The Games Begin

Before the Democrats have even won the Nov 2008 election they (Pelosi and Reid) are already talking about reviving the "Fairness Doctrine." On NBC and CNN, the pair were discussing how the airwaves have become increasingly "virulent" code words for "they are saying things against us..."

If you go back to my post, "The USSA Begins Today," and see item #7, you will see that one of the issues that will be taken up by the BHO administration and SMDC (super-majority Democratic Congress) is the reviving of the "Fairness Doctrine." They will ensure that it is put into place to balance the "hate rhetoric" coming from talk radio, Fox, and certain conservative newspapers. It will demand that a government bureaucrat will listen, read, and watch these entities and then tell them how much "balancing content" they have to put on based on his/her determination of the unbalanced conservative content.

This will be too much for most media entities and they will simply choose to change their format to music since they can't make money with liberal content (witness the demise of Air America) and since they will be besieged by liberal community organizations saying that they are not "fair and balanced" (interesting use of FNC's byline) and that their license should not be renewed.

Now what will be the LOUC (law of unintended consequences) of this action? Since the Internet and cable are outside the "Fairness Doctrine" control as it stands since they are effectively private (that may change soon enough), the public airwaves will be abandoned to the liberals and conservatives and anti-governmental content providers will move to these less impacted media modes. The revenues of the liberal media outlets will drop and they will go the way of Air America.

Remember, the sword cuts both ways. However, the big 3 will probably become the big 2 as NBC fails first and is merged into CBS (the strongest). Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The talk radio will move to Talk Internet due to large amount of bandwidth being made available.

The alternative for the liberals will be to alter the Fairness Doctrine to include all public discourse: the first step towards "socialization of free speech" for the good of society. It is always done in the public good, but lost of freedoms come so wrapped in pretty security packages.

Remember Ben Franklin's warning:

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

So true as the citizens of this country contemplate a radical turn to the left. I am not against this since it is democracy in action, but I just want those that vote for it to be willing to take the responsibility for their actions.