Posted on 08/04/2007 1:54:52 PM PDT by raccoonradio
Miffed that not enough people tuned in to Al Franken’s “Air America” liberal talk radio venture to keep it out of bankruptcy protection, and further miffed that conservative talk radio hosts mobilized listeners against the failed immigration bill, some Democrats are trying to put the defunct “fairness doctrine” into federal law.
A Republican member of the House, Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, has a better idea. He’s introduced legislation to forbid the Federal Communications Commission from doing such a stupid thing. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin wrote Pence that the commission has no such intention anyway, but it never hurts to wear a belt with your suspenders.
The doctrine was never a law, but rather a 1949 FCC rule requiring stations that presented a program on a controversial subject to make time available for opposing views (news shows didn’t count). This relic of earlier days when FCC experts expected to license only 500 or so radio stations (there are now more than 11,000 commercial stations) came when few cities had more than three TV stations. The airwaves allegedly were a scarce resource. Without a fairness doctrine, a community’s lone broadcaster could air his own views and keep others from being heard - such was the theory.
The FCC dropped the rule in 1987. Even before the Internet, cable and over-the-air outlets had multiplied like fleas on a stray dog. There was no shortage of ways to get views out. Rush Limbaugh and his imitators soon were shooting off their mouths.
Liberals simply have been unable to attract a radio audience, but that’s no reason for the law to shut up conservatives. Why not a “fairness doctrine” for blogs, where liberals thrive? Conservatives flock to talk radio because they feel unrepresented in mainstream media, print as well as broadcast. (Air America is on about 60 stations; Limbaugh is on 431. In one survey, 89 percent of Washington-based journalists voted for Bill Clinton in 1992.)
“Give both sides” sounds nice, but the experience of 1949-1987 shows that such a requirement discourages coverage. You tend to get only boring “Apple pie, motherhood and the flag are good” editorials. Today’s cacophony is far more interesting and beneficial to all.
Of course, as we see in liberal after liberal--Al Gore using tons of energy telling others to only use their share; Hillary "Cattle Futures" Clinton bemoaning "The Decade of Greed", Jesse Jackson wagging his finger at others' sexual misadventures while fathering an out of wedlock child--one of the crucial characteristics of a liberal is the belief that he or she should be exempt from this "fairness" business because he or she is the Messenger, and thus deserves more comfort and respect than that accorded to everyone else according to the rules of "fairness".
The Soviets practiced this, but the Liberals have perfected it--tell the Little People they should be angry at The Ones Who Have from the comfort of your mansion; tell the Little People they should Demand Equal Time by stiffling the FREE and OPEN exchange of ideas.
For liberals, freedom of speech means voicing their views, however venomous or outrageous, without challenge. When conservatives challenge their views they do not see it as conservatives exercising their right to free speech, rather it is an infringement on liberal’s right to free speech. What’s good for the goose is only good for the goose.
It is all a part of that hypocratic mental pathology known as liberalism.
These days, being for apple pie, motherhood and the flag are all very controversial positions, hard as that is for those of us raised in the 1950s to believe.
in the early 1980s before the fairness doctrine was lifted by the reagan admin,
denver had an interesting talk show host—alan berg, a lawyer. i liked listening to him.
he insulted a lot of people.
some of those who were offended killed him as he stepped out of his vw at his east denver condo. it was messy.
they got their “equal time”.
yes—Berg’s story inspired the film TALK RADIO (dir. by
lefty Oliver Stone)
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