Carty Finkbeiner, the mayor of Toledo OH, is not happy with the commentary he’s getting from Clear Channel News/Talker WSPD-AM. He says the station is in violation of the Fairness Doctrine and has threatened to take his complaints to incoming House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Henry Waxman (D-CA).
The backdrop to the radio controversy is a movement to have the mayor recalled. According to the Toledo Blade, Finkbeiner has accused WSPD GM Andy Stuart of running "vicious, one-sided diatribes" for three years now, and of failing to offer him an opportunity for rebuttal.
Finkbeiner was said to be planning a request to Waxman that the station be investigated for being in violation of the Doctrine. Stuart noted that there is no Fairness Doctrine, and therefore nothing to investigate. A WSPD host, Brian Wilson, told that paper that the station felt Finkbeiner had insulted the stations and its audience and that he would be invited back on the air if he offers an apology.
Like most radio stations with a heavy helping of opinion programming, WSPD leans right, and brings Rush Limbaugh into the market.
RBR/TVBR observation: Finkbeiner’s best tool for combatting WSPD is to use his own bully pulpit to fire back. And look – it’s working! We didn’t even know who Carty Finkbeiner was until this incident came to our attention, and now his victimization is going coast to coast via the virtual pages of RBR. WSPD has slimed him and he has slimed WSPD. It’s what freedom of speech is all about.
