With the increased popularity of talk radio over the past two decades, and the rise of the internet blog ... Big Media's control over news content has been in a consistent decline.
Almost daily, you can read about the massive financial losses these companies are taking (and their unwillingness to adapt with the times too). But it isn't only Big Media that's taking a hit. Big Politics is taking a big hit too!
The Founding Fathers of our nation understood in great detail the dangers of a powerful, controlling government. They set forth a Constitution of LIMITED government powers, and a Bill of Rights that LIMITED the government even further. Of great importance to them, was the ability of individuals to speak out freely against their government and its politicians.
It's easy to understand why our founders stood so firmly in regards to free speech, because a government that control's speech, is a government that controls everything!
Back in 1949, Big Politics decided they knew better than our founders, so the FCC concocted the (so-called) "Fairness Doctrine" and put it into action (not even bothering with a Congressional vote). Soon, broadcasters steered clear of any potentially controversial subjects, and created content instead, designed to keep Big Politics happy.
As John Thune points out (emphasis added):
In 1985, President Reagan exposed the true effects of the Fairness Doctrine and argued that it should be repealed. The Reagan administration noted the "explosive growth in the number and types of information sources." In 1987, the FCC finally repealed the Fairness Doctrine. The FCC determined that the policy had the opposite of its intended effect. The FCC concluded that the Fairness Doctrine "restricts the journalistic freedom of broadcasters ... (and) actually inhibits the presentation of controversial issues of public importance to the detriment of the public and the degradation of the editorial prerogative of broadcast journalists."
Today, Nancy Pelosi is working to resurect this mandate against free speech. Why? The answer's obvious! The more information YOU have, the more likely you are to disagree with her political ambitions. She has grand visions of power, and opposing views are simply getting in her way!
The big problem, as Democrat Politicians see it, is that "conservative" talk radio is much more popular than "progressive" radio. In the land of the free, where people can choose whether or not to turn their radio on and listen, and if they do turn it on, they can choose for themselves whatever they desire to listen to ... very few people are choosing "progressive" radio. In other words, in the free market of news and entertainment, the left-wing is losing by a landslide!
From The Wall Street Journal:
Contrary to myth, Roger Ailes didn't do this. Ronald Reagan did.
It wasn't obvious that conservatives soon would dominate talk radio. Radio programming has always been a soulless decision based on ratings. If programmers thought they could win the drive-time slots with Don Imus reading "Das Kapital," that would be on the air and advertisers would support it. But it's not.
What worked after speech became free in the spectrum ozone was hyper-articulate conservative hosts opening their microphones to millions of hyper-angry conservative voters--not least in such liberal bastions as New York, Boston, and Los Angeles.
FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell has raised the point that the Fairness Doctrine could easily be woven into the net neutrality battle, resulting with the government regulating content on the Web. "Then, whoever is in charge of government is going to determine what is fair, under a so-called 'Fairness Doctrine,' which won't be called that - it'll be called something else," McDowell said. "So, will Web sites, will bloggers have to give equal time or equal space on their Web site to opposing views rather than letting the marketplace of ideas determine that?"
Free speech is the mortal enemy of the Politician. Pay attention! Politicians are not concerned about your First Amendment rights ... but YOU should be!
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Thank you for blogging this topic. The “Fairness Doctrine” is an absolute Orwellian perversion of the real goal: liberal domination of the media, and thereby the information that reaches the populace.
No free society would tolerate this.