Common Folk Using Common Sense

Liberals in Congress have long been advocating a return to the so-called “fairness” doctrine requiring “balance” in broadcasting. Talk radio is overwhelmingly conservative simply because liberal talk radio has failed repeatedly to attract comparable-sized audiences. That’s why some pundits call it “hush Rush” legislation.

It’s worthwhile noting that free expression through blogging might come under The Fairness Doctrine as well. It’s also worthwhile noting that the Fairness Doctrine would not apply to the Liberal News Media – they’re exempt.

When you analyze liberalism and how it works, you realize that it flourishes in an atmosphere of intimidation. Certain ways of thinking become approved and are added to the liberal canon; wrong thinking is then punished, or the wrong thinker is ostracized. The modern term for this type of mental intimidation is “Political Correctness.”

But when exposed to open debate from the phone-in callers, “Political Correctness” usually crashes and burns in an ugly way.

Liberal thought has long dominated academia, all the way from kindergarten to graduate school. So colleges and universities became the breeding ground for this new, “progressive” outlook on life. The movement is easily spread into other liberal communities such as the national news media, Hollywood, and the Democratic Party.

But a few years ago, with the abandonment of an intimidating law known as the “Fairness Doctrine,” a new media began to emerge. It was mostly non-PC. It was conservative. It was called “Talk Radio.”

Today talk radio is the #1 format. It attracts the most listeners. It garners the most advertising dollars. But it is overwhelmingly conservative; even the highly-subsidized Air America just couldn’t attract any listeners.

The Fairness Doctrine was a complex law that accomplished something very simple. By putting onerous regulations in the way of free speech, radio and TV stations were in effect prevented from expressing political opinion. Equal time would have to be provided, and that meant staff dedicated to finding opposing opinion, and then giving up the airtime to run it. No station could deal with that nightmare and so, few did.

Imagine this:

Shamalama is a Conservative radio talk show host. His radio show is syndicated and carried on 100 radio stations. On Monday he spends an hour complaining against Legalized Discrimination (a.k.a. Affirmative Action). The next day the NAACP and the Rainbow Coalition send registered letters to the Station Managers of those 100 stations demanding, through the Fairness Doctrine, that tomorrow they have someone on the air from one of their organizations that will spend an hour promoting Affirmative Action. Equal time must provided, they say. On Wednesday Shamalama spends an hour complaining against Illegal Mexicans invading the US. The next day members of The Mexican Alliance send registered letters to the Station Managers of those 100 stations demanding, through the Fairness Doctrine, that tomorrow they have someone on the air from one of their organizations that will spend an hour promoting and protecting “those poor Mexicans”. Equal time must provided, they say. On Friday Shamalama spends an hour complaining against Islamofascism. The next day lwayers from CAIR send registered letters to the Station Managers of those 100 stations demanding, through the Fairness Doctrine, that tomorrow they have their representatives on the air extolling the virtues of the Religion Of Peace. Equal time must provided, they say. The following Monday these Station Managers have decided that having the Shamalama Show on their radio station is not in their best interests, even though my show was pulling a 20 share and was earning their advertisers a ton of money. The Station Managers change their format from Talk Show to (a) all sports, (b) 24-hour bluegrass music, (c) Hispanic language and culture.

To recap: When you analyze liberalism and how it works, you realize that it flourishes in an atmosphere of intimidation. The (mis-named) Fairness Doctrine would thrive on intimidation. It would also kill off any non-PC speech. And it would only be a small stretch to extend the Fairness Doctrine to the blogosphere – maybe even to your blog.

Liberals in Congress have long been advocating a return to the Fairness Doctrine. If they take Congress talk radio as we know it today could be dead in six months. Doesn’t sound very fair to me.

Liberal, Congress, Talk radio, hush Rush, blog, Fairness Doctrine, Political Correctness

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