Posted on 11/05/2008 4:06:13 AM PST by marktwain
The first test to determine how far left our new president will be is whether he reinstitutes the "Fairness Doctrine" fairly quickly. A true leftist will not be thinking about broadening his support. He will be thinking about how to tighten his control over the levers of power.
President Obama owes his win almost entirely to the MSM and their willingness to cover for him. His only real threat came from talk radio. As a leftist, he would use his executive power to shut down opposition voices. As I recall, the fairness doctrine was removed by regulation, not legislation, and an Obama administration could change the makeup of the FCC to reinstate it without any legislative approval.
I beleive this will be the first test of Obama as a member of the far left. If the "fairness doctrine" or something similar is reinstated, President Obama will have confirmed our fears that he is a politician in the same vein as Hugo Chavez.
I appreciate any comments from my fellow Freepers.
Totally agree...don’t watch TV, no cable news channels, no regular channels that carry news. (this only works if you have cable, as they can monitor which channels are being watched and which aren’t.) If you don’t have cable, watch anything you want, LOL. There are plenty of things to watch on cable TV that are not news related. We’re not even watching Fox at our house.
Second, cancel any subscriptions to the newspaper, or magazines that talk politics, like Newsweek, Time, etc.
The Dinosaur Media Watch (as someone dubs it here on FR) will continue.
This is not “wait and see”, or “cross fingers”.
This is start writing letters as soon as the bastards start talking about the “fairness doctrine”. Make phone calls, send email.
Liberals are despicable people. They don’t care about our rights or the Constitution. They care about getting elected. Write to them.
I would think the current USSC would rule against it, assuming Rush or Sean or some other conservative radio host filed a court challenge.
For that reason, I think 0 will wait until he gets a chance to fill one of those USSC seats that will probably empty for him. Or at least until he's sure a seat WILL be opening up before such a challenge could wind its way up there.
Oh, god where to start. This Libtard says “I Think people need to be a little more educated” Dawn531 I think your peachy, I also think you are very very VERY wrong. When the “fairness doctrine” hits, just remember where you were, and what you were doing. This way , at least, in retrospect of youre opinion now, you can at least tell your grandkids about the way things used to be / were.
To be heard by the already-liberal judges, and the newly-appointed Obama supreme court justices?
The days of finding relief from liberalism in the courts are gone.
I am calling for a Free Republic boycott of the media, effective today. I'm not a poster or would probably start a vanity :).
Does anyone know of any states willing to secede from the union? The military would join us since 80% hate hussein, thereby rendering the zero zombies without military protection.
Please see #43.
If I recall the formulation properly, the test was along the lines of “whether the station’s programming, taken as a whole, provides balanced treatment of all controversial issues.” It’s been a long time since I’ve looked at it, and my memory fades a bit.
I don’t believe that running leftist programming from midnight to 6 AM and conservative programming from 6 AM to midnight would have passed muster under the FCC’s enforcement of the fairness doctrine in, say, the 1960’s. Granted, that was the time (midnight to 6 AM) when most stations aired their PSAs (public service announcements) but fairness complaints attracted more attention.
“Equal time” for pro and con discussion of matters of public controversy was never required, but it became an easy way for a broadcaster to demonstrate balance. X hours pro and Y hours con is easy for a bureaucrat to understand. (The often confused “Equal Time” doctrine is still in effect and applies to political appearances and there are many exceptions to it, such as bona fide news programs.) What really happened, of course, is that few stations would take the chance of being challenged at license renewal time so instead of jumping through all the hoops required to demonstrate balance, they just didn’t cover controversial issues and did not have political talk shows.
There has been a lot of regulatory water under the bridge since the fairness doctrine went away. One can hope that the Supreme Court would find that the original scarcity argument for broadcast content regulation no longer holds and that broadcasters are protected by the First Amendment to the same extent print media is. But, given enough time for Zero to stack the Supreme Court, that’s a small reed upon which to lean.
Jack
It’s not just the “Fairness Doctrine” but a combination of tools that will be used to stifle opposition outlets. Expect to see federal “hate crimes” laws passed aimed at speech. Also expect to see more “campaign finance reform” regulations also aimed at restricting speech. The leftists will have to move quickly, I think, to get all this in place. And they will have to move on judges who will support the agenda. The first 100 days of the new regime will be very interesting.
Hopefully we are all completely wrong about all this.
Is there any forum through which we can convince the conservative members of the court to stay put until at least 2012?
Also, if the messiah attempts to push amnesty down our throats along with the Fairness Doctrine, you’re going to see a shooting war erupt in the streets... with the first targets being democrats in the House and Senate.
Maybe Mark Levin’s cohost would be Rosie O’Donnell. Just imagine the two of them yelling at each other....
You can listen to satellite radio (at least most stations) on your computer too.
First, we have to win at least one, preferably all three, of the remaining Senate races. If the Dims get to 58, they will court Joe Lieberman to stay with them. Sanders will stay, regardless, giving them 60 with Lieberman.
From a practical POV, they have a cloture guaranteeing majority of votes with just 56 Dims plus Sanders, because of the liberal Republicans who will vote with them on key issues, like USSC justices (read: abortion issue).
What that means is that ANY USSC opening will likely result in a more liberal replacement. Think one to three Ginsbergs.
But for other issues, if the Dims don’t get a full 60 member caucus, they won’t be able to shove us around on everything, just the most important things. Small comfort, huh?
Really, didn’t know that. I’ll have to look into that.
Is there any way to communicate directly with the justices? Email, website... any kind of forum?
Hugh Hewitt made me sick last night with his Obama lovefest. It is nice ole conservatives like him we need to reject. Obama will slit our throats and destroy us while we are down with no mercy.
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