The Fairness Doctrine?

Oh, boo-hoo. Poor Democrats can't win on principle so they are trying to cheat. Again. (or should I say "still"?)

This so-called "Fairness Doctrine" was ruled unconstitutional back in like 1985. It calls for equal airtime for opposing viewpoints - but it was found to stifle such debate and was overturned.

Check out this snort-worthy, sniveling article by Howard Fineman. See if you can read it without rolling your eyes.

Are you back? Are you smirking? Good.

Here are some outtakes:
As the ten Republican presidential candidates debate this week on their favorite cable network – Fox News... *snort* It's HARDLY our "favorite" lately. A bit out of touch, are we, Howie?

Talk radio has long been a crucial power base for conservatives and Republicans; local TV stations are not. Wait, I thought us big, bad Republicans owned ALL media. Isn't TV biased to the right? I'm confused.

One [goal of democrats] is to prod local broadcast television and radio stations to renew their atrophied commitment to producing and airing their own public affairs programming – shows that Democrats think would at least give them a chance to be heard... oh, boo HOO!! Like the Dems aren't "heard" in Hollywood, on all major news networks (yes, including our "favorite" Fox News), and in all major newspapers? Please.

The Democrats are moving carefully in public, but in private they fret at their lack of clout – and at what they see as a misuse of the public airwaves. Limbaugh’s rebuttal is simple: that Democrats and liberals just can’t make the sale in the marketplace. A misuse of public airwaves. Right. It's called meeting a demand, idiots. But then again, supply and demand is a capitalist ideal, not a socialist one, so perhaps they're unfamiliar. Al Franken tried with Air America and nobody listened. If the Dems just introduced someone who people wanted to listen to maybe they'd have a Rush of their own. They dominate on the TV news media and newspapers because we don't have a choice. On the radio, we have choices - thanks to Rush and Hannity and Ingram and Medved and the like. Even Fox News, which sometimes is a bit too much like its mainstream counterparts is highest in ratings - clobbering the other cable news networks in marketshare. Shouldn't that say anything?

Nugget of wisdom from Al Franken: “You shouldn’t be able to lie on the air,” he told me. “You can’t utter obscenities in a broadcast, so why should you be able to lie? You should be fined for lying.” Yes. Yes, you should. I agree completely.

If they take away Rush or Hannity or Coulter or Ingram I invision a backlash so fierce that even they won't be able to deal with it. See, they don't realize that they aren't the majority. Hollwood wants us to think we are the minority and they make fun of us, but the truth is, we are the majority. The dems win on some issues because they whine louder. They just can't whine loud enough to get this to fly.