Out of Control

Once the FCC relieved broadcasters of the responsibility to provide equal time to all points of view, AM radio, which was in its death throes, revived through syndication of daily commentators, who, while acerbic, overbearing and often unctuous, never forgot that they were entertainers first, pundits second. Most, led by Rush Limbaugh, skewed right. Although liberals tend to see this as a reflection of the political leanings of the station owners, there is more evidence to suggest that listeners were responsive to the conservative message—hence it made for a bigger audience, which in turn yielded more advertiser dollars. After all, Air America, the highly-touted liberal answer to conservative talk radio, flopped, even after being picked up by radio giant Clear Channel.

Still, it was not until the last few weeks that the Democrat-controlled Congress seriously made a run at reintroducing the Fairness Doctrine. To be sure, Sen. Diane Feinstein and Rep. Dennis Kucinich have been vocal proponents for a long time, but the issue suddenly took center stage after Sen. John Kerry’s support, featured on YouTube, made the rounds.

That in itself is somewhat ironic. The point that Fairness Doctrine supporters make, that liberal voices are being squeezed out, is tough to swallow when far more media outlets exist today than did in 1983. If you want to isolate AM radio as a single outlet, you could say that conservative voices outnumber liberal. But expand that media include TV, newspapers, the Web and your hard pressed to find a lack of viewpoints.

What I’m saying here has been said better elsewhere. And I’ll tip my hat to Jim Gattuso, who at the Technology Liberation Front rounded up a half-dozen of the hundreds of recent blog entries on the wrongheadedness of re-instituting the Fairness Doctrine.

The most constructive comments came from Cam Edwards, who wrote:

The bottom line is this: those who want to regulate speech live in a very bad time to do so. Gone are the days when you needed a printing press or a broadcasting license to share your opinions with the world. The genie’s out of the bottle, and it’s not going back in. Rather than wasting time trying to stifle free speech, supporters of the Fairness Doctrine would be better off doing the following:

1- Get some real radio hosts who are progressive. Ed Schultz and Stephanie Miller put out good quality left-leaning talk shows. Air America does not. But two hosts are not enough… you need many more.

2- Realize that NPR is your competition, not your friend. NPR is liberal talk radio, whether you want to admit it or not. And they too put out quality programming. You want commercial liberal talk? End government funding of NPR.

3- Don’t be so damned impatient. Conservative talk radio is continually growing and evolving. Liberal talk radio will need time to catch up, and three years of sub-par broadcasting by Air America doesn’t help.

Radio is a business. When Clear Channel thought that Air America would add to their bottom line, they started adding Air America affiliates to their station lists. They’re not opposed to liberal talk, they’re opposed to shows that don’t make money. This is the free market at work. If you want to try and impose the Fairness Doctrine, then just admit you’re not a big believer in capitalism and the free marketplace of ideas.