James L. Lambert
There is a real possibility that if Democrats obtain firm control of all three branches of government after this November’s election, the ‘fairness doctrine’ will be enacted, and talk radio will be inexorably altered.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, US Senate majority leader and Harry Reid (D) Nevada have strongly indicated that they would support legislation to bring back the ‘fairness doctrine’.
The ‘fairness doctrine’ is the government’s attempt to mandate media outlets to provide two ‘opposing’ sides in political format, no matter what the argument. What about the US Constitution, the document at the heart of our federal government? The First Amendment specifies that “Congress shall make no law…prohibiting the free exercise of…speech, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press or the right of the people…to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
Obviously Speaker Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and Senator Reid, (D-Nevada) would not commit their fellow Democrats to this legislation if talk radio were not dominated by conservative hosts.
For the last 15 years, talk radio has been dominated by conservative thought. Liberals have attempted to invade this medium, but their format and discussion has simply not been popular with the public. The top tier national radio shows in America have been one of the few places conservative political talk can be articulated.
Regardless of the success of modern day conservative talk radio, this type of political discourse is noticeably absent from any of the three, (ABC, CBS or NBC) major networks. Conservative thought is rarely articulated in the vast majority of our major news periodicals and magazines (i.e. Time, Newsweek, USA Today). Conservative thought is conspicuously absent from the editorial boards of most major newspapers in metropolitan areas across the country. Yet Congress, if dominated by Democrats after the November 4th election, will be hell bent on enacting the ‘fairness doctrine’ which will ultimately stifle free speech.
In comments provided exclusively toe OneNewsNow, nationally syndicated radio talk show host Michael Medved explains, “the fairness doctrine would reduce and largely eliminate political discussion on the radio-not expand it. Any conservative station that (is) forced to provide liberal talkers for ‘balance’ would go out of business, just like any liberal station forced to include conservative talkers on an equal time basis would go out of business. The idea is similar to requiring every classical station to balance Mozart with Hip Hop and Country.”
Medved continues, “when the fairness doctrine was in force before, station owners and managers just avoided political talk shows altogether…it is interesting that advocates for this horrible idea always talk about ‘balancing’ conservative talk radio and Fox News, but never discuss balancing Air America and MSNBC.”
Medved concludes with, “if the unholy trinity of (Democrats) Obama, Pelosi and Harry Reid take joint power in January, free political discourse in mass media faces an uncertain future.” Medved isn’t the only one concerned about this… Just ask radio talkers Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Back, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Mike Gallagher, Mark Levin, Dennis Pragger, Roger Hedgecock and Hugh Hewitt.
One of the major tenants of the US Constitution is the First Amendment. Millions of American soldiers throughout our history have fought to preserve this most precious right: political free speech. Please keep this in mind as you cast your vote on November 4th.
James L. Lambert, a frequent contributor to ChristianMirror.net and author of Porn in America, is a licensed nationwide real-estate mortgage loan sales agent and can be contacted through his website.
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