Fairness

Some members of Congress are talking once again about the "Fairness Doctrine." This is an idea that reared it's ugly head back in the '80s and was discarded, primarily, by President Reagan. The idea deals mostly with talk radio, which is mostly a conservative (or conservative leaning) dominated industry. This trend is market driven however, as the ultra liberal "Air America" was a dismal failure. The "Fairness Doctrine" takes aim at forcing talk radio to be fair to differing points of view, or allowing equal time to someone who disagrees with the position of the shows host. But how do we define fairness? Not all radio talk shows are equally conservative. And how do you balance it out? Does Howard Dean get to talk for one minute for every minute that Rush Limbaugh gets? And what then do you do with people like Rudy Giuliani? He is considered to be conservative on most Foreign policy, and security issues, but liberal on most social issues, so would he balance himself? For every minute he spends on Iraq, he has to talk for a minute on gay rights? And what about Hillary Clinton? No doubt she is a liberal through and through, yet she doesn't tow the line with the majority of liberals when it comes to Iraq, so what do you do with her? And when it comes to differing subjects, this brings up an interesting point. What brought the issue of the "Fairness Doctrine" to the fore at this point is the immigration amnesty bill that loonies on both sides are trying to ram down our throats. Senator Trent Lott, who is mostly considered to be a conservative has been blasting conservative talk radio for taking issue with this bill. So we have people on both sides trying to drive this (bad) bill, and people on both sides screaming objections, so how would the fairness doctrine even apply? The overall point to all of this is that Politicians think that we are too stupid to know what is going on, and so they only want us to be told things from their point of view. Of course, we are not so stupid, and pretty much do know what is going on, as long as it is not done in secret, which too much is. And since the mainstream media, major network news, a majority of Cable News, and a majority of the print press are all overwhelmingly liberal, conservatives need an outlet other than the internet, which also has plenty of liberal bias to spare. So lets cut the crap and stop giving lip service to fake fairness, and just be honest with the American people for a change... how's that for a wild idea.