Free Republic

Obama Appoints Fairness Doctrine Backer Monday, November 10, 2008 10:41 AM By: Jim Meyers President-elect Barack Obama has designated former Federal Communications Commissioner Henry Rivera to head the team that will select the next FCC chairman — an Obama move that bodes poorly for conservative talk radio. That’s because Rivera is widely believed to support the reinstitution of the so-called Fairness Doctrine. Originally instituted in 1949 by the FCC, the Fairness Doctrine required broadcasters over the public airwaves to give equal time to opposing political views. Since talk radio is overwhelmingly dominated by conservative hosts, and liberal talk radio draws...

Sen. Barack Obama's campaign is organizing its supporters tonight to confront Tribune-owned WGN radio in Chicago for having a critic of the Illinois Democrat on its air. "WGN radio is giving right-wing hatchet man Stanley Kurtz a forum to air his baseless, fear-mongering terrorist smears," Obama's campaign wrote in an e-mail to supporters. "He's currently scheduled to spend a solid two-hour block from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. pushing lies, distortions, and manipulations about Barack and University of Illinois professor William Ayers." Kurtz, a conservative writer, recently wrote an article for the National Review that looked at Obama's ties to former...

After eight years in the wilderness, the left expects a clean sweep in the 2008 election -- the presidency (and with it the federal bureaucracy) and larger majorities in both houses of Congress. Looking ahead, liberals are determined to derail potential opposition to their plans to accelerate the deconstruction of America. Consequently, they have targeted talk radio. Bringing back the Fairness Doctrine is just one facet of their scheme to eviscerate the only part of the media controlled by conservatives. Crucial to an understanding of the jihad against talk radio is this: The left will do anything to gag its...

Lately, liberals have been talking a lot about bringing back the so-called Fairness Doctrine. However, there is nothing “fair” about the Fairness Doctrine—which, in practice would censor conservative radio hosts and drive them off the air. Despite the fact that liberals dominate so much of the mainstream media, when it comes to talk radio, their attitude seems to be, “If you can’t beat them, use the government to silence them.” That is not an attack on conservatism; it is an assault against the freedom of speech of every American. Where else can a cab driver in Nevada, a farmer in...