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The Fairness Doctrine
TalkLeft — Patrick Ruffini berates his fellow Republicans for obsessing on the "threat" of the return of the Fairness Doctrine. It does seem a strange crusade, given that Democrats certainly are not clamoring for the return of the Fairness Doctrine and Republicans (rightly in my view) believe the Media was pro-Obama. In any event, I thought I would look to see who was a proponent of the Fairness doctrine and why. (My recollection of the Fairness Doctrine was some ranting citizen on for 5 minutes at 1 in the morning, but maybe it did more than that.) I found this article at the FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a sort of liberal answer to the late Reed Irvine's ...

That's Not Grandma in the White House
The Next Right — Another take on the Fairness Doctrine. Conservatives do need to do a better job watching comes out of the regulatory bodies. -Patrick Patrick makes some fair points in his 'Crying Wolf on the Fairness Doctrine' post, but I think he is more than a bit sanguine about the regulatory environment our talk radio allies might soon be facing. Let me boil Patrcik's argument down to four main points: Obama is too smart to provoke a fight on the Fairness Doctrine the internet is more politcally powerful than radio there is a finite bandwith for conservative messaging conservatives need to be talking about issues ...

Don't Sweat the Fairness Doctrine?
Weekly Standard Blog — Over at the Next Right, Patrick Ruffini writes that conservatives shouldn't waste their time crying wolf about the Fairness Doctrine, a regulation that would mandate equal time for political opinions on public airwaves and thus kill conservative talk radio. Ruffini notes that the re-imposition of the Fairness Doctrine would "constitute a direct provocation to the Right without any tangible political benefit in the Center or the Left", and, futhermore, Obama said he does not want to bring it back. Focus on legitimate threats like nationalized health care and card check, he writes. But Conn Carroll responds: Yes, Obama is ...

Congress 'pushing' for Fairness Doctrine?
Michael Calderone's Blog — During the campaign, Barack Obama came out against reinstating the Fairness Doctrine, and although some Democratic Congressional leaders have said they're in favor of it -- or some version of it -- I don't see them actively pushing it on the agenda (which isn't what you hear on talk radio). But Reuters does, evident in today's piece: "Senators pushing for return of equal-time rules." The Fairness Doctrine, which forced broadcasters to offer equal time to both sides of controversial issues, was abolished in 1987, paving the way for talk radio to take the opinionated -- and popular -- form it has today. Now, House ...