Is There Anything Fair about the "Fairness" Doctrine?

Like so many other government ideas, the "fairness" doctrine is a deliberate misnomer.  The innocuous sounding words totally obfuscate and distract the reader from their true meaning.  If the "fairness" doctrine lived up to its' name, it wouldn't be such a bad thing because fundamentally we're all for fairness and equality, or so the politically correct among us would have us believe.

The problem is that if the "fairness" doctrine were what it purported to be and were "fairly" and bi-laterally applied, it really would improve the balance of ideologies because it would actually give conservatives more of a voice in the traditional network and cable television media, which are now predominantly sources for liberal propaganda as opposed to honest and accurate journalism.,

If there were anything "fair" about the fairness doctrine, you would see liberal idealogues like Chris Matthew of MSNBC paired with a conservative bloviator like Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity.  In fact, every mainstream news or political program on every other station than Fox would actually be "fair and balanced" for a change. That is how we can know that there is nothing "fair" about the fairness doctrine.  If there were, conservatives would be for it and liberals would be howling against it.

As things now stand, the liberals are championing the "fairness' doctine because they see it as a vehicle with with the either censor, or better still, eliminate the one platform that conservatives have to voice their opposition to the liberal steamroling of everything conservatives believe in and support.  The talk radio format is predominantly conservative because if you really listen to the liberal talk radio programs, they are nothing more than angry diatribes by failed and frustrated actors and comedians and their content is nothing more than "Bush is bad."  Who in their right mind is going to listen to hours of that?

Consequently, liberal talk radio shows have been commercially unsuccessful.  This is the free market place judging the quality of the product, NOT the political censorship claimed by the left.  But like most liberals, the leftist idealogues cannot accept that it is their PRODUCT that is defective so they run to the government and/or the courts to give them a "bailout."  Rather than improve their product and put on programming th

So onceat's actually entertaining, they prefer instead to have the government force their square pegs into our round holes with the force of a mallet.

If this is allowed to occur, radio stations that carry programs like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, etc. will be forced to give similar time allotments to people like Al Franken (if he's not too busy screwing up in the senate to keep screwing up on the radio), Janeane Garafalo, Randy Rhodes, etc.  Whle some liberal entertainers are able to put on an entertaining and comercially successful program, the number of liberal radio failures far outweigh the successes.  The only successful liberal radio hosts I can think of are Don Imus and Stephanie Miller, both of whom I actually enjoy listening to.

What the liberals don't seem to get is that no one likes to listen to angry diatribes when they're driving in their cars or sitting in their homes.  If liberal radio programs would focus on entertaining as well as bloviating negativity, they might find a receptive audience somewhere.  Rush Limbaugh gets accused of being an angry man all the time, but if you actually listen to what he says, his message is very positive, not unlike the messages of Barack Obama, at least BEFORE he was elected.  But once again the libs show their true colors and their distrust is not disdain for the free market and the judgment of the American Public.  They would rather have the government force their excruciatingly dull and unpleasant diatribes down our throats than to follow the lead of shows like Saturday Night Live and add some decent content to entertain their audiences inbetween the torture sessions that liberal talk can be equated to.

If this "fairness" doctrine passes, the radio stations will be forced to air these ratings duds and will be hard-pressed to find advertisers willing to pay to run their ads in the time slots when no one is listening.  This is because despite their best efforts to force their programming on us, we the listening public still have the right to vote with our radio dials and the off switches.  They can lead us to their brackish water, but they can't make us drink it and the advertisers know this.  This is why Air America failed as a commercial enterprise and all other such programs devoid of any entertainment content will do likewise.  What this means is that radio stations will be giving advertisement time on liberal talk radio shows free with a gallon of gas.  

What's next for the socialist left?  If they succeed in putting radio stations out of business, will they then come after the internet?  Considering so much of their message and support is due to the internet, they would be shooting themselves in the foot if they try to do so.  Of course, considering liberals are famous for forming "circular firing squads" when they attempt to do anything, we can only hope.

If the "fairness" doctrine were really fair and the net result of it would be more shows like "Hannity & Colmes," I would be the first in line to sign a petition in favor of it.  As much as I disagree politically with Alan Colmes, the ping-pong effect between him and Sean Hannity and the rigorous questioning and rehabiliting of guests that were either liberal or conservative by a moderator of the opposite political ideology was a good thing.  If we can't have civil but spirited political debate in this country, we really are in the last days of the great experiment known as the United States of America.  I pray this is not the case. Won't you pray with me?