GOODBYE FREEDOM OF SPEECH (aka in the immortal words of Ice-T: freedom of speech, just watch what you say)

Funny how Democrats get the credit for being the freedom of speech party because they're supposedly more Liberal and they have to be, right?
Yet it was during conservative Republican icon Ronald Reagan who had the Fairness Doctrine repealed during his presidency, in 1984. The Doctrine had said any time a conservative view was on the nation's airwaves, then a liberal one had to be offered - and vice versa. What it amounted to was a PC clusterf*** years before PC ever really became an issue, and forcing the airwaves to be blanded out "you said this, so I'll say this" level of programming.
REpealing the Fairness Doctrine opened the airwaves to much more free speech for everyone, liberals and conservatives. But it was the conservatives who managed to succeed, with Rush Limbaugh leading the way to become the #1 radio host in America. Meanwhile, the liberal network Air America, despite the star power of Al Franken (whom i love by the way) and Janeane Garofalo (also love her!), went bankrupt, restructured and barely survives if at all.

All this comes down to the pathetic fact that if Democrats can't compete economically, they'd rather just shut everyone down. Despite owning coverage of every TV news department outside of Fox News, they need to also dominate the radio. And they can't do it by playing fair and making their own money the way the conservatives do.

Nope, they have to mandate opposing viewpoints until the whole sound spectrum gets muddied down into bland nothingness. Have they ever thought that the reason Rush succeeds is because he's telling Americans waht they want to hear, rather than the anti-American crap so often spewed from the left? Have they ever thought the reason the New York Times is in danger of being sold to stay alive might be because people don't really want to read an anti-American paper?

Could the reason Sarah Palin and JOhn McCain drew record ratings on "SNL" mean that a lot more people like the two of them than the media would ever acknowledge?

Could it be there might be a surprise tomorrow morning? Could the media wake up shocked at the fact a different pair got into office than they wanted?

Maybe not. But for now, I dream of laughing at those who want to take free speech and laughter away from our nation in the so-called name of "Fairness."

THE ARTICLE I"M REFERRING TO:

Schumer Compares Talk Radio to 'Pornography'
Tuesday, November 4, 2008 1:27 PMBy: Jim Meyers
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Democratic Campaign Committee Chairman Charles Schumer defended the so-called Fairness Doctrine regarding talk radio, telling Fox News: “I think we should all be fair and balanced, don’t you?”
The Fairness Doctrine, repealed during the Ronald Reagan administration, would require radio stations to balance conservative talk hosts with liberal ones.
In a Fox interview Tuesday morning, the Senator from New York was asked if he supported telling radio station what their content should be.
“The very same people who don’t want the Fairness Doctrine want the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] to limit pornography on the air,” Schumer said.
“I am for that … But you can’t say government hands off in one area to a commercial enterprise but you are allowed to intervene in another. That’s not consistent.”
In 2007, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a close ally of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, told The Hill newspaper: “It’s time to reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine. I have this old-fashioned attitude that when Americans hear both sides of the story, they’re in a better position to make a decision.”
Conservatives fear that forcing stations to give liberal hosts equal time on the air would cut into profits so significantly that radio executives would scale back on conservative radio programming to avoid escalating costs and interference from the FCC, according to The Hill.
They also note that conservative radio shows have been far more successful than liberal ones.
A recent Zogby poll disclosed that those who said they would vote for Barack Obama support reinstating the Fairness Doctrine by a margin of 53 percent to 37 percent, with 10 percent not sure.
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