Repealing the Freeness Doctrine

Well, the communists are back in power, and as we all know if there’s one thing they can’t tolerate it’s dissenting and differing points of view, especially on the public airwaves. Not surprisingly, they support reinstating the Fairness Doctrine- that relic of the 1940’s and agent of media control and suppression for nearly 40 years- as a means to that end. This should alarm not only listeners to Rush Limbaugh (who, by the way, number in the tens of millions per week) but anyone who truly values freedom of speech and a free (note: not “fair”) press guaranteed by the First Amendment, which judging by their speech codes on college campuses is another thing liberals have never been particularly fond of. They’ve already got your votes, now the left wants your hearts and minds as well.

Based on everything they’ve has ever said on the subject, the left longs for the bad old days when the American people had no choice as to where they got their news and information and no access to differing points of view. Media expert George Clooney, for example, expressed his nostalgia for domination by the three broadcast networks and the time where Walter Cronkite was “the most trusted man in America.” Traitor and liberal heroine Jane Fonda asserted that “a truly powerful media is one that can stop a war, not start a war.” Whether they want to accept it or not, the country has changed since 1973 and the media has changed with it. Today Americans can get their information from a wealth of sources ranging from traditional newspapers to radio stations to 24 hour television networks to the internet. In each and every medium, the left has lost their monopoly to more conservative voices and perspectives, and the ratings and circulations and hits reflect this.

So in order to regain their complete control over American thought, liberals in Congress are digging up the grave of this dead Doctrine. The cause is being championed in Congress by none other than the Keebler Elf himself, Dennis “the Menace” Kucinich. His desire is based on the belief of a far-left agenda that is being ignored in the mainstream media, which he seeks to thrust in to the spotlight, whether Americans want it there or not. Their charge is a corporately-owned media which serves only their own narrow agenda of shifting wealth from the poor to the rich. Yes, in an age of global threats from militant fundamentalist Islamic terrorists, Democrats remain focused on what really matters to Americans: redistribution of wealth.

Liberals see the successes of Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly and Matt Drudge as threats to their agenda that cannot be checked by market forces. Every attempt to counteract differing points of view have been colossal failures, the most recent of which being Err America Radio, now filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. They can’t compete with conservatives on the airwaves, so their remedy is to shut them down. This is a blatant assault on our Constitution beyond even the wackiest charges by the left of the PATRIOT Act. Free speech and freedom of the press were recognized by the founders as a central tenet to democracy itself. The moment the Democrats take this away is the moment our constitutional democracy begins to unravel.