Freedom of speech...gone
SHOULD Barack Obama win the presidency and Democrats take full control of Congress, next year will see a real legislative attempt to bring back the Fairness Doctrine - and to diminish conservatives' influence on broadcast radio, the one medium they dominate.
Yes, the Obama campaign said some months back that the candidate doesn't seek to re-impose this regulation, which, until Ronald Reagan's FCC phased it out in the 1980s, required TV and radio broadcasters to give balanced airtime to opposing viewpoints or face steep fines or even loss of license. But most Democrats - including party elders Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry and Al Gore - strongly support the idea of mandating "fairness."
Would a President Obama veto a new Fairness Doctrine if Congress enacted one? It's doubtful.
The Fairness Doctrine was an astonishingly bad idea. It's a too-tempting power for government to abuse. When the doctrine was in effect, both Democratic and Republican administrations regularly used it to harass critics on radio and TV.
Second, a new Fairness Doctrine would drive political talk radio off the dial. If a station ran a big-audience conservative program like, say, Laura Ingraham's, it would also have to run a left-leaning alternative. But liberals don't do well on talk radio, as the failure of Air America and indeed all other liberal efforts in the medium to date show. Stations would likely trim back conservative shows so as to avoid airing unsuccessful liberal ones.
You may not be a fan of any of the talk radio personalities, but if they draw an audience and pay the bills, why force them off? Because the Libs want it like it was when there were only three networks and they were in the tank for them. The real question is, what will this do for bloggers? Who is to determine what is fair and balanced? Who will determine who is a conservative voice and who is a "right wing nut"? The Nazi's understood one thing, control the press and you can control a nation.
Through clever and constant application of propoganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way around, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise.
Adolph Hitler
It is the absolute right of the state to supervise the formation of public opinion
Joseph Goebbels
posted by davis14633 at 09:57
1 Comments:
To many on the Left, the concept of freedom of speech and the press has been twisted in their minds to become freedom from speech which they don't want to hear, just as they define freedom of religion as freedom from religion. That's why the whole concept of "hate crimes" and "hate speech" is so dangerous -- it involves the government and the courts defining shades of gray in morality.
If I call someone a nigger, is that hate speech? I can hear a whole chorus of gasps in the audience... "Why, OF COURSE it is! And don't use that word!" But what if I were to call someone a cracker? What if a black man calls me a cracker? Is that hate speech? Logic would suggest that it is, but here's the important question: will the courts enforce the two equally? I have grave doubts.
Slippery, that...
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