The Fainess Doctrine and the Decline of Free Speech
I am considering this post as a follow up post to this post. While that post was a commentary on political correctness being an attack on free speech this one is not. This post is about another attack on free speech.
Does anyone else find it frightening to think that Democrats are trying to shut down conservative talk radio?
Liberal talk radio has been unsuccessful yet Democrats are going to demand that the liberal talk radio gets equal time as conservative talk radio. It’s not enough that the liberals have CNN, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, PBS, and national public radio. They want to take over radio stations that have conservative talk show hosts. They do this by saying radio stations need to give equal time to differing views. The problem is radio stations do not want to have an unsuccessful non money making show on so they find it easier to eliminate the conservative show than to lose money during the liberal show.
Why are they doing this? Because they need to supress opinions different than their own. This is more than frightening, it’s downright sensorship. The facy that they want to stop the free debate of ideas should scare everyone.
More and more Democrats are coming out in favor of this sensorship. This immigration bill is going to prove to be the springboard in to full scale debate about the fairness doctrine. In fact you already hear Democrats blaming talk radio for the demise of the bill.You see, you and I are not smart enough to see that giving 12,000,000 illegal criminals, which will blossom to 50,000,000 once the family members are let in, amnesty is good for the country. And then with talk radio leading us like lemmings over the cliff we were convinced that this bill was bad for America. It’s talk radio’s fault. So talk radio must be stopped for our own good.
This truly is scary that when you differ with Democrats you must be silenced. They are smarter than us and will tell us how we should feel about any given issue.
America's Watchtower 
Fairness doctrine will only shut down talk radio if talk radio wants it to. FD merely means that both sides must be represented. Gee, sounds like fair and balanced reporting just like Fox News network.
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That in itself I have a problem with. It isn’t up to the government ro regulate what can be said on the radio. It isn’t up to the government to make sure that both sides are represented. Ever hear of the freedom of the press, and the freedom of sheech?
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I’m a very big supported of free press and speech. Fairness doctrine doesn’t regulate or shut down conservative radio. It merely means that an opposing view must be allowed. Makes perfect sense to me. Its kinda like this blog post. If I flame you, then you have the ability and the right to flame me or defend yourself. The problem with current talk radio is you have conservative airheads spewing misinformation which has to be cleaned up later. FD would quell this and also spark enlightened debate from both sides at the point whatever information is disseminated. Having said that, one-sided speech to me is not freedom. Healthy debate is. By the way, I’ve been serving our great nation since 1977 in and out of uniform. I’ve done things that many only read about in defense of our freedoms. This gives me the UNIQUE right to voice my opinion. Also, I view my service more to protect YOUR rights than I do my own. Look back in history and you’ll see a similar pattern. The very reason you and I can even debate this is because someone in our history gave up their rights so we could have better ones.
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First let me say thank you for your service. There in nobody who respects, admires, and loves those who sacrifice so much for the country than I do. I think about them every day. I couldn’t agree with you more when you say that because of them we can debate different issues.
So now on to the debate.
Talk radio, like any other business is profit driven. If a show makes money and the station can sell advertising the show will stay on the air. With television dominated by the liberal press (other than Fox news) there is only one place for conservatives to turn to hear their opinions, talk radio. That is why the radio is conservative leaning. By forcing a station to air a show that does not make money you are forcing the station to choose between not making money or cancelling the conservative show because the station won’t be able to afford putting on the liberal show that does not earn the same type of revenue. That is why this IS an attempt to shut down conservative radio.
Why are television stations not held to the same standards? When there is a debate on an issue on most stations they bring on two liberals to debate the issue. At least with Fox they actually bring on a Democrat and a Republican at the same time to hold a debate, but they are the only ones. Why would Keith Obberman and John Stewart not be held to the same standard as talk radio is about to be held to?
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