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Thread: Fairness Doctrine

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    Default Fairness Doctrine

    So DiFi and John Kerry have discussed bringing back the fairness doctrine. I think Rich Lowry really nails what's at the heart of the "fairness doctrine" in this article.


    RADIO 'IMBALANCE' IS IN THE TALENT

    June 26, 2007 -- RUSH Limbaugh, the conservative talk-radio pioneer, has been called many nasty things before, but never a "structural imbalance." That's the fancy term a liberal think tank uses to characterize his success - and to dress up its proposal for counteracting that success through new government regulation.

    The report of the Center for American Progress on "The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio" marks the latest phase in liberaldom's grappling with conservative talk radio. First came the attempts to create a liberal Limbaugh - Mario Cuomo, Jim Hightower, et al. - that fell flat. Then an entire left-wing network, Air America, was founded, and foundered. So there's only one option left - if you can't beat them, and you won't join them, you can agitate for government to regulate them.

    The report looks at a slice of 257 talk stations and concludes that more than 90 percent of total weekday talk programming is conservative. The supposed reason for this is, essentially, that media companies are conspiring to shove conservative radio down the throats of listeners in a way they couldn't if, among other things, government required broadcasters "to regularly show that they are operating on behalf of the public interest."

    This is a pinched view of radio. There are upward of 2,000 U.S. talk stations that deal with news and issues, according to Michael Harrison of Talkers magazine, and they encompass all sorts of formats from National Public Radio to urban radio to shock jocks, none of which are dominated by right wingers. Conservative talk radio is a vibrant niche within that market, but there are many other places to go for news and opinion.

    What is hard to find are liberal replicas of Rush Limbaugh, and that is due to the deepest structural imbalance of all - talent. Limbaugh and other top conservative talkers are silver-tongued, informative and - importantly - entertaining. These are qualities that can't be conjured out of nowhere, and designated liberal-radio saviors have tended not to have the requisite talent "on loan from God" (as Limbaugh puts it).

    There have been conservative failures at talk radio for the same reason. Without the right mix of substance and entertainment, a host will fail to get ratings, and with that, be yanked from the air. "Ratings" is a word that appears only once in passing in the Center for American Progress report, because then it would have to acknowledge that conservative radio is successful exactly because it gets listeners.

    Broadcasters go where the money is. If a liberal could draw the kind of listeners - and hence the kind of advertising dollars - as Limbaugh, he too would be on more than 600 stations. This is why Spanish-language radio is such a growth commodity. Not because broadcasters have an agenda to Hispanicize America, or because there's a structural imbalance that favors Spanish-language over German- or French-language programming, but because there's an audience for it.

    The Center for American Progress wants to short-circuit the market. Having bureaucrats determine whether radio stations are serving the public interest is inherently dangerous. There are times - like now, in the debate about the immigration bill - when Democrats and Republicans in Washington will agree that conservative talk radio isn't serving the public interest because it brings to the table sentiment that the establishment prefers to ignore.

    The report avoids directly calling for a renewal of the constitutionally dubious Fairness Doctrine that mandated equal time for conservative and liberal opinions, although some Democratic lawmakers aren't so circumspect. After five years of opposing most assertions of government power to fight terrorism, these liberals are ready to wield it to fight conservative talk radio. After maintaining that the First Amendment protects nude dancing, they are ready to argue that it doesn't quite apply to people broadcasting conservative views over the airwaves.

    In our toxic contemporary politics, it's a sign of success if you drive your opponents batty. Rush Limbaugh might be a structural imbalance, but his critics appear simply imbalanced.


    http://www.nypost.com/seven/06262007...rich_lowry.htm

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    you mispelled unbalanced in reference to rush.
    Bush doubled the debt from 5 trillion to 10 trillion.
    Proving tax cuts work!

    Bush asked for and signed for the TARP money.
    The Republican senate leader backed Bush on this.

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    Quote Originally Posted by uscitizen View Post
    you mispelled unbalanced in reference to rush.
    I didn't write the article dude nor did I mention Rush or say unbalanced in my opening. Not sure what you are talking about.

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    Oh yes it was in the article, my bad.
    It is simply amazing how we existed for all those years with the fairness doctrine in place....If it had still been in place we might not have invaded Iraq.
    Bush doubled the debt from 5 trillion to 10 trillion.
    Proving tax cuts work!

    Bush asked for and signed for the TARP money.
    The Republican senate leader backed Bush on this.

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    Quote Originally Posted by uscitizen View Post
    Oh yes it was in the article, my bad.
    It is simply amazing how we existed for all those years with the fairness doctrine in place....If it had still been in place we might not have invaded Iraq.
    How so?

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    If you have to ask I will not waste time trying to explain it to ya.
    Bush doubled the debt from 5 trillion to 10 trillion.
    Proving tax cuts work!

    Bush asked for and signed for the TARP money.
    The Republican senate leader backed Bush on this.

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    Quote Originally Posted by uscitizen View Post
    If you have to ask I will not waste time trying to explain it to ya.
    I do have to ask because I have no idea how you claim the fairness doctrine would stop us going into Iraq. Are you claiming we invaded Iraq because of talk radio?

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    Quote Originally Posted by cawacko View Post
    I do have to ask because I have no idea how you claim the fairness doctrine would stop us going into Iraq. Are you claiming we invaded Iraq because of talk radio?
    Cawacko, I know this is difficult for someone of your ideology, but did you happen to note the absence of dissenting opinions in the media, during the run up to the Iraqi war? Phil Donahue being cancelled by MSNBC, for one thing, and later we come to find out, and see, the internal memo stating why? And it had nothing to do with his ratings, his show was performing.

    You really didn't notice the near complete lack of dissenting opinions then?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Darla View Post
    Cawacko, I know this is difficult for someone of your ideology, but did you happen to note the absence of dissenting opinions in the media, during the run up to the Iraqi war? Phil Donahue being cancelled by MSNBC, for one thing, and later we come to find out, and see, the internal memo stating why? And it had nothing to do with his ratings, his show was performing.

    You really didn't notice the near complete lack of dissenting opinions then?
    Oh please. You look to the least performing news sources and blame it on them? See B.S. was still out there, ABC, NBC, etc. We can watch BBC, and a myriad of other stations as well. Dissenting opinion wasn't scarce unless you ignored it. I heard constant reports of wait and see from Blix, and from many Ds in government. I even saw the first barely occupied protests.

    It was there. It was just that the opinion of the nation was pretty much for it at the time.
    Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but rather we have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
    - -- Aristotle

    Believe nothing on the faith of traditions, even though they have been held in honor for many generations and in diverse places. Do not believe a thing because many people speak of it. Do not believe on the faith of the sages of the past. Do not believe what you yourself have imagined, persuading yourself that a God inspires you. Believe nothing on the sole authority of your masters and priests. After examination, believe what you yourself have tested and found to be reasonable, and conform your conduct thereto.
    - -- The Buddha

    It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
    - -- Aristotle

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    Quote Originally Posted by Damocles View Post
    Oh please. You look to the least performing news sources and blame it on them? See B.S. was still out there, ABC, NBC, etc. We can watch BBC, and a myriad of other stations as well. Dissenting opinion wasn't scarce unless you ignored it. I heard constant reports of wait and see from Blix, and from many Ds in government. I even saw the first barely occupied protests.

    It was there. It was just that the opinion of the nation was pretty much for it at the time.
    CBS, you mean the station where Dan Rather got on tv and stated "this is my president, and he jsut needs to tell me where to line up"?

    Sure BBC was there, but how many Americans watch BBC? What anti war opinions were there? Where were they?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Darla View Post
    Cawacko, I know this is difficult for someone of your ideology, but did you happen to note the absence of dissenting opinions in the media, during the run up to the Iraqi war? Phil Donahue being cancelled by MSNBC, for one thing, and later we come to find out, and see, the internal memo stating why? And it had nothing to do with his ratings, his show was performing.

    You really didn't notice the near complete lack of dissenting opinions then?
    I read plenty of dissenting opinion in San Franicsco before the Iraq War and I attended two anti-Iraq War rallies which received plenty of local attention. I don't watch the network news or cable news so I have no idea what they said.

    I remember people reporting on the events leading up to the Iraq War but I don't remember any media cheerleading for it. I don't believe any "fairness doctrine" or more anti-war talk from the left would have changed what happened.

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    I don't think the issue is really the fairness doctrine, per se.

    A more ominous issue is media consolidation. Only a few companies own most of the radio stations.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Darla View Post
    CBS, you mean the station where Dan Rather got on tv and stated "this is my president, and he jsut needs to tell me where to line up"?

    Sure BBC was there, but how many Americans watch BBC? What anti war opinions were there? Where were they?
    The same Dan Rather than pretended he had information during an election that wasn't real? He certainly wasn't on the side of the President in everything now was he?

    However, they did report on Blix saying he needed more time, they did report on the protests, they weren't ignoring the other side. I'm supposed to just forget those reports because you say they weren't there? It ain't going to happen.

    Nor will I forget the false memos or other indicators of where Danny boy's politics lie, or such indicators of which way the lean of the station went.
    Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but rather we have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
    - -- Aristotle

    Believe nothing on the faith of traditions, even though they have been held in honor for many generations and in diverse places. Do not believe a thing because many people speak of it. Do not believe on the faith of the sages of the past. Do not believe what you yourself have imagined, persuading yourself that a God inspires you. Believe nothing on the sole authority of your masters and priests. After examination, believe what you yourself have tested and found to be reasonable, and conform your conduct thereto.
    - -- The Buddha

    It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
    - -- Aristotle

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    Darla... but at that time, the majority of Americans were for it. The stations pander to what the public wants to hear. They gave up reporting news a long time ago.... all they care about is ratings. Which is why conservative talk radio does well... they get ratings.

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    Quote Originally Posted by cawacko View Post
    I read plenty of dissenting opinion in San Franicsco before the Iraq War and I attended two anti-Iraq War rallies which received plenty of local attention. I don't watch the network news or cable news so I have no idea what they said.

    I remember people reporting on the events leading up to the Iraq War but I don't remember any media cheerleading for it. I don't believe any "fairness doctrine" or more anti-war talk from the left would have changed what happened.
    well since you did not watch any media news you would not know about the media cheerleading then. you just explained it to yourself.
    Bush doubled the debt from 5 trillion to 10 trillion.
    Proving tax cuts work!

    Bush asked for and signed for the TARP money.
    The Republican senate leader backed Bush on this.

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