Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Fight The Right With Ideas, Not Fairness Doctrine Legislation

I'm glad to see President Obama reiterate his opposition to reinstating the so-called Fairness Doctrine, which mandated equal time for opposing views on federally-owned airwaves.

Proponents are angry at ubiquitous conservative talk radio, and I agree that it is a corrosive phenomenon, but fighting it with legislation is a mistake, and has led to a lot of audience-churning chatter by rightie talkers.

The way to counter right-wing talk radio is with solid, fact-based commentary, whether on the radio, or elsewhere - - including the wild west Internet that offers so many choices and outlets, for free.

Look at talk radio's inability this election cycle to protect Republicans and conservatives. They lost.

So fight it out in the marketplace of ideas, and let's take away one of the right's current causes.

Drop the idea of reconstituting the Fairness Doctrine.
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5 comments:

  1. Other SideFebruary 18, 2009 at 5:03 PM

    Good point, James.

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  2. AnonymousFebruary 18, 2009 at 8:17 PM

    I agree James, but at the same time you're buying into the faux right-wing outrage: which is to say that NOBODY is advocating for the fairness doctrine. This noise from the righties over the fairness doctrine that's been rampaging for months now is all the result of comments from one single Dem congresswomen that she would consider looking into reinstating it. It's just yet another imaginary outrage drummed up by the right, which is all they seem to be able to do these days rather than being productive participants in the reality-based community.

    Show me where it pops up on the published legislative agendas in the House (http://speaker.house.gov/issues/) or Senate (http://democrats.senate.gov/agenda/), and I'll admit to being wrong.

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  3. AnonymousFebruary 18, 2009 at 8:22 PM

    I do revise my previous comments: one Dem congresswoman and a couple of "anonymous" dem aides. Coming from Fox News, who in recent weeks has taken to publishing verbatim GOP press releases as their own reporting, take those "anonymous sources" for what they're worth!

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  4. AnonymousFebruary 19, 2009 at 8:33 AM

    Agreed the Dems need to forget about the fairness doctrine. It's bad policy.

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  5. AnonymousMarch 1, 2009 at 2:27 AM

    http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/senate-tunes-out-fairness-doctrine-2009-02-26.html

    Again: totally manufactured outrage from the right that has no basis in reality. But then, nothing new with that.

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