Democrats and the “Fairness Doctrine”

Because they no longer have a monopoly on both the MSM and the opinion media, some Congressional Democrats are crying ‘foul’ and indicating they’d support a return to the Fairness Doctrine. Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) has played an active role in trying to bring it back. Now, according to two members of the House Democrat Caucus, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer are on board. Via the American Spectator (emphasis added):

According to two members of the House Democrat Caucus, Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer have informed them that they will “aggressively pursue” reinstatement of the so-called Fairness Doctrine over the next six months. In January, Democrat presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich announced that he was going to pursue the Fairness Doctrine through his Government Reform subcommittee. That announcement was greeted with silence. But now, Pelosi has moved things to the front burner.

[…]

The decision to press for re-establishment of the Fairness Doctrine now seems to have developed for two reasons. “First, [Democrats] failed on the radio airwaves with Air America, no one wanted to listen,” says a senior adviser to Pelosi. “Conservative radio is a huge threat and political advantage for Republicans and we have had to find a way to limit it. Second, it looks like the Republicans are going to have someone in the presidential race who has access to media in ways our folks don’t want, so we want to make sure the GOP has no advantages going into 2008.”

That last comment appeared to be a veiled reference to former Sen. Fred Thompson, who appears to be gearing up for a presidential run. Over the past year, he has built a following both over the AM airwaves through the ABC Radio network, as well as through almost daily appearances across cable TV on the TV show Law & Order, where he plays a tough-talking district attorney.

According to another Democrat leadership aide, Pelosi and her team are focused on several targets in the fight, including Rush Limbaugh and the Salem Radio Network. In fact, Kucinich’s staff has begun investigating Salem, one of the fastest growing radio networks in the country, which features such popular — and highly rated — conservative hosts as Bill Bennett and Michael Medved, and Christian hosts such as Dr. Richard Land.

“They are identifying senior employees, their political activities and their political giving,” says a Government Reform committee staffer. “Salem is a big target, but the big one is going to be Limbaugh. We know we can’t shut him up, but we want to make life a bit more difficult for him.”

Drew Hammill, Nancy Pelosi’s press secretary, responded to Hugh Hewitt’s inquiry about this by flatly denying the story was true:

It would be very easy for the Speaker to put this one to bed quickly and with a short announcement or interview stating that she will not support the return of censorship to the airwaves. She hasn’t. You can draw your own conclusions and watch for the introduction of the legislation attempting to outlaw criticisms of the Democrats.

You can contact the Speaker’s office via 202-225-3121 to express your disgust with the idea of bringing the gag rule back to the airwaves.

Here’s the Speaker’s email contact information as well. Here’s Hoyer’s contact info.

Howard Fineman writes about the renewed Democratic effort to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine:

Democrats have two media-access goals.

One is to prod local broadcast television and radio stations to renew their atrophied commitment to producing and airing their own public-affairs programming—shows that Democrats think would at least give them a chance to be heard. Some Democrats want to require stations to give free time for campaign debates, and even free campaign advertising as part of the stations’ “public-service” licensing requirement.

The Democrats’ more ambitious (and longer-range) goal is to reinstate the “Fairness Doctrine.”

[…]

A soon-to-be-released study, commissioned by groups allied with the Democrats, finds that conservative dominance of the radio airwaves is growing.

According to researchers, more than 85 percent of talk-radio programming leans to the right—at least by the researchers’ definition.

Leaders of the industry, such as Limbaugh, contend they are merely acting to counter the dominance of what he calls the “drive-by” mainstream media. But on radio, it’s hard to tell who is driving by whom—and conservatives are the mainstream.

Talk radio has become big business, and taking on major broadcasting companies is not something Democrats—or any politicians—are all that eager to do.

Among Democratic presidential candidates, only Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio regularly talks about the issue—when he is asked about it on the road. I surveyed the leading contenders on the topic, and got only silence as a response.

But some senior House Democrats are interested, I am told, and Kucinich himself is planning to hold hearings on the question of whether the broadcasters are properly fulfilling their public-service obligations under federal communications law.

On the Senate side, Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota has quietly been urging the party leadership to take up the same question.

A misuse of public airwaves?

The Democrats are moving carefully in public, but in private they fret at their lack of clout—and at what they see as a misuse of the public airwaves. Limbaugh’s rebuttal is simple: that Democrats and liberals just can’t make the sale in the marketplace.

As for the new efforts to review broadcast rules, “I don’t think it’s ever going to succeed” Limbaugh told his listeners this week. But that didn’t keep him from sounding an alarm. The Democrats are pursuing a “pure Stalinist tactic” he declared, “to silence or shut people like me up.”

There’s little chance of that.

The Democrats just want to sound some alarms themselves. Former talk show host Al Franken, now running for the U.S. Senate in his home state of Minnesota, has his own suggestion for reform.

“You shouldn’t be able to lie on the air” he told me. “You can’t utter obscenities in a broadcast, so why should you be able to lie? You should be fined for lying.”

Federal fines for lying on the air? As a way to fill the federal treasury, it makes perfect sense.

Assuming that reinstating the Fairness Doctrine is approved in the House, it’s going to face some major minority opposition in the Senate, starting with Senate Minority Leader McConnell:

“Our Founding Fathers understood free speech is fundamental to our nation and sought to protect it with the First Amendment. As a strong supporter of First Amendment freedoms for all Americans, I will continue to work to prevent government limitations on speech.

“The latest attempt by House Democrats to revive the misnamed ‘fairness doctrine’ will silence active political voices and limit the free flow of information. Government is not the speech police and I will not support these efforts to restrict free speech.

“Political debate is among the most important democratic traditions of our nation and a hallmark of free society. We must continue to preserve the right of all Americans to express their views.”

Contact your House and Senate reps today and let them know what you think of this blatant assault on free speech by the left. We need to stop this idea from gaining steam before it gains momentum.