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Congresswoman Pushes for Return of 'Fairness Doctrine' and Extend It to Cable and Satellite
NewsBusters ^ | December 16, 2008 | P.J. Gladnick

Posted on 12/16/2008 6:15:19 PM PST by PJ-Comix

Although president-elect Barack Obama has stated that he is opposed to the reimposition of the so-called Fairness Doctrine, it remains to be seen if he can resist the pressure of Congress to bring back a measure that many on the left favor because they claim it will "Hush Rush." Leading the charge for bringing back the Fairness Doctrine is Congresswoman Anna Eshoo of California. According to this report, Eshoo not only wants to bring it back but to extend it to absurdly include cable and satellite where public airwaves are not even involved:

Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, said Monday she will work to restore the Fairness Doctrine and have it apply to cable and satellite programming as well as radio and TV.

“I’ll work on bringing it back. I still believe in it,” Eshoo told the Daily Post in Palo Alto.

The Fairness Doctrine required TV and radio stations to balance opposing points of view. It meant that those who disagreed with the political slant of a commentator were entitled to free air time to give contrasting points of view, usually in the same time slot as the original broadcast.

The doctrine was repealed by the Reagan administration's Federal Communications Commission in 1987, and a year later, Rush Limbaugh's show went national, ushering in a new form of AM radio.

Conservative talk show hosts fear the doctrine will result in their programs being canceled because stations don't want to offer large amounts of air time to opponents whose response programs probably wouldn't get good ratings.

Eshoo said she would recommend the doctrine be applied not only to radio and TV broadcasts, but also to cable and satellite services.

“It should and will affect everyone,” she said.


(Excerpt) Read more at newsbusters.org ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; US: California
KEYWORDS: 111th; achillwind; agenda; bho2008; california; censorship; communism; democracydied; democratparty; democrats; dnctalkingpoints; dumbdumbdumbdumbdumb; eshoo; fairnessdoctrine; firstamendment; freespeech; hushrush; lp; rushlimbaugh; silenceamerica; talkradio
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To: PJ-Comix

That didn’t take long.


81 posted on 12/17/2008 8:28:58 AM PST by PzLdr ("The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am" - Darth Vader)
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To: PJ-Comix

SCREW HER IN THE NECK


82 posted on 12/17/2008 8:33:53 AM PST by peace with honor
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To: savedbygrace

That’s mine...


83 posted on 12/17/2008 8:34:00 AM PST by MrB (The 0bamanation: Marxism, Infanticide, Appeasement, Depression, Thuggery, and Censorship)
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To: MrB

I’m stealing it . . . unless you’d sue me.

;-)


84 posted on 12/17/2008 8:42:31 AM PST by savedbygrace (SECURE THE BORDERS FIRST (I'M YELLING ON PURPOSE))
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To: savedbygrace

Feel free, with my blessing.


85 posted on 12/17/2008 8:43:15 AM PST by MrB (The 0bamanation: Marxism, Infanticide, Appeasement, Depression, Thuggery, and Censorship)
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To: PJ-Comix

I just called her office and suggested she change her party affiliation from Democrat to Nazi.

Her staff member was surprisingly professional about it. :-)


86 posted on 12/17/2008 8:45:43 AM PST by Mr. Silverback ("[Palin] has not even lived in the Lower 48 since 1987. Come on! Really!" --Polybius)
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To: PJ-Comix

Let’s test it on NPR first.


87 posted on 12/17/2008 8:51:11 AM PST by Mojave (http://barackobamajokes.googlepages.com/obama_funny)
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To: PJ-Comix; freekitty; Free ThinkerNY; Clintonfatigued; Arrowhead1952; 2ndDivisionVet; ZULU; ...

Start calling these Liberal jerks by the millions! They think the last election was a landslide. They’re delusional and insane.


88 posted on 12/17/2008 9:05:04 AM PST by ExTexasRedhead
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To: danmar
It will never be considered because it will violate the "First Amendment"

You could say the same thing about "McCain-Feingold".

89 posted on 12/17/2008 9:08:45 AM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: PJ-Comix

I just called this Liberal’s office by calling 202-225-3121 (Congressional swithcboard); then asked for Anna Eschoo’s office then got her staffer. I left an appropriate message for this elitist. I urge all Freepers to do likewise. Anna Eschoo (D) wants to remove Freedom of Speech, give her a few minutes of your time to respond.


90 posted on 12/17/2008 9:12:50 AM PST by ExTexasRedhead
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To: jcsjcm
...I’ve only been political for about 3 months now...

May I ask what brought this on? Did Obama have anything to do with the change in your political awareness?

I ask because we need to know more about how to motivate those in this country who are actually American at heart and believe our heritage is worth protecting.

91 posted on 12/17/2008 9:20:14 AM PST by Max in Utah (A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within.)
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To: unkus

No, it’s not OK, but I do think everything is heading to the ‘net, so these fools won’t win in the end.


92 posted on 12/17/2008 9:21:56 AM PST by mrclean5
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To: PJ-Comix

This is a good example of “be careful what you wish for.”

I doubt it goes anywhere.

To be honest, I don’t listen to the radio,

Podcasts baby!


93 posted on 12/17/2008 9:25:04 AM PST by Scarchin (Withholding judgement)
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To: PJ-Comix
“I’ll work on bringing it back. I still believe in it,” Eshoo told the Daily Post in Palo Alto.

"It" being fascist totalitarianism.

94 posted on 12/17/2008 9:39:55 AM PST by fwdude ("...a 'centrist' ... has few principles - and those are negotiable." - Don Feder)
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To: savedbygrace

I liked it too. I envisioned the sword behind the cape.


95 posted on 12/17/2008 9:52:00 AM PST by ssschev (We the people are being "drowned slowly" in the waters of Socialism!)
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To: PJ-Comix

Well what did you expect? This is just the beginning. Anybody want to bet against The Marxist Oneda releasing an avalanche of executive orders soon after being sworn. They will be designed primarily to protect him and the demrats from scrutiny, cement demrat hold on government forever, promote wealth distribution and seriously curtail gun ownership in this country?

And the GOP’s wonderful bunch of RINOs will just sit there and let it happen.

Folks, there is no longer an opposition party to the Demrat Party in America. The GOP is really just a wing of the Demrat Party. There is no room for Constitutionalists at the GOP table. Certainly the selection of Sen. McBipartisan for Pubbie Pres. candidate should have driven that fact home. Naming Palin as his running mate was an expedient he used to lure Constitutionalists into voting for him. Subsequently, both during and after his pathetic defeat, he has treate her and conservatives poorly.


96 posted on 12/17/2008 9:52:51 AM PST by dools007
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To: Arizona Carolyn

“They are already talking about policing the net, making people get a version of a drivers license to use it so they can track you instead of passwords.”

Maybe they can use validated voter registration cards instead. /sarcasm


97 posted on 12/17/2008 9:53:08 AM PST by EQAndyBuzz ("Control the information, you control the people.")
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To: PJ-Comix

When I saw the headline I just knew the congresswoman had to be from the Bay ARea.


98 posted on 12/17/2008 9:54:52 AM PST by GSWarrior (It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.)
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To: PJ-Comix

If the fairness doctrine applies to cable and satellite then so should ALL of the FCC.


99 posted on 12/17/2008 9:56:29 AM PST by weegee ("Let Me Just Cut You Off, Because I Don't Want You To Waste Your Question" - B.Obama Dec 16, 2008)
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To: jcsjcm
Welcome to the circus.

And no, we don't approve the bills beforehand. If you can, find a high-school civics textbook from the 1950s or early 1960s and reach the chapters on the Constitution and the Congress. Meanwhile, the reason you don't recall ever voting on anything like the (Un)fairness Doctrine is that you never had the chance. None of us did. The original idea was that instead of having every citizen vote on every issue, we would elect representatives who would draft bills reflecting what we, their constituents, wanted -- and that we could trust our reps to vote on those bills accordingly.

The system, known as a "representative republic," worked surprisingly well for a surprisingly long time -- just over 220 years.

100 posted on 12/17/2008 10:24:42 AM PST by Tenniel2 (Sometimes you have to confront evil head-on. Mutt-boy delenda est.)
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