Experts say that the “Fairness Doctrine,” which was ended under the Reagan Administration, would put a major burden on small radio stations in providing equal time to Rush Limbaugh and other conservative broadcasters, who are a potent political force. Rather than engage in the costly practice of providing that time, the experts conclude, many stations would simply not carry Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and other talk show hosts who are likely to generate demands for equal time.
This is nothing more than politically motivated censorship on the part of the Democratic leadership and although there's a Republican sponsored bill to outlaw the fairness doctrine entirely, it doesn't look like it's going to get anywhere anytime soon.
Argh. This is annoying. First of all: no compromising on the First Amendment. EVER. And I don't care who's doing it, Republicans or Democrats- this sort of thing is a big no, no, especially in the world we live in. We need a right to speech. An unencumbered right to speech and the fairness doctrine is essentially a legal tool to shutdown conservative talk radio, which is a fairly potent political mobilization tool that the Republicans have and the Democrats don't. (The failure of Air America notwithstanding) forcing stations to grant equal time is just another way of shutting them down- nor should stations be forced to grant equal time. You don't like something you see on the TV, read in the newspaper or hear on the radio- write a letter or better yet... start your own newspaper/TV station/radio station and go from there. The freedom to do that is the most American thing of all.
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