Free Republic

In today's Huffington Post is Joseph A. Palermo's "Cheney, Rove, and Fleischer and the Importance of Net Neutrality." Net neutrality, you see, is yet another way the Left hopes to silence their opposition -- and Palermo calls on Obama's Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to do exactly that. I guess he gets partial credit for honesty. And if this latest example of the Left's rush to suppression via Obama's FCC makes you think of the old Censorship Doctrine or any of the new ones -- "localism," "diversity in media ownership" and serving the "public interest" -- well, it should.

Was it the way he seemed to relish their attacks? Or, were Obama's rapidly-sinking approval numbers to blame? Whatever the reason, At least for now, Democrats say they're done utilizing an anti- Rush Limbaugh strategy in an attempt to neutralize their political opposition. Now, it's on to something else. For how long, however? From the Politico: Beginning Sunday, the White House will harness every part of the Democratic Party’s machinery to defend President Obama’s budget and portray Republicans as reflexively political, according to party strategists. A participant in the planning meetings described the push as a successor to Democrats’ message...

A growing fear that liberals in Washington were set to re-instate the “Fairness” Doctrine to silence talk radio -- the only media venue not under their complete control -- led grassroots citizens, key members of Congress and organizations like the Media Research Center to take strong and unrelenting action against such a move, forcing the Leftist Washington establishment to back away from it's reinstatement. However, undaunted in their zeal to silence conservative opposition, liberal leaders in Washington voted on and passed “The Durbin Amendment”, which actually poses a much greater danger to our free speech rights than the “Fairness Doctrine”...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday evening, U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) issued a warning on the Senate Floor about the dangers of Democrats’ latest attempt to stifle Free Speech through their efforts to promote diversity in communication media ownership and promote Broadcast Localism.  Though the Senate last week passed legislation (S.Amdt.573) that prohibits the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from reinstituting the fairness doctrine, it also approved an amendment by Senator Dick Durbin (R-Ill.), “encouraging and promoting diversity in communication media ownership,” which is really just a new means of censorship on the airways and will give the FCC unfettered authority to...

By now you’ve probably heard that the Senate approved an amendment a few days ago to outlaw the “Fairness Doctrine.” Republican Senator Jim DeMint’s amendment passed by a comfortable margin of 87-to-11. Although one would think it’s important to know which senators cast their votes in favor of censorship, we can’t find a single news report that calls out their names. So we’ll do it:

When the Senate voted last week to prohibit the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from reinstituting the so-called "fairness doctrine," many folks breathed a sigh of relief. There had been much talk about the Democrats and their effort to bring back the measure which would force radio stations and other media outlets to set aside equal time for programs offering opposing viewpoints. In other words, if a conservative talk show was popular on a particular radio station and a liberal talk show wasn't, the radio station would be FORCED to broadcast both.As it turns out, the celebration of the defeat...

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told CNSNews.com on Thursday that she supports an amendment to a Senate bill that would force the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to “take actions to encourage and promote diversity in communication media ownership and to ensure that broadcast station licenses are used in the public interest.” The amendment’s language is viewed by many media experts as a means to regulate conservative talk radio, particularly popular programs such as the Rush Limbaugh Show and the Mark Hannity Show, among many others. House Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.), a former radio broadcaster and one of...

Over the past few weeks, America has seen President Obama, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel and former Campaign Manager David Plouffe channel much of their focus on what they see as a major problem facing America. You might think the object of this affection is the spiraling economy, which has led them to declare war on moderately successful investors and small business owners while they refuse to acknowledge a war on terror. That is certainly a focus. Secondarily, you might think it is the housing crisis, where they are attempting to cram down irresponsible mortgages so that responsible...

The Senate passed a Broadcaster Freedom Amendment to a D.C. voting rights bill on Thursday by a vote of 87-11. But Democrats countered with an amendment that seeks to promote “diversity” in media ownership.The Broadcaster Freedom Amendment prevents the Federal Communications Commission from reinstating the Fairness Doctrine, which would requires equal time for the expression of different political viewpoints on the public airwaves. Radio stations that run conservative talks shows, for example, would be required to allot equal time for liberal talk shows – or, more likely, stop airing the conservative shows altogether. Critics of the Fairness Doctrine call it...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate has barred federal regulators from reviving a policy, abandoned two decades ago, that required balanced coverage of issues on public airwaves. The Senate vote on the so-called Fairness Doctrine was in part a response to conservative radio talk show hosts who feared that Democrats would try to revive the policy to ensure liberal opinions got equal time. The Federal Communications Commission implemented the doctrine in 1949, but stopped enforcing it in 1987 after deciding new sources of information and programming made it unnecessary. President Barack Obama says he has no intention of reimposing the doctrine,...

The Obama administration may have said it wouldn’t attempt to revive the Fairness Doctrine, but that’s not enough for Republican Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina. He wants to force Senate Democrats to put up or shut up. In order to prevent the FCC from reinstating the Fairness Doctrine, DeMint will propose the Broadcaster Freedom Act as an amendment to the D.C. Voting Rights bill. “I’m glad President Obama finally confirmed his opposition to the Fairness Doctrine, which attacks the right of free speech on talk radio,” DeMint said, “but many Democrats in Congress are still pushing it…now is the...

A group called the Free Radio Coalition has been formed to fight the possible reimposition of the so-called "Fairness Doctrine," Radio America President James Roberts said Tuesday. Chairing the coalition will be veteran broadcaster, Radio America talk-show host and former San Diego Mayor Roger Hedgecock. "The reinstatement of the misnamed Fairness Doctrine would constitute a massive assault on our cherished First Amendment rights and should be of concern to all Americans, regardless of their political or religious persuasion," Mr. Hedgecock said. The group hopes to hold a summit conference of radio talk-show hosts and religious broadcasters in Washington to plan...

The Democrats Just love being in power, and way before election day they were working on their goal of STAYING in power. One of their tactics is cutting off all public debate about what the party is doing. The want to turn off the only medium that presents a dissenting opinion, talk radio. Last week the White House announced that they would not support reimplementation of the fairness doctrine, here's why: The President is doing an end-around to cut off dissent, its called "localism." By changing the interpretation of the phrase "Radio and television stations are required to serve the...

In response, the FCC in 1971 promulgated a "Primer on Ascertainment of Community Problems," which, as amended through 1976, remained in effect until their deregulation of radio in 1981 and television in 1984. The Primer required that stations conduct interviews with community leaders, solicit and maintain public files of comments about programming, and make the public aware of the station's duty to address community issues. Stations were also required to file Problems/Programs Lists with the FCC, outlining community problems and listing specific programs broadcast to address them. The Lists, never popular with broadcasters (Hafer & Fletcher, 1983; Heller, 1981), tended...

Obama has officially denied it, but it still seems like much of the Left wants to bring back the Fairness Doctrine…for conservative talk radio.  How confident can we be that this will not happen?  About as confident as we could be that Obama, having promised to accept public funding of his presidential campaign, would actually do that during his run for office.  About as comfortable as we can that Democrats would never, ever, try to practice the tactics of Saul Alinsky and destroy their enemies.  So, perhaps, we should continue to explain why the Fairness Doctrine and its incarnations are...

Congress Reconsiders the Fairness Doctrine February 22, 2009 by Priscilla King Should TV and Radio Be Free to Broadcast Political Content? In 1949, the FCC adopted a rule called the Fairness Doctrine, which required broadcasters to give "equal time" to all sides of a political dispute. Like many efforts to create fairness by imposing "equality," this policy never worked in the way that was intended. Even when the Communist Party,... didn't demand time to broadcast their views, in practice it turned out that the mainstream parties could not always present equally successful broadcasts. If a successful Democrat's show couldn't be...

There is much confusion among the public about efforts in Washington to muzzle talk radio. I get e-mails daily from people who ask me what the so-called "Fairness Doctrine" would actually do – how it would actually work. The answer to that question is simple: No one knows. Legislation targeting talk radio for extinction has not yet been introduced in Congress. In fact, it may never be introduced. And, if it is, it is unlikely to be called the "Fairness Doctrine" because the name has outlived its usefulness to those who seek to stifle free speech and freedom of the...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), chairman of the Senate Steering Committee, announced that he will offer the Broadcaster Freedom Act (S.34) as an amendment to the D.C. Voting Rights bill next week. The Broadcaster Freedom Act, introduced by U.S. Senators DeMint and John Thune (R-South Dakota), prevents the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from reinstating the Fairness Doctrine, which would suppress free speech by requiring the government to monitor political views and decide what constitutes fair political discourse. President Obama stated yesterday that he opposes the fairness doctrine, but Democrats in Congress have disagreed with the...

Remember the “Fairness Doctrine”? It was the FCC mandate that required equal representation of viewpoints on the airwaves in the 1970s and 80s. If a given radio channel aired three hours of conservative talk radio, it had to balance those out with three hours of liberal talk radio. President Ronald Reagan struck this down in 1987 and the popularity that conservative talk radio has garnered since has some members of the House and Senate calling for the doctrine’s reintroduction. I have only one question: “Would the legislators who are pushing for the reinstitution of the ‘Fairness Doctrine’ be willing to...

1948 cartoon. Watching it feels like it was made yesterday.