Obama To Re-Appoint Pro-Fairness Doctrine Commissioner To The FCC
Reagan gave this guy the axe back in the 1980′s, leading to the FCC deregulation that allowed for the rise of conservative talk radio. Now Obama is looking to put him back at the FCC.
Can the Fairness Doctrine be far behind?
Henry Rivera, a longtime radical leftist, lawyer and former FCC commissioner, is expected to lead the push to dismantle commercial talk radio that is favored by a number of Democratic Party senators. Rivera will play a pivotal role in preventing critics from having a public voice during Obama’s tenure in office.
Rivera, who resigned from the FCC nearly a quarter-century ago during the Reagan years, believes in a doctrine of “communications policy as a civil rights issue”.
His exit during the Reagan Administration paved the way for the Fairness Doctrine’s repeal when the late president appointed Patricia Diaz Dennis in 1986 to fill out the rest of Rivera’s term. Had this not occurred, talk radio as we know it today would not exist.
That gives Rivera’s new task a great deal of personal urgency: it’s a late-career, second chance opportunity to shut down opposition voices that have been allowed to flourish since his depature from the commission.
In particular, Rivera is known for his push for more minority broadcasting ownership, but this issue has largely been rendered obsolete as former commercial broadcasting empires teeter on the brink of bankruptcy.
Rivera’s first opportunity to eliminate commercial talk radio will occur in June 2009, as the term of Republican Robert McDowell expires and he can be replaced with a pro-Fairness Doctrine Democrat. That will give the commission a three-vote Democratic majority, though the final two seats must remain in Republican hands.
If they can strong-arm one of the three Republicans into leaving early, this can be implemented even sooner.
Remember that it was an Obama campaign lawyer that was threatening television stations which ran an NRA ad with FCC regulator action. It was the Obama campaign that tried to shut down Milt Rosenberg’s radio show when he had National Review’s Stanley Kurtz on to talk about Obama’s connections to Ayers. And now it’s President-elect Obama that’s planning on turning back the clock at the FCC a couple of decades.
This is a dangerous, dangerous time for free speech folks.
On a related note, only liberals would think that “fairness” is something that can be implemented by government mandate. but that speaks to how they see the world. This country was founded up on the idea that all men are free, and that all should have equal opportunity to pursue life, liberty and happiness. But rather than equality of opportunity, liberals are only interested in equality of outcome.
Thus the Fairness Doctrine, which mandates “fairness” by forcing broadcasters to not select content based on what people actually want to see or hear (entertainment/informational value) but rather on ideological quotas.
Thus affirmative action, which mandates “fairness” by forcing employers and universities to select applicants and employees based not on merit, ability and achievement but rather on racial/gender quotas.
Thus welfare and wealth redistribution, which mandates “fairness” not by providing incentive for unsuccessful individuals to become successful but by punishing successful citizens for being too successful through the redistribution of their wealth to others.
It’s how the liberal mind works.
