The Fairness Doctrine Serves No One
Liberal columnist and former liberal talk show host here, so you can assume I am…a liberal. More than once I’ve written about the need for the Fairness Doctrine - a policy that would require the holders of broadcast licenses both to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was honest, equitable and balanced - but yesterday I had a change of heart. While listening to talk radio in my non-satellite radio car yesterday (I live in the Philadelphia area so if you want to listen to political talk it has to be conservative), I heard Sean Hannity speak of how unfair a re-institution the Fairness Doctrine would be. The light and lilting tones of the powerhouse hunk of conservative talk must have Hannitized me for it finally hit me that there was no reason for the FD, especially on talk radio.
I’d love to be able to tune in the likes of liberal hosts like Stephanie Miller, Ed Read more
What Are Conservative Talkers Afraid Of?
The Right is back to their old tricks, as if they ever left them.
Now it’s not the Fairness Doctrine. It’s the Censorship Doctrine. Instead of giving both sides fair access to the airwaves, it’s taking it away from the Right.
For the record, the Fairness Doctrine was a U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) policy that required the holders of broadcast licenses to present issues in a manner that was honest, equitable, and balanced. Not just say you’re balanced. Actually be balanced.
Calling the Fairness Doctrine “censorship” is as much a misnomer as calling Pro-choice groups “Pro-abortion.” It’s simply an attempt to demonize the opposition without the need for accuracy. The Fairness Doctrine doesn’t tell a talker what he can say nor even mandates the need to tell the truth. As with most of this self-serving branding it uses an Orwellian contortion to portray the issue as the opposite of the truth. If there is any voice that is being excluded, it is that of the Left. In some major cities, no major talk station uses a so-called liberal talk show host in their weekday Read more
Right Tries To Redefine Free Speech…Again
The Right is back to their old tricks, as if they ever left them.
Now it’s not the Fairness Doctrine. It’s the Censorship Doctrine. Instead of giving both sides fair access to the airwaves, it’s taking it away from the Right.
No one need to look further than my debate with Sean Hannity and Brent Bozell of the Media Research Centers on Hannity’s syndicated radio show last Tuesday where both Hannity and Bozell quickly re-labeled the Fairness Doctrine as the Censorship Doctrine, which in all honesty was Sean’s invention which Bozell happily hopped on.
For the record, the Fairness Doctrine Read more
Steve VS Hannity - Tonite on Radio @ 5pmEST
Today at 5PM EST listen to Sean Hannity and Brent Bozell gang up on moi over the Fairness Doctrine…with moi coming out the unabashed winner!
If you don’t have a radio nearby head on over to Hannity.com and click on Listen Live
Steve
Fairness Doctrine Is Exactly What The Right Needs
The second best thing that could have happened to right wing talk radio would have been McCain winning the presidency. The first best thing: McCain losing.
Barack Obama’s victory gift-wrapped the AM broadcast Lords of Loud’s most excellent goody since Bill went Monica all over the Oval Office. They now have the four-year gift that they’ll make sure just keeps on giving.
Think Reverend Wright’s oft-repeated anti-American “not God bless America, G-d America” tirade - you would think if he had actually been doing this so incessantly for over 20 years, someone would have dug up another rant - has been placed in the archives? Not a chance. Less than a week as president-elect and the honeymoon that never was, is over.
Even when Read more
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