Will Greene Foster Democracy?

Everyone suffers when a steward of the public’s airwaves, in this case KSL Radio, surrenders its First Amendment obligation — in this case, to partisan politics. Enid Greene, who until recently ran the Utah Republican Party, has replaced vacationing Doug Wright. Will she promote democracy by ensuring a marketplace of ideas?

She answered in partisan fashion Monday by ignoring public comments on policy made Sunday by one of the leading Democratic presidential candidates, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. Greene presented uninformed commentary that could well have been manufactured by Republicans in Washington.

KSL’s thousands of listeners did not hear about Obama’s proposals for ending the war in Iraq, immigration, education, health care, the environment or mining — all of which were reported extensively by journalists from Las Vegas, Reno, Elko and Salt Lake City.

The stakes in the upcoming presidential election are too high for partisan “infotainment.” It’s time for talk radio to act in the “interest, convenience and necessity” of the public, the standard legally required of every radio station.

Wayne Holland

chairman, Utah Democratic Party

(c) 2007 Deseret News (Salt Lake City). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.