Broadcast media's rightward shift in Iowa
Broadcast media's rightward shift in Iowa
.....and how it happened, Part one of two
Appears in this episode
Rekha and Julie offer a two-part series discussing ‘What the hell happened to Iowa?’ focusing on how Iowa's media landscape has changed.
We offer four points of view; first, from Trish Nelson, a listener who has monitored the changes in Iowa radio stations' news/talk format.
Next, we hear from former Federal Communications Commissioner Nicholas (Nick) Johnson, followed by businessman Tom Stoner, who owned radio stations in Iowa.
To know what the hell happened to Iowa, one must understand federal policy changes that fundamentally changed the operation and ownership of local broadcast companies.
In the second episode, Julie and Rekha interview veteran broadcast icon Ted Koppel, who shares his fears about the future of journalism.
The political sea-change in Iowa did not happen overnight. Julie and Rekha explore the factors that have made Iowa take a hard right turn.
Today, the subject is how and why media has changed in the state.
Veteran broadcast journalist Ted Koppel addresses the second part of this topic.
Here is episode two:
Broadcast media's rightward shift in Iowa
I listened to Kopel first, but found the first segment much more interesting. Kopel was far removed from Iowa and the real good comments were from people who were and are immersed in the state at one point or another. The discussion of the fairness doctrine I think was very important especially after this recent law suit with Fox News. To put back the community in the mix as to licensing requirements would help mellow out the authoritarian and totalitarian directives of Corporate ownership of Congress. Re-establishing the fairness doctrine should be a top priority of the Democratic Party and should have been done when we had control of the house and senate, a missed opportunity for sure!