by J.R. Anthony

Created on: June 26, 2007   Last Updated: April 04, 2012

If the government is going to mandate "balance" there's one major question to ask - who decides what "balanced" means?

For instance, on radio, the most popular hosts are unabashedly conservative, led by broadcaster-in-chief Rush Limbaugh. These people SAY that they're conservative, and they're proud of it.

But what about television? Most Americans know (check the polls, too) that ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and MSNBC are liberal. But which one of them SAYS that they're liberal? They don't say it. Heck, even Fox leans slightly to the left, but because it's not as far left as the others, it's attacked as being a conservative mouthpiece.

So what are lawmakers to do? They obviously could identify who's calling themselves "conservative" and try to put self-described "liberals" on the air to counter their view points (an inane idea insofar as it assumes there's only liberal and conservative and completely discounts anything in between or on either side).

But, what if tomorrow, Rush Limbaugh started saying that "I am bipartisan. Completely objective." How do you regulate that?

That's exactly what the television stations do. They are clearly liberal, yet they claim objectivity. Don't believe me? Look at the numbers released by MSNBC the other day - some ninety percent of journalists who give to political candidates give to democrats rather than republicans. That's the same number that matches Washington Bureau voting numbers in election after election. In the 2000 elections, a higher percentage of political reporters voted for Al Gore than did members of the Democratic party. That means reporters are to the left even of the average Democrat.

So let's recap.

TV = you get a liberal point of view from people who claim to be impartial.

Radio = you get a conservative point of view from people who admit they're conservative.

Seems to me, all that government control would do in this case would be to punish conservatives for being honest, while rewarding liberals for covering their agenda.

I'm encouraged that, as of this writing, there are eight entries on the "No" side, and not a single one on the "Yes" side.

We know communism when we see it. Let freedom ring.

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