In recent months, conservative talk radio has taken fire from a plethora of sources. In fact, the now infamous Fairness Doctrine has even been discussed as a “solution” to the current monopoly on political talk radio. Conservative talk radio listeners outnumber their liberal counterparts by a factor of 3 to 1, and the liberals cannot stand this. The reality is, conservative radio commentators and hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Michael Savage just draw more listeners than liberal hosts. National Public Radio and the now bankrupt Air America have tried and failed where the others have succeeded, and this irks the liberals to no end. The demand just isn’t there for liberal talk radio and liberals now have resorted to an unconstitutional approach to get conservatives off the air by interjecting less conservatives and more liberals in the name of fair and balanced journalism and representation.

The fairness doctrine was introduced during a sensitive time involving the rise of communist countries. Many semi-unionized groups created internal policies based on communist principles. Subsequently, the Fairness Doctrine was inserted to assure the American public that both sides of controversial debates would be aired out and discussed in 1949. The full policy remained intact until 1967 when only certain aspects of the doctrine were incorporated into FCC regulations. These provisions remained until 1984 when the Supreme Court announced that the core of the doctrine was out-dated for the changing communication technology, and in fact, the doctrine was doing more harm than good by limiting airtime for legitimate arguments. In 1987, the FCC voted to abolish the doctrine, and on two separate occasions in the late 80′s and early 90′s Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush had to veto and threaten to veto the bills respectively that would bring back the Fairness Doctrine once again.

Many feathers were ruffled in Washington during the 1980′s pertaining to the FCC and the Fairness Doctrine and much debate was drawn, mostly citing that the Fairness Doctrine not only ignored public interest, which it was created to do the very opposite, and more importantly violated the first amendment. The Fairness Doctrine used Government Bureaucracy to railroad the American people and force opinions down their throat that they just don’t want to hear. In theory, and with good intentions, the Fairness Doctrine looks to only benefit the public, but in all actuality, it was a complete disaster. In the past few years, and even more recently than that, many congressmen and lobbyists have spoke of trying to get the doctrine reinstated. It just doesn’t make any sense, the people have spoken, and lets leave it up to them to decide what they want to listen to. We live in a capitalistic, free enterprise society, we the people determine what sells, and in turn, what we listen to on the radio and what we watch on television. What is really atrocious is how far left PBS and NPR are, which are financed by taxpayers. The government is already force-feeding us liberal propaganda through these faucets, and all the Fairness Doctrine would do is obligate the remaining 10% of conservative media to promote the liberal message to gain a monopoly on all media outlets.

There are many, many media outlets in today’s world; many more than there were in 1949 when the original doctrine was passed. People have numerous ways of getting their information, and policing the first amendment now more than ever would be a slap in the peoples face. If we are not intelligent enough to discern what to listen to, and form our own conclusions, our country is in a lot worse shape that what I thought! In today’s world, especially with the introduction of the internet in the early 90′s, it no longer seems necessary for the government to force feed us our information. If the liberals want “fair and balanced” radio, why aren’t conservatives fighting for fair and balanced television, where liberal news programs outnumber conservative programs tenfold? If liberal news consists of MSNBC and CNN, where is the conservative news? FOX NEWS is hardly a fair counterpart. It is moderate at best, with the exclusion of programs such as Hannity’s America, The O’Reily Factor (Bill O’Reily really is further left than what he appears on TV) and Glenn Beck. You never hear liberals complaining that there aren’t enough conservative news programs to balance out the liberal ones! These liberals are just plain being crybabies! If they can’t have the airwaves to themselves, they don’t want anyone to have them. What’s really ironic is the fact that MSNBC as well as CNN trail FOXNEWS considerably in the ratings, and what the Fairness Doctrine would do, is take the few conservative programs left, and pervert them beyond recognition. Fair and balanced indeed! Read the rest of this entry »