Obama's New 'Fairness Doctrine'

Human Events ^ | 11/20/2008 | Jack Thompson

[Delacon]

Get ready for an unprecedented government assault upon the First Amendment. President Obama will be at the heart of it. using his version of the “Fairness Doctrine”.

In 1949, the Federal Communications Commission created the “Fairness Doctrine,” which mandated that federally-licensed radio and television stations “provide a reasonable opportunity for the presentation of contrasting viewpoints” on “vitally important controversial issues.” Rather than be deluged with demands for air time by aggrieved listeners, the broadcasters generally opted not to cover controversial issues, thereby leaving the public less informed.

In 1987, President Reagan’s FCC jettisoned the Fairness Doctrine, and conservative talk radio grew like topsy, unencumbered by the logistical nightmare of determining what is “controversial” and what is “fair.” Rush Limbaugh’s meteoric, syndicated rise is directly attributable to this repeal, as radio stations were freed to air what listeners wanted to hear without airing what few wanted to hear. If you think that’s unfair, check out how Air America is doing.

Limbaugh even today correctly says, “Don’t me ask for equal time; I am equal time. I am the rebuttal to the liberal, mainstream, drive-by media.”

With the Democrats now set to control the Presidency and both houses of Congress, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid say they want to bring back the Fairness Doctrine to stifle conservative talk radio’s criticism of the Democrats.

Barack Obama, however, in June 2008, , stated that he opposes bringing back the Fairness Doctrine, through his Press Secretary Michael Ortiz: “He considers this debate to be a distraction from the conversation we should be having about opening up the airwaves and modern communications to as many diverse viewpoints as possible.” [emphasis added]

Obama knows that exhuming the Fairness Doctrine would be a frontal assault upon the First Amendment that would evoke a Boston Tea Party-like response from listeners of Limbaugh, Hannity, Ingraham, Beck, and other conservative talk hosts who would be dropped rapidly from many if not all stations. Glenn Beck has warned that if the Fairness Doctrine comes back, he’ll be off the air.

Obama is way smarter than that. What he has in mind is an indirect and far more means to accomplish the demise of conservative talk -- America’s last town hall. The analogy is to the proverbial frog in the pot of water. Put him into boiling water, and out he’ll hop. Instant Boston Tea Party. Here, then, is the Obama plan to slow cook the First Amendment:

Charles Benton is Chairman of the Benton Foundation, with offices in Obama’s Chicago as well as in Obama’s Washington. Benton proclaims at his Foundation’s web site, “[O]ur number one national communications policy priority must be the eradication of racial and gender discrimination in media and telecommunications. Our shared goal: seeing the day when all Americans possess the tools to compete in commerce, to contribute to and enjoy the fruits of democracy, to receive unbiased and uncensored news and information, to create our culture. “ [emphasis added]

The Federal Communications Commission has a vague rule called “localism,” which requires stations to serve the interests of their local communities in order to hold onto their broadcast licenses. Obama, who gets to replace FCC Chairman Kevin Martin right away, needs only three votes from the five-member FCC to define localism his way.

Jim Boulet, Jr., the head of English First in Washington, D.C., one of whose projects is www.keeprushontheair.com, has been studying and warning for months about the morphing of FCC localism. Boulet notes to Human Events the following:

• On September 20, 2007, Obama submitted a pro-localism written statement to an FCC hearing at the Chicago headquarters of Rev. Jess Jackson Sr.’s Operation Push. One month later, an insistent Obama sent a public letter to Chairman Martin stating, “The Commission has failed to further the goals of diversity in the media and promote localism.”

• The head of Obama’s transition team is John Podesta, President and CEO of the Center for American Progress. In 2007, the Center issued a report, The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio, which concluded there were too many conservatives on the radio because of “the absence of localism in American radio markets” and urged the FCC to “[e]nsure greater local accountability over radio licensing.

• Podesta’s choice as head of the FCC transition team is Henry Rivera, a Director and General Counsel of the above-noted Benton Foundation and chairman of the Minority Media Telecommunications Council, which has stated: “Broadcasters must reach beyond the business sector and look for leaders [think community organizers] in the civic, religious, and non-profit sectors that regularly serve the needs of the community, particularly the needs of minority groups that are typically poorly served by the broadcasting industry as a whole.”

• Bowing to this pressure even while Bush is still President, the FCC proposed on January 24, 2008, the creation of permanent station advisory boards comprised of local officials and other community leaders, to periodically advise them of local needs and issues to ensure content diversity on the air.

• Any station that fails to placate these “local community leaders” would then be subject to license revocation by the FCC with an accelerated license review every two years as opposed to the current eight years. This would allow each station license in America to be attacked twice during just one Obama term.

Question: What organization first used “localism” at the FCC in this fashion? Answer: The United Church of Christ, Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s highly-politicized denomination. UCC has an entity called the Office of Communication, Inc., which successfully took a broadcast license away from a Southern station it felt was not covering the civil rights movement fairly. This is just one reason John McCain should have realized Rev. Wright was fair game in the campaign.

This, then, is the historical template that Obama, Podesta, and their FCC maven Rivera intend to use to do something about the curse of conservative talk radio in America: Redefine FCC “localism” to give community activists the right to demand more local, liberal content. If station ownership does not comply, then licenses will be revoked and given to minority owners.

One of the more clever aspects of this “localism” plan is that, should a station lose its license to a liberal owner whose content will reflect his/her views, then there will be no Fairness Doctrine around to require equal time from aggrieved conservative listeners.

Christian radio stations will be saddled with local Muslim “advisory boards” demanding equal time and getting it. The Brave New World awaits.

Mr. Thompson is a writer and former lawyer in Miami who was Janet Reno's Republican opponent in 1988 for State Attorney. He secured the first broadcast decency fines ever levied by the FCC (1989) and represented Oliver North at the 1992 Time Warner shareholders meeting, persuading TW to pull rapper Ice-T's "Cop Killer" from store shelves worldwide. He can be reached at amendmentone@comcast.net.

[Delacon]

The “Fairness Doctrine” is The Censorship Doctrine

Media Research Center's Free Speech Alliance is a fast-growing coalition of organizations and individuals, who, like you, cherish free speech and who have proactively joined to ensure the misnamed “Fairness Doctrine” never returns to silence the conservative voice in America.

First enacted by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) in 1949, the Fairness Doctrine required radio stations give equal time to all sides on political issues. However, the result wasn’t equal time, it was zero time – as stations simply avoided topics that would fall under FCC equal time rules.

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan rescinded the Fairness Doctrine and since then, talk radio has flourished. Conservatives dominate it, and liberals can’t stand it. By re-instating the Fairness Doctrine, liberals would effectively silence the conservative leaders of the day including Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham and others, and would essentially take control of all forms of media.

In recent months, the groundswell for reinstatement is intensifying. In fact, a growing number of liberal leaders in Washington, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, have openly stated their intent to do so.

As Americans, we cannot sit idly by while this gag order on conservative speech is resuscitated. The time to act is now—so when the time comes, we are mobilized and prepared to defend our Free Speech Rights.



Join the hundreds of thousands of citizens taking action now through MRC’s Free Speech Alliance, and our national petition opposing the re-instatement of the Fairness Doctrine. Media Research Center’s Free Speech Alliance goal is to mobilize 500,000 citizens to forever end the threat of the Fairness Doctrine and other attacks on Free Speech. Click on this link.
http://www.mrcaction.org/517/petition.asp?PID=18645182

 

Freepmail me if you want to join my fairness doctrine ping list.

[FlingWingFlyer]

[valkyry1]

It will backfire on Obama if he does this

[Delacon]

Nah, them libs can’t be crazy enough to try a push for that fairness doctrine considering how obviously unpopular it is. Mandating opposing political povs is just not doable right? Well what if you try something different that achieves the same ends. THATS WHAT LIBS DO. Localism is the new fairness doctrine.

[Delacon]

“It will backfire on Obama if he does this”

Playing the devil’s(liberl’s)advocate: What? Are you opposed to a diversity of opinions? Don’t you think local opinions are important? Shouldn’t everyone have a right to speak out?

[Secret Agent Man]

Call it what it really is:

The Fairness Gag.

or

The Fairness Muzzle.

[muawiyah]

I'm pretty local. I want to speak out. Most of all I want to FORCE Nancy Pelosi to listen to me first ~ is Obama gonna' give me that?

Not likely.

[Myrddin]

They will kill talk radio to save the planet. Just think of all the electricity that won't be consumed by the radio transmitters and receivers that will be in the OFF position. I don't expect my HD radio to ever have any over the air traffic. It was a $40 bargain at Circuit City as the $200 Sony HD radios just collected dust. Absent any HD stations, they are just mediocre AM/FM radios. My "bargain" is sitting in the basement where I work during the summer to avoid the heat in the upstairs office.

The Sirius/XM merger deal came with strings attached. They had to allocate of bunch of channels for liberal trash that nobody really wants. Sirius/XM lost $1 billion last quarter. I'm afraid it is destined to be dead electronics in my Mercury Mariner. If they die, that will be one less expense.

What's left is live streaming or podcasts. We'll have to see what Obambi tries to destroy that medium. You can bet his internet hoard will be employed to damage that remaining resource.

[Thunder90]

I can guarantee that Obama will push for a combination of localism and the old Fairness Doctrine as it was, so that he can put liberal talk radio out of business. He will also require the fairness doctrine for tv broadcasters, cable and satellite radio/tv operations.

[getarope]

The “Hush Rush” Legislation.

[norwaypinesavage]

Actually, its quite good that Obama is attacking Rush personally and directly. These attacks will make it that much harder to win a Supreme Court case which takes Rush off the air.

[Delacon]

Until he appoints one to two judges...

[Delacon]

“I’m pretty local. I want to speak out. Most of all I want to FORCE Nancy Pelosi to listen to me first ~ is Obama gonna’ give me that?
Not likely.”

For one, most radio IS local. Most radio is NOT national. When I turn on my radio, AM or FM I mostly get Philly market local and two stations 1150 and 1450 here in Delaware. One runs Glen Beck, Rush, and Hannity and local broadcasting, the other is devoted to LOCAL liberal pundits and other local broadcasting because I live in a purple state. Liberal talking heads already thrive in liberal markets. They only fail when they try to go national like with Air America because lefty mush only sells in the cities and isolated liberal enclaves. But don’t miss the point which is that Obama would be happy to push more localism in broadcasting not because there isnt enough of it but because more of it will kill off Rush, Hannity, Ingraham, Bennett, Beck etc.

[Nervous Tick]

>> Until he appoints one to two judges...

The only judges about to answer to the Grim Reaper are libs anyway. He can maintain the status quo, but to pack the bench with libs would be tough, unless he has in mind offing a couple conservatives.

Of course, life is uncertain, and we never know exactly when the Lord will say, “time’s up” to, say, John Roberts.

On the other hand, we don’t know when the Lord will say, “time’s up” to Barack Hussein Obama. Or Nancy Pelosi. Or Barney Frank. Or ...

[Delacon]

“The only judges about to answer to the Grim Reaper are libs anyway. He can maintain the status quo, but to pack the bench with libs would be tough, unless he has in mind offing a couple conservatives.”

Bush got two FINE conservatives judges appointed in Roberts and Alito with less of a control of congress than Obama now has. And considering the patty cake that is going on in congress over Obama’s other appointments, two ultra liberal supremes don’t seem at all unlikely.

[indthkr]

bump

[Iron Munro]

These attacks will make it that much harder to win a Supreme Court case which takes Rush off the air.

Would that be the same Supreme Court that keeps avoiding the question of Comrade Oboingo's birth certificate?

[Delacon]

Though Ginsberg and Stevens are most likely to be on their ahem way out, since they are already liberal, their replacements would be a wash for conservatives. But next on deck is Kennedy and Scalia. Kennedy not so much but Scalia being replaced by an Obama appointee would be catastropic.

[Nervous Tick]

>> But next on deck is Kennedy and Scalia.

Hey, chin up, FRiend!

I’m not counting on Obama to hang around that long.

[theBuckwheat]

Before Limbaugh, AM radio was slowly passing away by sheer irrelevance. Many of the younger generation had never listened to an AM station. AM’s demographics went from bad to worse.

If Limbaugh “saved” AM radio by helping many of those stations to switch to a popular all-talk format while music moved towards FM stations, then owners of AM stations should be having visions of a death again.

The Left, who loves to complain about consolidation in station ownership will force even more loss of jobs and consolidation should they succeed in shutting down conservative talk radio.

And to those who think that liberals may get licenses that conservative owners lose? Not so fast! There is no market for liberal Babel. Who wants to listen to Air America wannabes when driving across the fruited plain? People like Limbaugh will go where they can retain the most audience, where the Left has not yet tried to reach. This will be satellite radio, or maybe even internet radio.

With 3G and 4G cell phone service having wider coverage, this will be possible even for autos. Ford, in conjunction with Telcordia, has announced internet connectivity for one of its models:

Telcordia Turns Ford Car into Wireless Communication Center; Ground-Breaking Technology Creates...
Publication: Business Wire
Date: Wednesday, May 3 2006

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — In collaboration with Ford Motor Company, Telcordia (www.telcordia.com) today revealed a completely wireless-enabled Ford Five Hundred sedan. ...

from:
http://www.allbusiness.com/electronics/computer-electronics-manufacturing/5473176-1.html

Chrysler has made a similar announcement:

http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/daily-news/080626-Chrysler-to-Debut-In-Car-Wireless-Internet-Today/