DePetro fired...

[A. Joseph Ross]

On 4 Nov 2006 at 12:16, Donna Halper wrote:

> That is, excuse me for saying so, total nonsense.  Even during the
> days of the FD, it never said you had to immediately give the other
> side.  It just said you couldn't attack somebody viciously (as Michael
> Savage is wont to do) without providing them with the opportunity to
> come on the air and respond.  There were plenty of interesting and
> often controversial talk show hosts who functioned just fine under the
> Fairness Doctrine.  The late great Jerry Williams certainly was not
> bland or boring, and he still managed to stay on the right side of the
> Doctrine.  It just made everybody a little more responsible and a
> little less nasty.  I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.   
 
I remember appearing on an interview show on WBUR sometime around 
1980 with Harold Brown, the prominent landlord.  At the time, a clerk-
magistrate in the Brookline District Court had issued a criminal 
complaint against Brown for some violation or other of the rent 
control laws.  Brown said the decision was "coerced."  I responded 
that, while I didn't always like this particular magistrate's 
decisions, there was no way he could ever be "coerced."  

I later learned from that clerk-magistrate that WBUR had provided him 
a cassette of the program, or at least that excerpt, with a cover 
letter inviting him to reply.  He thanked me for defending him.  I 
don't believe he chose to reply.

-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                           617.367.0468
 15 Court Square, Suite 210                 Fax 617.742.7581
Boston, MA 02108-2503           	         http://www.attorneyross.com