The House Blocks 'the Fairness Doctrine'

Washington, DC (TLS). In a striking victory for free speech and conservative talk radio, the U.S. House of Representatives today voted to block federal funding to revive the so-called 'Fairness Doctrine.'

Long derided by conservatives as a ruse by which Democrats seek to shut down conservative talk radio, and thus silence their voices entirely from most of the traditional media, the Fairness Doctrine was born in an era when there was no television, no cable or satellite TV, and no Internet.

In fact, one has to travel all the way back to the year 1929 to understand the context out of which the Fairness Doctrine was born.

Radio was the only source of electronic media in those days. Print newspapers and radio were the only game in town. The Fairness Doctrine was implemented as a means to insure the fair reporting of all sides of political news, since radio was one of only two sources of such news.

Thus, the Fairness Doctrine prevented radio from being dominated by one point of view. Plus, there was no such thing in those days as 'conservative talk radio,' which is funded by market-driven forces based upon ratings.

With the advent of various and sundry different forms of news reporting, such as television, direct mail, and the Internet, no longer did radio have a monopoly on electronic media. Suddenly people could get their political news and commentary in a variety of media.

This meant the end of the Fairness Doctrine, since the circumstances which necessitated it no longer existed.

Liberal politicians within the Democratic Party have long envied the remarkable success of conservative talk radio. And, they most certainly have bemoaned its influence, in spite of the fact that ever since the beginning of television news, political news has been reported with a definite liberal bias.

As legendary ABC News icon Howard K. Smith stated in the 1970s, 'Let's face it. Most of us in this business are liberal Democrats. This is bound to reflect on the manner in which we report the news.'

Yet, in spite of this consistent leftward leaning medium of television, the Democrats simply could not resist turning green with envy when they looked at Rush Limbaugh's ratings. They even attempted several failed forays into talk radio themselves, featuring liberals such as Al Franken and others, all of whom met a quick demise due to low ratings.

When no one is listening to your show, it's hard to get advertisers to spend money getting you to promote their products.

The failure of 'liberal talk radio' in the open marketplace of ideas led many Democrats to conclude that if they cannot compete with the conservatives on the radio, then they should force radio stations through legislation to put liberals on the air.

That legislation came in the form of the revival of the Fairness Doctrine.

The House of Representatives, however, under the leadership of several conservative Republicans, successfully passed an amendment to an appropriations bill today that blocks using federal dollars to fund any revival of the Fairness Doctrine.

Not surprisingly, many conservative Democrats joined them in voting for the amendment.

Over in the Senate, don't expect the Fairness Doctrine to have any more success than it did in the House, despite Trent Lott's retort about talk radio 'ruining this country.' A very humbled and contrite Trent Lott appeared on Chris Wallace's Sunday morning program on Fox News to state that, 'Talk radio has helped me in many ways through the years. I believe that they should have the right to say whatever they please.'

Does this mean, then, that Democrats and liberals will be barred from lending their voices to the issues of the day, simply because they cannot shut down conservative talk radio? In spite of the fact that this is obviously what they want the voters to think, don't believe it for a second.

The Democrats still have the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, the Miami Herald, Time Magazine, Newsweek Magazine, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, NBC News, more than a dozen filmmakers in Hollywood, and countless other forms of news to roll out the liberal party line in the media.

And this is precisely why their whines concerning the 'unfairness' of conservative talk radio are simply not credible. In fact, the entire charade makes them look like a bunch of spoiled cry-babies.