Free Speech: Republicans are now officially the loyal opposition. But under President Obama and a revived Fairness Doctrine, they may soon need permission to voice that opposition.
"The very same people who don't want the Fairness Doctrine want the FCC to limit pornography on the air, (and) I am for that," he said. "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."
Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, agrees. "I believe very strongly that the airwaves are public and people use these airwaves for profit," she said last year. "But there is a responsibility to see that both sides, and not just one side, of the big public questions of the debate are aired and are aired with some modicum of fairness."
The Constitution guarantees the right to free speech but not to a government-mandated forum. As for the profit motive and fairness, there's no guarantee anyone will want to listen to what you say.
Just look at MSNBC and Air America. The marketplace of ideas is already open to all. Some ideas win, and some are turned off. Allowing people to speak doesn't mean forcing people to listen.
Speaking on Albuquerque station KKOB recently, Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., told host Jim Villamicci: "I would want this station and all stations to have to present a balanced perspective and different points of view, instead of always hammering away at one side of the political (spectrum)."
Forcing stations "to present a balanced perspective" is not what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they wrote the First Amendment. Neither did they envision allowing the government to regulate the speech of its critics. That's like allowing the emperor to regulate those who say he's wearing no clothes.
Talk radio icon Rush Limbaugh, the main target of the Fairness Doctrine, said in response:
"Sen. Bingaman, do you know how many talk radio stations there are in America today? Try over 2,000 since the Fairness Doctrine was lifted, and on those 2,000 radio stations are countless points of view, from the extreme communist left to the wacko whatever it is on the far right. They're all over the place."
During the campaign, Obama expressed only muted opposition to a formal revival of the Fairness Doctrine. But it's not likely that he'd veto a legislated return to it. Certainly his actions in the campaign show just what team Obama's definition of "fairness" is and what critics have to look forward to.
When the National Rifle Association ran ads attacking Obama's position on gun rights, his campaign sent "cease and desist" letters to radio stations in Pennsylvania and Ohio. In the letter, Obama campaign general counsel Bob Bauer reminded station managers that "you have a duty 'to protect the public from false, misleading or deceptive advertising.' " The inner quote is a clear reference to government regulations on the issuance of station licenses.
When the American Issues Project, a private group, ran ads documenting Obama's long and close association with Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers, Bauer also warned station managers that their broadcast licenses might be at risk.
"Your station is committed to operating in the public interest, an objective that cannot be satisfied by accepting for compensation material of such malicious falsity," Bauer wrote. Bauer also wrote twice to the Justice Department, demanding that it "take prompt action to investigate and to prosecute" the group.
Team Obama will soon be running the Justice Department with Democrats controlling both houses of Congress. It may be a case of speaking now or forever holding your peace.
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