After talk radio helped stomp out the new immigration bill, many politicians are considering reviving the old Fairness Doctrine.In a recent report, the liberal organization Center of American Progress claims that 91 percent of political talk radio is conservative. As a result, many liberals and Democrats (and some Republicans, including our very own Trent Lott) want to reverse the trend, despite the fact that much of the media (television, newspapers, Hollywood, etc.) heavily lean in the opposite direction on the political scale.
No matter which ideology you hold, this kind of hypocrisy is just that–hypocrisy. Moreover, this behavior epitomizes the potential for abuse that is characteristic of the “Fairness Doctrine,” or rather the Unfair Doctrine. The Doctrine already has a history of abuse by ambitious politicians and administrations, most notably the Kennedy and Nixon administrations.
Every time I think about it, I imagine “1984” and Big Brother. It is just another attempt by the government to interfere with and mandate people’s lives. A line has to be drawn somewhere, or else we will end up no better than the former Soviet Union.
The “goal” is to facilitate free speech and “meet the public’s listening needs.” When the Fairness Doctrine was essentially revoked in the ’80s, both the FCC and Supreme Court stated that the Doctrine actually impedes free speech. They couldn’t be more right.
It also isn’t practical. Liberals are trying to set corporations up for failure. If people wanted to hear liberal talk shows, there would be liberal talk shows, but people apparently don’t want it. It’s the principle of supply and demand, called free enterprise.
What about third parties? Or the independents and moderates? Or for that matter the Ku Klux Klan and Al-Jazeera? We have to give everybody equal airtime, even if the people don’t want to hear it.