\n

One time an exasperated caller said, \u201cYou big fat ugly rich Republicans really make me sick.\u201d I immediately protested, \u201cMa\u2019am, I am not rich.\u201d The producer laughed.<\/p>\n

I did not hurry people even though first time callers might drag a bit. If they were sharing an interesting idea, I let them talk. It was four hours a day, five days a week of community discourse and I was thrilled when people who disagreed with me called. As others will attest, occasionally I would listen a while and then say, \u201cYou are right, I was wrong, I now embrace your viewpoint on this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some people indicated that they did not listen, but thought I should not be on the radio. That is the question in the Fairness Doctrine. Should politicians prevent others from listening?<\/p>\n

Thank you KSNM-AM 570 for keeping talk radio in our community with both national and local talk shows. They are a daily part of my life. I hope no politician silences those voices or, as Washington said, we are just sheep headed to slaughter.<\/p>\n

Swickard<\/a> is a weekly columnist for this site. You can reach him at michael@swickard.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a9 2009 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D. \u201cIf the freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.\u201d – George Washington The talk in our nation\u2019s capital is about the need to silence conservative talk radio using the misnamed Fairness Doctrine. With the majority of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-swickard-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4262\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}