Rebirth Of "The Fairness Doctrine"

Legislation is being drafted in the House, which would require the government to police the radio airwaves to ensure broadcasters present what the government decides are balanced viewpoints.

According to MSNBC's Howard Fineman, this is part of the Democrats drive against the Right's perceived success on talk radio. The Democrats’ goal is to reinstate the so-called “fairness doctrine,” abolished by the Federal Communications Commission in 1987 because it inhibited debate and the free flow of information.

The Democrats, unable to compete in the free market of ideas where citizens now have a choice as to which commentators deserve attention, want to revert to a government-imposed mandate that extremist left wing views be forced upon us. Unbelievable, in the land of the free, where we cherish freedom of speech and thought, the Democrats want the government to require us to be exposed to ideas which the liberals progressives couldn't sell with that failed free market outlet for extreme left-wing views - Air America.

Speaker Pelosi is unwilling to stop this unwarranted diminishment of our freedom. Unlike Pelosi, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is opposed to the Democrats' efforts to establish federal speech police:

Our Founding Fathers understood free speech is fundamental to our nation and sought to protect it with the First Amendment. As a strong supporter of First Amendment freedoms for all Americans, I will continue to work to prevent government limitations on speech.

The latest attempt by House Democrats to revive the misnamed ‘fairness doctrine’ will silence active political voices and limit the free flow of information. Government is not the speech police and I will not support these efforts to restrict free speech.

Political debate is among the most important democratic traditions of our nation and a hallmark of free society. We must continue to preserve the right of all Americans to express their views.

Radio should remain a "free market" of ideas not a medium where ideas are government controlled.

Comments

[No Oil for Pacifists]

Fineman's right--talk radio didn't take off until the miss-named Fairness doctrine was abolished: no station could have afforded an endless free right to oppose. As you say, in the now free-flowing radio industry, conservative voices have far higher raitings--liberals never came close in the marketplace of ideas (e.g., Cuomo, Hightower, Air America). But it's not so much that Pelosi et al would "mandate that extremist left wing views be forced upon us." Rather, they would rather revert to no debate than allow arguments they don't know how to win. So the attempt to revive the Fairness doctrine parallels the left's half-century of ducking representative government and popular sovereignty by end-running political issues to the Federal Courts.

And they call all this "progressive."