The Fairness Doctrine could have been argued as a necessity in earlier years due primarily to the lack of media outlets. Back in the 60s and 70s we only had ABC, CBS, and NBC. Nowadays, with the advent of talk radio, internet, cable news, and satellite stations, there is more than a diverse amount of material to listen to that presents points and counterpoints on all topics.
In 1988, Rush Limbaugh pioneered conservative talk radio because popular media at the time was deemed to be too liberal....and conserva-talk took off and has never looked back since.
In addition, who or what agency exactly gets to determine what is considered a valid counterpoint or is even an issue of public importance? Are you telling me there's going to be some bureaucrat somewhere trying to determine what is liberal and what is conservative? Are you telling me that while listening to a Church service via my AM radio that equal time has to be accorded to a Muslim, or even a Buddhist? Are there only two views to important issues?
It's a cycle. Limbaugh and his pals are entertainers, using talk radio as an avenue to directly counter the major news networks and whatever they were saying. Along came Air America and Nova who in turn attempted to counter just about everything conserva-talk put out, and that ended up being far left even compared to the news networks.
Remember: these guys are ENTERTAINERS....not scientists, politicians, lawmakers, or policy makers. Most of them have little to no military service, despite all being ass kissers of anything military. Limbaugh, Hannity, Levine, Beck, Weiner(Savage), Cunningham, O'Reilly, Malloy, Miller, Schultz, and Hartmann while clever and relatively good on the stick, are not necessarily qualified to dictate policy. Any schmoe can observe things that don't make much sense. I've listened to them all, and my favorites are Savage and Malloy. Both are very intelligent, entertaining, and light sensitive asses on fire. But...Entertainment.
Will movies have a Fairness Doctrine implemented? If Al Gore's movie is to be shown, should not the BBC documentary be shown as well that debunks much of man-made global warming? The majority of movies and television shows have within them messages, subtle or not, that show a particular viewpoint that more often than not neglects any other viewpoint.
The bottom line is that Fairness Doctrine, or some sort of forced diversification of programming, sets a very negative precedent that some viewpoints and opinions are going to be suppressed.....and also sets up possible First Amendment conflicts. I think the Dems are just burned about their Amnesty plan going down in flames from an enraged populace who were informed by talk radio.
