Obama's First Test: the "Fairness" doctrine

Marktwain | 5 November, 2008 | Marktwain

[jilliane]

What am I missing? The stats have been published that the MSM was totally lopsided in favor of Obama on TV...the total number of stories pro Obama and anti McC and money spent

All I’ve heard from everyone, myself included, is how utterly biased and unfair the media was been against McCain and moreso in blind positive support of Obama.

If they impose the fairness doctrine on the radio, would they not cut their nose off to spite their face on TV?

[CommerceComet]

Fingers crossed. I don’t know what I’d do without Rush, Sean, Laura, Mark Levin, etc etc!

File this under "finding a pony in a pile of horse stuff." At least, Al Franken can continue his radio show.

[John123]

Is the Fairness doctrine when a radio show that broadcasts 4 hours of Rush... must also broadcast 4 hours of a liberal show?

If so... I can sort of predict how this is going to happen... Nobody listens to liberal shows so no advertising... radio stations go out of business. No more radio. Less taxes revenues. What to do now?

And besides... who determines whether or not a tv station is liberal or not?

[pepsionice]

Lets set the stage correctly for the Fairness Doctrine.

First, as it goes into affect...AM stations will try to set it to a court battle to the Supreme Court. They are the prime losers of this entire deal. I believe that the Supreme Court will agree that the President and the congress...have the authority to regulate the airwaves....so this case will wrap up quickly.

Then, as we stand in awe...satellite radio and internet radio quickly stand up...and the various talk-show hosts will basically dump AM radio. They will all move to vehicles which the FCC can’t control. All of us will buy satellite receivers and the entire market around satellite radio will triple overnight.

AM radio? Dies...a very miserable death by the 15th month of the Obama period. Congress will have to establish some kind of bailout but with only 30 percent of the profit rolling into AM radio...they are finished. Over 300 AM stations are finished by December of 2010. A few get bought by the government for more NPR networks...but the entire AM network will be finished.

The only real threat to Obama’s team...still firmly in place and solid across the entire US....meanwhile, the entire theme of election 2012...is the threat to freedom of speech and the threat to commercial radio. Obama will be standing there with reporters asking how AM can be saved...and he can’t really inspire anyone with the suggestion of “change”.

I see this Fairness trap as being a pit where he really loses folks. But here is the really amusing part of this fairness episode. We learn how to report questionable items to the FCC...to include ESPN, the Today Show, the View, and even Paul Harvey. There will be 150,000 complaints rolling in each week. As the FCC fails to act on items...lawsuits start up and claim special status for various networks. Even NPR will be facing a huge complaint listing that they can’t really argue against. Eventually....all of these players start to lose their commercial value as well. CBS news might even collapse with such huge weight on its shoulders to only report facts. I doubt that a guy can even broadcast Yankees games....without a fairness complaint being reported.

[marktwain]

“If they impose the fairness doctrine on the radio, would they not cut their nose off to spite their face on TV?”

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The answer is very simple. They would only impose it on radio, because that is the only place “unfairness” defined as non-liberal programing, would be shown. Conservative talk would become, by definition “unfair”.