See Why I Don't Listen to Talk Radio Anymore?

Regardless of what it's going to cost me to bring this up, I've just GOT to bring this up.

Right now, I'm watching The Ed Show, and I'm still thinking about the antics of Glenn Beck and Neal Boortz...yep, two of Rush Limbaugh's disciples.

Earlier this week, Boortz got on his radio show to call for his listeners to go get guns and bump off "urban thugs" in the city from which his set of tirades originates, Atlanta, GA.

And we all know who he meant by "urban thugs," don't we?

Also earlier this week, Beck went into another one of his tirades on his own TV show...and toward the end, he, too, called for his followers to start packing heat.

Why?

Because of, as Beck put it, the need to prepare for "tough times ahead."

And then he pointed to a picture of Barack Obama.

You talk about irresponsible!!

I'm wondering what these two were doing the afternoon of 1-8-2011, when Jared Lee Loughner- in his attempt to kill US Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ)- wounded Giffords and thirteen other people...in addition to murdering six other people.

Were Beck and Boortz throwing parties? Were they and other so-called talk-radio hosts doing "high fives" over the phone?

You can disagree with a president's politics all you want...but that doesn't give you the right to call for bumping that chief executive off. YOU JUST DON'T DO THAT!!!

You know, it's a shame that the army of hate-radio (oops, I mean conservative talk-radio) hosts constantly gets away with this inflammatory kind of talk. These hosts- with few, few exceptions- rarely get punished.

Let a nonconservative host call for something just a fraction of what Neal Boortz got on radio and demanded from his listeners...and that nonconservative host is run out of broadcasting. Forever.

They won't even let him or her go to a garage sale and buy a used boombox!

When I was little (back in the 1960s and 1970s), we actually had talk radio here in America. The station I listened to (WHO in Des Moines, IA) had hosts of different points of view. And me, I found it not only informative...but fun, too.

Granted, the Fairness Doctrine (it became law in 1961) drove a lot of that. But still, chances were that your point of view WAS represented on talk radio in the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s. (So was mine.)

Then in 1987, with the Great Communicator still riding high, the Fairness Doctrine was struck down.

The next year (7-4-1988, in fact), Limbaugh's Sacramento-based tirade (oops, I mean show) went national...and the man from Cape Girardeau, MO moved the show to the Big Apple.

Ever since then, producers at news-and-information stations nationwide as well as at the broadcasting companies that give these stations nationally-syndicated shows, in explaining the overwhelming majority of right-wing voices, have loudly proclaimed: "Conservatism sells!"

That may be so...but, ultimately, a news-and-information radio station has a responsibility to the community in which it operates.

It can't always be about ratings. 

The stations have forgotten about that (or ignored it) these last 23 years. And for that reason, I've stopped listening to talk radio. 

I won't even listen to Omaha's most popular AM station...not even to catch Husker football.

And don't misunderstand me: I'm not for shutting those conservative voices up.

We need to hear from the conservatives, because we need to know what kinds of minds these people have.

We also need to hear from liberals, moderates, people of other points of view.

Besides, if we don't hear from as many people as possible, we can't make informed decisions.

And what's wrong with an informed, well-thought-out decision?