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Is the Fairness Doctrine a muzzle to silence conservatives?
Results so far:
| No | 40% | 160 votes | Total: 396 votes | |
| Yes | 60% | 236 votes |
No
by Jonathan Young
Created on: December 09, 2007
The Fairness Doctrine is a bi-partisan attempt to educate people.
It's as simple as that. It's hard to believe, but conservative talk radio has become a powerful force in the United States. To date, conservative radio personalities have developed exactly three talking points: taxation, welfare, and immigration. There is one additional topic that has devolved into a bumper-sticker slogan, and therefore no longer qualifies as a talking point: support our troops.
On the first talking point, radio personalities advocate tax cuts. Is the economy doing well? Cut taxes! Is the economy faultering? Cut taxes! Is the country at war? Borrow hundreds of billions of dollars from China, and cut taxes! Is national infrastructure either on the verge of collapse, or literally collapsing? Cut taxes! Is climate change accelerating beyond even the most pessimistic forecast models? Burn coal! Build nuclear power plants! Drill for oil! And by the way, our taxes are too high!
On the second talking point, radio hosts ask for the elimination of various social programs. Are children living in poverty in the wealthiest nation in history? Eliminate welfare! Do military veterans account for 25 percent of the homeless population? Don't help them! Eliminate welfare! Is there an established connection between limited social mobility and crime? Eliminate welfare! Has college tuition become unaffordable for the vast majority of Americans? Too bad! No welfare!
On the third talking point, conservative radio voices oppose illegal immigration. On this issue, they share a few opinions in common with pro-labor liberals. Illegal immigration is a problem: agreed. We must secure the borders: agreed. Beyond these two obvious points, the discussion puts on its cowboy hat, takes on a certain wild-eyed, xenophobic pallor, and cranks up the banjo soundtrack to 11. And in spite of the fact that the solution to illegal immigration will have nothing to do with xenophobia or racism, conservative radio hosts attack any legislation on this issue that is not overtly xenophobic or racist.
One funny aspect of this discussion: Republican voters don't understand that illegal immigration is supported by powerful business interests that lobby Republican lawmakers. There are numerous businesses in this country that would face a labor shortage without illegal immigrants.
Slightly less funny is the doe-eyed idealism with which liberals approach the issue. There are illegal immigrants working in sweatshops, for less than minimum wage, right here in the United States. This is a problem. A bigger problem is the language barrier: immigrants must learn English, not because it's a superior language, but because it's the language of money and power. (This is also why Americans must learn Mandarin.)
Meanwhile, illegal immigrants continue pouring into this country by the millions. It isn't racist to admit that this is a problem, and it isn't rational to hate people because they have brown skin. But the most insane voices on both sides dominate the discussion.
See how I looked at both sides of the immigration issue? That's what the Fairness Doctrine wants conservative talk radio to do.
And that's why conservatives everywhere are putting on their cowboy hats.
Learn more about this author, Jonathan Young.
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Yes
by Terry Mitchell
Created on: February 19, 2009 Last Updated: February 25, 2009
Many congressional liberals are in favor of reinstating the so-called Fairness Doctrine and are eager to pass legislation that would do just that. Former President Bush always vowed to veto such a bill, but President Barack Obama would likely sign it into law.
It was the law of the land from 1949 until the mid-1980's, when it was dismantled by the Reagan administration. This gave birth to the boom in talk radio stations that began in the early 1990's. Since most talk radio stations and programs tend to swing to the conservative side, liberals are now yearning for the "good old days" of the Fairness Doctrine.
What this law did (and will do again if resurrected) was give the FCC a mandate to enforce equal time for all points of view on all over-the-air radio and TV stations, using the rationale that the public airwaves belong to all. That sounds good on the surface, doesn't it? However, upon closer inspection, one can see that it is nothing more than suppression of free speech a blatant assault on the First Amendment. In addition, it is an attack on capitalism and the marketplace of ideas.
To see what might result from bringing back the Fairness Doctrine, all we have to do is examine the reason why there were so few talk radio stations prior its demise. Commercial radio stations, like all other capitalistic entities, are in business to make money. Since the U.S. is basically a conservative country, conservative talk radio is generally an easier sell to listeners and sponsors than is liberal talk radio. Bottom line, radio station owners know that they can make money from conservative talk radio but cannot from liberal talk radio.
However, the Fairness Doctrine created a dilemma for these station owners, since it forced them to match every hour of broadcasting conservative viewpoints with an hour of liberal viewpoints. Most of them made a conscious decision to not carry any talk shows at all because they figured that losses from liberal shows would more than offset any profits from conservative shows. It just didn't make economic sense to most of them. Instead, most of them decided to stick with programs that were politically "neutral."
In reality, though, what we actually got exclusively, for the most part was the perspective of the mainstream media, which trends toward a liberal view of world, although under the guise of neutrality. Instead of allowing the marketplace to decide what got aired, the government inadvertently forced a liberal bias down our throats for many years. Do we really want a return to that?
Learn more about this author, Terry Mitchell.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
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