Captain Ed has a nice post on the continuing debate in the Senate on the Fairness Doctrine. The debate shows the difference in the arguments of both sides. Says Ed:
The effort to bring back the Fairness Doctrine is entirely about fear. Durbin and his associates are afraid that they have lost the debate, and they want to shut down the forum rather than acknowledge it. Either that, or Durbin and Barbara Boxer and anyone else who wants the government to dictate the content of political speech think you're too stupid to find differing points of view.
I've always said that liberals like the Fairness Doctrine because they've been unsuccessful in the marketplace. But that's not entirely true; virtually all the networks (with the exception of FOX News) lean to the left. There's NPR on the radio, and the internet is more heavily populated by liberals than conservatives. This isn't to mention the editorial policies of nearly every newspaper in the country. In fact, the only area that conservatives dominate is talk radio. Would the Fairness Doctrine work to force all of these other news sources to be more conservative? I doubt it.
Liberals change the terms when they don't like the argument. That's why they complain about corporate ownership of media (but then rail at government control of same). They hate Rush Limbaugh because he's managed to remain overwhelmingly popular for nearly 20 years regardless of their attacks. His success showed the profitability of other conservative voices on the airwaves and lead to the syndication of other shows.
But the worst part about the liberal desire for the Fairness Doctrine is the way they insult average Americans by implying (and sometimes saying) that Americans are too stupid to find the truth without a government regulation of the airwaves. The truth is, we don't need the Fairness Doctrine precisely because there are so many places one can go for information. We aren't dependent on what we watch on TV or hear on the radio or read in the newspaper. Because of deregulation, we can watch, listen, and read so many more opinions, ideas, and philosophies to help form our opinions. We don't need the government telling us where we can get our information. That's why the Left fears the marketplace of ideas.
|