by Mark Luedtke

Created on: August 09, 2008

Liberals are up in arms because at a recent breakfast meeting hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, George Bush signaled his and Republicans' support for the so-called Fairness Doctrine which would require TV network news to give equal time to conservative news broadcasts to balance their regular liberal news broadcasts. President Bush said for the good of the American, people, the FCC would judge the fairness and equal time according to Republican direction, not consumers. Liberals say this isn't fairness at all, but censorship and a violation of the First Amendment, freedom and free markets. Liberals say this is just another example of Bush's tyrannical rule.

I'm sure everybody recognizes this attempt to control the media is unconstitutional. Except President Bush didn't say it, Nancy Pelosi did. Republicans don't support the Fairness Doctrine, Democrats do. TV news isn't the target, conservative talk radio is. And conservatives are up in arms, not liberals.

Watch the expression on the face of liberals turn from outrage to glee when they finish that last paragraph. To liberals, since the target is talk radio, it's suddenly OK. After all, it's for the good of the American people. To conservatives' credit, they've never tried to use the power of government to force newspapers and TV broadcasters to present fair news coverage.

But the Fairness Doctrine isn't about fairness. Nobody is stopping liberals competing fairly in talk radio. They just can't compete. Liberal talk radio project Air America couldn't compete despite siphoning funds intended for inner city youth. (Air America refunded the money before it shut down.) To make a radio station present 3 hours of liberal talk radio to counter Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity isn't economically viable. Nobody wants to listen to Al Gore or Al Frankin. The Fairness Doctrine would force radio stations to drop conservative talk radio to stay profitable. The Fairness Doctrine is about censorship.

With a Democrat tsunami likely in November, everybody should be scared of this looming attack on free speech. Rep. Mike Spence introduced legislation, called the Broadcaster Freedom Act (HR 2905) to permanently end the Fairness Doctrine this session of Congress, but despite an online petition with 113,628 signatures and counting, Nancy Pelosi made it clear she won't allow a vote this session. She and her Democrat caucus want to silence talk radio, not support the Constitution. Leading Democrats including Sen. Durbin, Sen. Feinstein,

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