Right On The Right

The Fairness Doctrine is a failed liberal policy designed for the sole purpose of limiting Conservative viewpoints on the air. There's absolutely nothing fair about this piece of legislation. Extreme Mortman says we have big news today, because President Bush has weighed in on the fight for the first time, saying the following at a speech he gave today in Nashville:

There’s an effort afoot that would jeopardize your right to express your views on public airways. Some members of Congress want to reinstate a regulation that was repealed 20 years ago. It has the Orwellian name called the Fairness Doctrine. Supporters of this regulation say we need to mandate that any discussion of so-called controversial issues on the public airwaves includes equal time for all sides. This means that many programs wanting to stay on the air would have to meet Washington’s definition of balance. Of course, for some in Washington, the only opinions that require balancing are the ones they don’t like.

He actually mentioned the Fairness Doctrine twice in his speech. To put things in context, he was speaking to a convention of religious broadcasters, the target audience (along with other Conservatives) of this type of legislation. Still, it's good that the President is weighing in on what is an obvious assault on the First Amendment.

It's been mentioned on national television shows, radio shows, and once again in the halls of Congress. Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, have been talking about resurrecting an outdated FCC regulation that would be specifically designed to hit Conservative talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. The regulation would force stations to balance air time with liberal and conservative views.

Who listens to liberal talk radio? It's not because it's not on the air, because there was a large failed venture called Air America which is designed to broadcast to a liberal audience. According to Talkers Magazine, the top 5 talk radio audiences are all Conservative! Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, and Laura Ingraham have the largest audiences by far. Whereas Rush and Hannity combine for over 25 million listeners, a majority of the liberals are stuck around the 1.25 million mark.

Conservative domination of talk radio isn't a result of bad policy by the FCC, it's a result of capitalism. People have the option to listen to Al Franken in their markets, but instead, they pick Rush or Glenn Beck. Just looking at the Arbitron ratings from my area, we'd take a hit from the Fairness Doctrine. Our top radio station for fall of 2006 just happens to be a talk radio station that carries Limbaugh.