Thursday, January 18, 2007

The Fairness Doctrine

Update: I spoke with a spokeswoman from Rep. Minchey's office today and she couldn't give me one example of where there isn't both sides being presented. All she wanted to say was the airwaves are for the public and there must be equal time. I gave her a couple of names of people I thought would have to change their shows if this went through (Couric, Williams, Gibson) as I feel they are extremely liberal. She said she felt they were conservative! I was shocked.

She couldn't tell me how this was going to be enforced except that it would be up to the FCC, probably based on complaints. This whole issue is laughable. Why is it that it's only Democrats who feel this way? Don't they get enough of their own on NBC (all her sister stations), ABC and CBS? Not to mention CNN! Aren't there more pressing issues back in Washington?

And still no examples of unfairness on the airwaves being presented so we know truly what they are referencing!

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This week, a couple of Democratic Congressmen and a Democratic Senator have indicated they will pursue having The Fairness Doctrine reintroduced as legislation. Thus far, not one of them has articulated where the current deficiency is regarding broadcasting to state such a claim.

One can presume they are complaining about talk radio which is dominated by conservative commentators. However, Air America supporters (George Soros et. al), the ultra liberal radio commentary hosted by Al Franken and the like, pumped in millions and millions of dollars and is now basically bankrupt and off the air in many cities that were broadcasting the show.

One can only wonder why they are failing and that is because their message doesn't resonate with listeners. Common sense says that if you have a product that no one wants then it will fail. I feel that is what the problem with their broadcast. What else can it be? They had the money and the airwaves to pump out their ideas but no one is interested.

I'm curious to see where they say the deficiency is and how they will actually monitor all of the airwaves to enforce their infringement of free speech. Reagan did the right thing in getting rid of an illegal law and it should not come up again as legislation. People have their choice of venue for receiving news; internet, network TV, radio, satellite etc. Switch the dial to whom you prefer and get your news. It is always interesting to see NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN and the like ALL say that Fox News is right-wing biased. Why would ALL of them say the same thing if they are all fair and balanced. I submit they aren't and agree with the questions given to some to name a conservative anchor or host on any of those networks. Can't be done.

Why would Congress want to take away our 1st Amendment rights to free speech in the name of 'fairness'? You decide.

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