Trampling the First Amendment
Not content with having their views promoted uncritically by CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, NPR and the entire professariate, Democrats are lobbying for legislation that would require conservative talk radio programs to provide equal time to leftist advocates. The proposed “Fairness Doctrine” is a cynical attempt to undermine the most effective alternative voice besides the Internet. You can sign a petition against this effort to restrict free speech here.
It isn’t as if liberals can’t broadcast their own programs. Air America, after all, has hundreds of listeners. The fact is, few prominent liberals have the audacity to accept invitations to debate in the talk radio venue; it is uncontrolled, unscripted, and generally attracts a better-informed audience than they are used to addressing. They have little to gain and much to lose. The only effect of the proposed legislation will be to force talk radio shows to provide air time to dull, minor league, leftist spokesbeings, who will drive listeners away.
Which is, of course, the point.
I love it! “Air America has hundreds of listeners.” As general manager of an internet radio station myself, I think that’s hilarious!
Seriously, though…So what do you think the Democrats’ position will be on The Fairness Doctrine years later when Republicans control Congress? It seems like a pendulum going back and forth which is toward one extreme now (but that’s likely the turning point anyway.) I remember about 15 years ago when here in Los Angeles you couldn’t turn on the AM radio without hearing a liberal talk radio program. (Funny how nobody complained back then.)
I’ll leave you with a final thought, being the conspiracist that I am. It is possible that the people who are really running the government are neither republican nor democrat, but they use the constant “us” versus “them” battle to confuse and preoccupy the public, while the REAL power grab is going on behind the scenes.
In 1980, Ronald Reagan asked, “Are you better off than you were 4 years ago?” In 2009, I ask, “Are you as free as you were 4 years ago?” (And the answer to that is a presumptuous “NO”, with blame coming from both Republicans and Democrats.)