If You Can't Beat 'Em, Introduce the Fairness Doctrine

With legislation on the return of the Fairness Doctrine offered in the House by a New York Congresswoman as a means to defang talk radio, I went to Google News to see what’s been written on this. The second entry was an editorial by my blogger-in-law Doug Payton of Considerettes on Blogger News Network.

Doug writes:

“What we have then, in effect, is a backdoor attempt to get more of a market for Air America by forcing stations to maintain some sort of balance in "broadcast hours". Stations will be forced to run Al Franken or someone like him to offset any conservatives on the air. While the introduction of HR501 and the 1st anniversary of Air America and the report of its lousy ratings are probably not connected, it does sound like an interesting time for this doctrine to be rehashed. Perhaps since Soros has a horse in the talk radio race now, some folks in Washington may be hoping to be the recipients of some cash to really push this hard. And Bush's veto record is, well, non-existent. For politicos viewing the media landscape with liberal-blocking polarized lenses, this may be the perfect time for a move like this.

If liberals can't compete in the arena of ideas, they pass laws against the competition. This is desperation.”

I predicted this in a December 2005 post, for whatever that’s worth. I also predicted that it will fail, and I’m still sure it will.

--James Jewell