Posted by
J.M. Powers on Thursday, February 19, 2009 12:49:41 PM
Anyone older than about 25 can remember
when AM radio was a joke, but not a funny one. It was torturous. There was
nothing on worth listening to, except perhaps some “oldies”. It was hardly even
considered legitimate broadcasting. But about 22 years ago, things began to
change.
In 1988, a ground-breaking talk show
flooded the AM airwaves. Remember “Rush Rooms”? Nearly every restaurant that
served lunch had one. For those too young to remember, those were dining rooms
set aside for those who we now call “Ditto Heads”. They played Rush Limbaugh in
banquet rooms, and folks could ask to be seated there (if there was room) and
listen to Rush Limbaugh on the radio while they ate lunch.
A year earlier and Rush probably have
never made it. Why? Because the FCC had a rule, commonly known as “The Fairness
Doctrine”. It had been in place since 1949, but it was abandoned in 1987. It
was anything but fair.
Now let me just give you a brief
explanation of the Fairness Doctrine. In essence, it mandated that radio talk
shows had to present both sides of an issue. For example, if a radio station
broadcasted a pastor who laid out the Biblical view of homosexuality, then the
radio station also had to air a pro-homosexual viewpoint. If they air a
pro-life program, then they have to air a pro-choice program. If you air a
Christian sermon, you must air an atheist sermon. If there is not opposing
program available, the other cannot be aired. If you air a conservative
commentator, you must air a liberal as well. Empirical evidence shows that no
one wants to listen to the liberals. If folks don’t listen, sponsors don’t
advertise, if sponsors don’t advertise, stations go out of business.
A rule like this would effectively shut
down Christian radio immediately and Conservative radio would quickly dwindle
down to nothing.
Today, AM radio is booming business.
In 1990, 3 years after the rule was abandoned, there were 400 am radio stations
that were devoted to the talk format (That number was surely smaller 3 years
earlier.) But thanks primarily to Rush Limbaugh, in 2006 that number had grown
to 1400.
The vast majority of those talk shows
are conservative. I mention this only because as we all know, the mainstream
media is vastly liberal. So if one wants both sides, the only options are radio
and internet.
Liberals across the country are pushing
to have the so-called “Fairness Doctrine” reinstated. And even those who claim
to be against it, such as President Obama, are all for the results of such a
rule, they just don’t want to call it The Fairness Doctrine.
Former President Bill Clinton said
recently in an interview, when asked about bringing back the Fairness Doctrine,
“Well you either aught to have the
Fairness Doctrine, or we aught to have more balance on the other side. Because,
essentially, there’s always been a lot of big money to support the right wing
talk shows and let’s face it, you know Rush Limbaugh is fairly entertaining even
when he’s saying things that I think are ridiculous.”
That Big Money he’s talking
about…that’s called the audience. With our economy the way it is, why would
they want to shut down a profitable business? Very simply, because they have
tried and failed to get a piece of that pie. They have no one to offer, or at
least not anyone that people want to listen to. So if they can’t join ‘em,
they’ll beat ‘em, with unconstitutional laws that selectively strip away First
Amendment Rights.
It’s interesting that this Fairness
Doctrine would not effect the television airways, just radio. So this rule
would effect only the conservative viewpoint.
So let me translate: “We need the
Fairness Doctrine, or something like it to eliminate any public dissention of
the leftist administration. We control television and Hollywood, so now all we
need to do is gain control of radio and internet.” Radio is easier than
internet, so they’re going after it first.
Now for the real scary part. To bring
back a rule like this would not take an act of Congress, nor would it take an
Executive Order. This can be accomplished by 3 of the 5 FCC board members.
That’s it, that’s all it takes. If 3 out of 5 agree, it’s done. UNLESS….
Legislation is passed to prevent it. Now the good news:
H.R. 226 & S. 34: To prevent
the Federal Communications Commission from repromulgating the fairness
doctrine.
Regardless of your political
affiliation, regardless of you political slant, every American should be opposed
to blatant violations of our First Amendment Rights. So I urge all of you to
contact your elected officials and tell them to support H.R. 226 & S. 34.
There are many ways to easily contact
your elected officials, even if you don’t know who they are. Here are a few
ways, and these will help you find your officials. Please do something…doing
nothing is unthinkable.
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
http://www.house.gov/
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
In addition, I also urge you to support
the ACLJ and sign their petition to preserve free speech.