John Kerry: The Fairness Doctrine Is A Must
Democrats have been trying to sweep their support for re-instituting the fairness doctrine under the rug since they took power in Congress, but it’s become pretty clear that they’ve got conservative talk radio in their targets.
Here’s John Kerry talking about it:
Transcript:
“I think the Fairness Doctrine ought to be there and I also think equal time doctrine ought to come back. I mean these are the people who wiped out one of the most profound changes in the balance of the media is when the conservatives got rid of the equal time requirements. And the result is that, you know, they’ve been able to squeeze down and squeeze out opinion of opposing views and I think it’s been an important transition in the imbalance of our public…”
The problem is that liberal voices aren’t being squeezed out of broadcast media because of some nefarious scheme among broadcast stations but rather because people simply aren’t interested in listening to liberal opinionators.
Air America has been attempted in every major radio market in America – from New York to L.A., Seattle to Chicago – and it’s largely failed. Or has gotten meager ratings. Meanwhile, conservative talk radio has flourished in these areas. Liberal talk radio’s most successful act, Ed Schultz, consistently gets whipped in ratings by his conservative counterparts in radio markets across the nation. Why?
Because more people want to listen to conservative talkers than liberal talkers.
Now maybe that’s because talk radio tends to be a medium more conservatives tend to listen to than liberals. Or it could just be that conservative talk radio is more entertaining. I don’t know. But either way, why should the government get to step in dictate to Americans what they will and will not have on their radios for programming just because someone like John Kerry doesn’t think enough broadcast talk or political shows endorse his political viewpoint?
