Bill Hahn, I don't know how you think people can form good opinions without listening to news and opinion presented from broad spectrum. To suggest there is only one place on the radio dial that presents news "properly" (as I feel you are suggesting), is ludicrous. There is absolutely nothing wrong with people reporting news and opinion that reflects their beliefs and values. For those of us old enough and educated enough to remember, newspapers all have what is known as an editorial slant. Readers know (or at least they should know) what that editorial slant is, so when reading that paper, they can make up their minds accordingly about what they are reading.

Now then, just because a newspaper has an editorial slant, doesn't mean that can't do an excellent (though that is getting more rare, IMO0 job of reporting the news, presenting the facts, and providing analysis from their ideological point of view. That is precisely what smart, thinking people do to inform themselves, and engage in thoughtful, public debate. So why you are suggesting that WBAI, or Fox News, are bad sources of news, analysis, and editorial opinions, just because they have an editorial slant. We know their editorial slant. I don't have a problem with their editorial slant, unless it is combined with factually inaccurate, deliberately misleading, or bombastic, sensationalized reportage.

I don't think Democracy Now is guilty of that. I do think Fox News is often guilty of deliberately misleading their viewers and of bombastic and sensationalized reportage. However, I will give Fox News this. They do a fairly decent job (for a 24/7 cable news outlet) of reporting accurately, sometimes more accurately than either CNN or MSNBC.

Living in this world where all of our news, analysis, and opinion sources are measured by the 24/7 cable news and bombastic talk radio show standards, it is tremendously frustrating to try and discuss news, current events, public policy, etc. with people who insist that there should be no editorial "bias" (as they refer to it) in any news sources. To suggest that is ludicrous. Humans all have biases, and so do individual programs and the networks that carry them, including NPR, ABC, CBS, and NBC. That is as it should be.

We should always get news, analysis, and opinion from the broad spectrum, know what the editorial slant is of our source, and make up our own minds, instead of allowing ourselves to be spoonfed predigested news, which is what I believe people like you, who look down your noses at all information sources you have deemed "unbalanced" or "biased", are looking for.

IMO, it is our duty as public citizens in a democracy, to hear news, analysis, and opinion from as wide a variety of sources on the political spectrum as possible in our daily lives. We need to be educated and savvy consumers and analyzers of our media sources, and not just "the news". We need to know enough about how the media operates and functions, to know how to discern good from bad sources of news, analysis, and opinion.

There is no more biased source of news, analysis, and opinion in the world today, than the Washington Beltway punditocracy, and the corporate media outlets who employ them. Their reporting and analysis is tainted by the bias and prejudices of a wealthy ruling elite (the class from which most of them come), who function solely as tattlers gossping in the echo chamber from the corridors of power in the imperial capitol. They have been espousing their corporate and political doctrines as fact, and their opinions as analysis.

They also have a number of fallacious propaganda lines that most gullible American consumers of news have swallowed hook, line, and sinker. One is that the punditocracy are providing a public service (they aren't, they are in it for the personal status, money, and power) to our democracy as a "free press". Another is that they are providing fair, accurate, and balanced news, analysis, and opinion. They most certainly are not. They function as the mouthpiece of our corporate dominated government. The corporate controlled media have failed in their public duty to act as a fourth estate, and IMO, can only marginally be trusted as sources of legitimate news, analysis, and opinion.

It is essential in a democratic society, for the citizenry to have access to a plurality of voices to inform our public debate, and form the basis of our values as a democratic republic. This isn't happening today, because of the domination of media sources that are corporate owned and controlled, and because we as citizens have failed to educate ourselves on how best to get the information we need to act as an informed citizenry.

I don't fear WBAI anymore than I fear Fox News. In an open and free society, I will fight to defend them both as legitimate sources of news, analysis, and opinion, so long as they meet the criteria I outlined above. I am not a regular listener to WBAI, so I cannot comment on that station. But I am a regular listener to Democracy Now. I also read the National Review weekly. I rarely rely upon network news, or cable news, for my news. Because the 24/7 reporting world has become so distorted (they report much too quickly, without due consideration to what is fact and what isn't, nor do they allow news stories to unfold in a way that makes them digestable to us in any meaningful way), that I rely almost exclusively on the online newspapers and magazines for my daily news.

I do watch public affairs programming regularly, and I consider that to be about as much information as I am willing to get from network news sources, and that includes PBS and NPR. I watch Washington Week and occassionally catch a Sunday morning show. I occassionally watch 60 Minutes. For instance, I watched Clarke's interview, but not Rice's interview--I needed to hear what Clarke had to say because I'd never heard what he had to say. But Rice had already been all over the media for the week prior to her appearance, so I didn't need to see her parroting her previous remarks. I watch those sorts of shows strictly to glean how the Beltway echo chamber is SPINNING the news, but I never EVER watch it as a source of unbiased news or analysis. Programs like that are just as biased as the nightly network news programs and the 24/7 cable news channels.