Letter: Talk show host disputes theory

Friday, Feb. 1, 2002 | 9:45 a.m.

Brian Greenspun's Jan. 11 column, "No cable conspiracy," is fraught with errors, distortions, lies and lots of paranoia.

Greenspun plays fast and loose with the facts when he claims the Fox News Channel promotes itself as "the conservative news source." In fact, they eschew the conservative label and use the slogans, "Fair and balanced" and "We report, you decide."

While Greenspun denies there was a conspiracy to keep Fox News out of Las Vegas, he weaves his own conspiratorial theory about our efforts to get Fox on Cox:

"When Fox saw a way to use some local people to advance its financial interest, it jumped. First it got some people who just wanted the channel. They convinced this Stock fellow that his ratings would increase if he took on the fight and, together, they hoodwinked the junior senator into using his high and mighty office to try to pressure Cox into paying tens of millions of dollars of Las Vegas consumers' money to Fox ... This ain't rocket science."

No, it ain't rocket science. It sounds more like science fiction. I fought for Fox News not for ratings, but to get another news choice for all of us in Southern Nevada. Your conspiracy theory has others and me "hoodwinking" Sen. John Ensign. Why would you want to degrade the character of a politician who was just responding to his constituents' requests?

By the way, I accepted Greenspun's subsequent on-air apology for having called me a "hack" in his column.

ALAN STOCK

Editor's note: The writer is a talk show host for radio station KXNT, 840AM.