Posted on 11/09/2008 8:35:55 AM PST by dbacks
Considering the level of hate and support offered up by the MSM during the Bush era is it really possible or likely that the Dems will be able to pass a version of the "Fairness Doctrine" that will kill talk radio?
what would they have to do to get past a concerted fight at the Supreme Court?
What examples of 'hate' could they bring that are not countered by the comment to kill Henry Hyde and his family?
Comments please-
remember when Hillary tried health care and Bubba pushed for all kinds of socialist stuff in his first term?
All he got for it was a Republican Congress in 94.
They may move slowly to avoid that....but we wont know till they do it.
Many stations just went to shows about recipes and gardens to avoid controversial issues
Imagine Rush's show turned into 3 hours of “Hannity and Colmes” with Colmes talking over every point he makes
Would you listen to that for 3 hours? When listeners drop off, so do revenues from advertisers
thus-ruin
They can go three ways on this.
One is to actually try and go ahead. There’s a fair chance they’ll do this, but it’s bound for failure. There’s really no popular demand they can rely on to back up their efforts to long term resistance in lawsuit. Any attempt would have a very short shelf life in popular good will.
Two to say they’re going to do it, to please their base, but then weasel quietly out of not doing it.
The third is to try to do it by other means, by subterfuge, such as using other bureaucratic regulations, examples minority hiring in media corporations, to bring stations to heal.
You're kidding, right? Kennedy's ego would be stroked and he would be touted as the biggest hero in America were his vote to swing to the left on this one as it all too often does.
There will be no more mercy in the SC for striking down a "fairness doctrine" any more than there was for McCain/Feingold or Kelo. We already have AT LEAST 5 Justices who prefer to legislate the outcome than read the Constitution.
If you want to hear 'hate speech'- you should listen to some of the liberal talk show hosts I hear in my area!!
If the public rallies enough to block the Fairness Doctrine, the ‘Rats might try the back door route of requiring a large percentage of daily content on radio to be local programming. The argument is that stations should serve the local market. They could only carry a few hours of national programming daily. This would force stations to choose between Rush, Hannity, Levin, and others because they could no longer carry them all. Another idea they’re considering is requiring stations to “celebrate diversity”, meaning that any programming that offends anyone (i.e., blacks, homosexuals, feminists...) will lead to the station losing its license. They basically want all radio programming to be run through the same gauntlet as school textbooks. This means they must win approval of a variety of interest groups.
One way or another they will come after talk radio.
If they do, expect it to get tossed into the courts for many, many years. Proponents can argue that in 2008, there are a plethora of formats for political discussion. Also, the entertainment industry may not like conservatives, but they LOVE the money talk radio generates for them.
Opponents of talk radio might be surprised by the gushing of free-speach advocates (left and right) ready to oppose them.
Such an attempt to silence talk radio will be complicated, nasty,
If you want to hear ‘hate speech’- you should listen to some of the liberal talk show hosts I hear in my area!!
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The only good thing about the Fairness Doctrine, if you can consider subversion of the Constitution good, is that it works TWO WAYS. It would apply equally to the libs as well. Still, it is a terrible thing and should be squashed.
“Maybe an hour of Michael Savage on PBS every week to offset Moyers.”
But PBS has already been declared “fair and balanced” by the MSM. I mean after all, they had a conservative on for 45 seconds one day 7 years ago. Ain’t that good enuf?
I might not have all the particulars here but the point is--it can be done quickly and easily by the FCC.
The most likely route to the fairness doctrine is the FCC. The FCC can simply reimpose it without action from Congress. The Democrats will have the majority on the FCC early in 2009. The only hope to stop the fairness doctrine is the Supreme Court and the collapse of talk radio. I am not optimistic that the Supreme Court and I do not think the Democrats care if AM radio shrinks dramatically. The only possible route to changing rat minds is left wing talk radio. Although conservative talk radio dominates in market share, left wing talk radio actually has a comparable number of radio hours typically in non peak times.
Colmes already has a radio show. Talk about absolute vile hate speech!!! If you think he's bad on the TV show - you should hear him without Hannity piping in!!
Such an attempt to silence talk radio will be complicated, nasty.....
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Yes it will and that, in a perverse way, will serve as a good banner to awaken even the most complacent in American society, to the subversive efforts of the radical left. If they try it, let it run long, visible and UGLY — and expose the radical left for what it is.
My understanding is that Congress has nothing to do with it...the head of the FCC has the ability to reinstate the “fairness” rule.
The way Dick Morris was talking on Hannity & Colmes Friday night, Congress doesn’t have to do a thing. 0 himself will appoint liberals to the FCC board in June when the current terms expire of Bush appointees, and they will take care of instituting it.
Me too. BUT, if the Pubs try to stop it, they’ll have to do it by Congressional action. And lack of backbone aside, they don’t have the numbers.
“Explain to me step by step how the fairness doctrine would destroy talk radio.”
The doctrine would, in some fashion, require a balance of lib-conservative viewpoints. IOW, 3 hours of Rush and 3 hours (or more) of some lib idiot. Rush generates huge ratings/revenue..Lib stations/shows can’t stay afloat meaning NO revenues for the stations. Three hours of low ratings are killers.
Understand?
Do you know what the fairness doctrine is and why it was applied? Are you old enough to know what AM radio was like before 1987 and why it was like that? Do some reading. I'm sure you can google up some sources that are more in depth than wikipedia.
“Considering the level of hate and support offered up by the MSM during the Bush era is it really possible or likely that the Dems will be able to pass a version of the “Fairness Doctrine” that will kill talk radio?”
No it won’t - it’ll kill AM radio. Rush, Hennety and Co. will move to XM radio like Stern - I’m sure they already have their contingency plans all laid out. And a lot of us will get XM radio.
May be time to buy stocks in XM - dirt cheap right now.
About the only case you could reasonably make, is that conservative talk proliferates on the the AM radio band, and that the liberal viewpoint ought to be equally represented there.
However, those pushing for the measure would put themselves in the hypocritical position of having to defend the proliferation of the liberal viewpoint across the VHF spectrum, and on (taxpayer supported) PBS.
If the airwaves belong to The People, then "fairness" has to be applied across all broadcast spectrums.
There is no way that the alphabet networks are going to cleave their broadcast time in half to allow conservatives a nationwide platform for presenting their views.
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