The So-Called “Fairness Doctrine” Make Its Ugly Return

Question: What has thinner skin than an overripe pear?
Answer: A liberal

I swear these people just can’t take any criticism!

They can dish it out, that’s for sure. The media had a heyday with Bush: You couldn’t go a single day without some major media outlet interviewing a darling of the left railing against Bush policies, if not just outright calling him stupid. Comics skewer Republicans seven times more often than Democrats. And they crowed from the rooftops about how Sarah Palin was a redneck idot.

Yep, liberals dominate the media, with one exception – talk radio. Rush Limbaugh and other conservatives have this tiny little segment of the media almost all to themselves. But not if some Dems get their way.

The Fairness Doctrine, an FCC policy that required broadcast stations to provide opposing views on controversial issues of public importance, was introduced in 1949 and abolished in 1987. Fox News and others are reporting that Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., is expecting hearings to begin soon to consider reviving the policy. Why? Allegedly, to boost more liberal radio programming.

But consider this: If there were a market for such programs, wouldn’t they already exist?

The real intent would be to limit the number of wildly popular conservative shows. Because broadcasters couldn’t afford to air enough dead-air liberal programming to offset the popular conservative shows, they would simply have to cut back. Can you spell C-E-N-S-O-R-S-H-I-P ?

For a party who would go to the mat to defend publically funded pornography (remember Robert Mapplethorpe?) in the name of free speech, this seems a bit *ahem* hypocritic to me.

Oh, don’t get me wrong – I’m no real fan of some of these folks. Janet Paschal, for instance, advocates declaring homosexuality a mental illness and revoking the security clearances of all Gay Federal employees and contractors. But let me be clear: I absolutely do not agree with her, but I would go the distance to defend her right to say it. On the radio. As often as she wants to.