Posted on 09/05/2008 8:12:45 PM PDT by T.L.Sink
The Left has watched uneasily as power drains away daily from the CBS Newses and the Time magazines of the liberal MSM and flows toward a new media alternative that range from (mostly) conservative talk radio to (Fox dominated) cable news to the ceaselessly expanding (thoroughly bi-partisan) Internet. And make no mistake: liberals want to snuff out this exciting, democratic world of analysis and debate and return to the good old days, when you got up in the morning with The New York Times and had dinner with Dan Rather - and basically kept quiet while your elite betters told you what to think. Impossible, you say. But the Left means business on the media front, and lawmakers are cooking up a host of new regulations to drive incorrect (right-of-center) opinions from the public sphere. The Left is working to restore the Fairness Doctrine. The effects would be seismic - nothing less than wiping out most of political talk radio.
(Excerpt) Read more at newcriterion.com ...
Gee why would the communists want to stop the free expression of ideas through capitalist radio??? I am SHOCKED!
Gee, I wonder if they have looked in the mirror.
Government control of political free speech sounds bad, but the fairness doctrine has the word “fairness” in it, that makes it “fair” doesn’t it?
As Rush says, they can’t win in the arena of ideas, so they have to resort to the Unfairness Doctrine to get their way.
These people are truly dangerous.
If the price of admission to the expression of honest, conservative talk is the cost of a subscription to XM Radio, I think the vast majority of listeners will sign up and say “screw AM/FM radio.” Very similar to how viewers said “screw ABCBSNBCNN and chose to listen to talk radio while watching FNC.”
Let Err Amurica go pound salt.
Call me naive, but I sincerely believe that (un-)Fairness will not make a comeback. The bell has rung.
One can only hope. ;-)
The left has long interpreted “free speech” to mean shouting down those who disagree with them.
I often heard Rush says that if the Fairness Doctrine came back, he’d go offshore and go to shortwave radio. I wonder how this would affect satellite radio as well? If this happens, I’d expect shortwave listening to go up as well as more pirate radio stations. There is also unlicensed and licensed versions of low powered broadcasting too so I would see more of that too.
For reference please see Valenzuela, Chavez, Hugo.
If Air America couldn’t compete in the marketplace of ideas in talk radio, whose fault is that?
If Air America couldn’t compete, is that a violation of someone’s constitutional rights?
If the fairness doctrine is instituted, conservatives should file lawsuits against it, since it infringes on the freedom of speech. I would love to see it go to the Supreme Court at some point. The liberals will say that it ensures that all viewpoints are heard, but I think it could be unconstitutional based on the gov’t being in a position to regulate content of programs, and regulating what is said about whom. Gov’t does not and should not have the right to dictate the programming of radio stations.
The Left is so dis-illusioned, they think neo-Cons own the airwaves...I worked with a Seattle Liberal who thinks that, and is a regular guy...they also think Bush is 100% conservative, which is comedic.
Fairness Doctorine only applies to talk radio, NPR, ABC, CBS, CNN, PBS...all Lefty outlets, are not affected and will continue their stream of Communism.
As the dean of talk radio hosts, and from what I hear he’s a multi-millionare businessman, Rush would be in a position to go offshore or to shortwave radio. Whereever he is, he has a built-in audience ready to follow. And he has the money, and can get investors also, to bankroll the whole thing.
Excerpt:
Is the Supreme Court to likely to reverse Red Lion? New justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito have shown admirable First Amendment sensitivity, as have Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia. But other judges on the divided court are far less clear. Nor is it obvious how the politics of “fairness” would play out with the public. A 2007 Rasmussen poll found that 41 percent of those polled supported the idea of requiring broadcasters to offer “equal amounts of conservative and liberal political commentary” and 41 percent opposed. Thirty-four percent wanted the government to regulate websites for political content. The language of “fairness” is beguiling, and the issues are complex.
To get an idea of what the Democrats really mean by “fairness,” though, consider what happened recently when Republican Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota tried to offer an amendment to a bill that would have banned the FCC from reinstituting the Fairness Doctrine by regulatory fiat. Rather than letting the measure be debated by the entire Senate, Democratic legislators blocked it from reaching the floor. With the door left open, it remains to be seen what the Democrats’ longterm agenda is regarding “fairness” in the media.
Demoncrats will push for this. They need to silence truth.
Bill Clinton used to complain that Rush got free rein to yak it up for three hours a day and attack him. Bill made it sound like the President of the U.S. has no platform to speak out on the issues of the day. Bill also doesn’t appreciate that if Rush didn’t build his audience and deliver the ratings he has, he wouldn’t be on the air in the first place.
That pesky 1st amendment. It doesn’t require equal time. the whole ‘airwaves are public’ is Barbara Streisand. They pay for them, just try to use them for free to broadcast. The public can’t use them like a hometown road.
ANd just because something is public, doesn’t mean the Unfairness Doctrine ensures fairness. If they stick some liberal nut on for three hours after Rush, nobody will listen. Unless you could give the liberal nut 12 am to 3 am, then nobody would care.
People are tired of liberal Barbara Streisand streaming from their political losers’ mouths, the dinosaur media’s mouth, and the smart-ass, know-what-is-best-for-you-more-than-you-do elitist’s mouths. We are tuning you a$$holes out, and we’re not going to have anything to do with you anymore.
And businesses, you start pushing your liberal corporate morality in our faces, we’re going to dump you too. Ford? McDonalds? Disney? Are ya listenin’?
It would be a disaster if the Dems did this. But the good news is that technology is on a crash course to eliminate the over the air TV and radio monopolies. It is quite plausible that we’d just migrate conservative talk radio and TV to the internet and satellite radio which presumably couldn’t be regulated.
Bill Clinton had the entire media establishment on his side. At least 89% of them. Gee where did Deedee Myers and George Snufalufagus wind up?
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