First amendment, Kucinich style.

Dennis Kucinich wants to resurrect the Fairness Doctrine. In a speech at the National Conference for Media Reform, Kucinich stated that the new congress was "in a position" to reintroduce "progressive ideas back into the marketplace". The Fairness Doctrine was enacted in 1949 by the Federal Communications Commission at a time when media outlets were relatively small in number. It was abolished in 1987 under the Reagan administration, yet another reason to be thankful for that man, when many government restrictions on media outlets were removed (deregulation). An attempt was made in 1991 to bring it back, but it failed when George Bush said if the bill came to him, he'd veto it. I was working in Christian radio at the time and the owners of the station were very concerned. The station played southern gospel music most of the time, but on Sunday morning we aired recorded sermons from local pastors. Would the Fairness Doctrine require our station to air the opinions of Atheists? Satanists? Pagans? Who would we be required to give equal air time to?

This new effort to bring back the fairness doctrine is a direct response to the popularity of conservative talk radio. Air America, the liberal alternative, is such stunningly bad radio they can't sell it. The only way the liberal point of view can stay on the air is if they hijack, at least partially, the more popular conservative shows. Part of the reason is their philosophy can't stand scrutiny. Which is why they don't take many calls with other points of view. I hadn't noticed this until it was pointed out to me by a local talk show host Mike McConnell on one of his programs. Without that aspect, the caller, that kind of show becomes very tedious, very quickly. I've listened to Randi Rhodes and Al Franken a few times and it was just awful, not just the philosophy, it was bad radio. On top of that Rhodes is delusional. She believes that the only reason she doesn't have the listenership that Rush Limbaugh has is that Rush threatened to take all of his shows off Clear Channel Radio if Rhodes was put on as competition anywhere. She actually said that in an interview on C-Span!

I believe this new effort to bring back the Fairness Doctrine will also fail because the original intent no longer applies. There are so many outlets now it would be nearly impossible to enforce the thing. And more than likely enforcement would be very selective and conservative talk radio would be the target. The pinkos love free speech, but only if you agree with them.

P.S. Spell check wanted me to replace "Kucinich" with "juiciness". I love spell check.