A sad commentary on the state of free speech in America.

Nearly half of Americans (47%) believe the government should require all radio and television stations to offer equal amounts of conservative and liberal political commentary, but they draw the line at imposing that same requirement on the Internet. Thirty-nine percent (39%) say leave radio and TV alone, too.

At the same time, 71% say it is already possible for just about any political view to be heard in today’s media, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Twenty percent (20%) do not agree.

Fifty-seven percent (57%) say the government should not require websites and blog sites that offer political commentary to present opposing viewpoints. But 31% believe the Internet sites should be forced to balance their commentary (full demographic crosstabs available for Premium Members.)

I’m not sure that government-enforced notions of equality is what the founders meant when they wrote the 1st amendment.

It’s worth noting that there is no prohibition on radio and television stations balancing their political content by ideology.  The simple fact of the matter, at least as far as talk radio goes, is that most people want conservative commentary.

The liberals tried to get a toehold in the talk radio industry.  They launched Air America.  It failed.  Miserably.  Mostly because nobody wanted to listen to it.  The fairness doctrine would take liberal content of the sort that Air America broadcast and force it down the throats of radio listeners.  Not because radio listeners want it, but rather to fulfill some absurd notion of fairness.

What happens if a radio station tried to balance a conservative regional talk show with a liberal regional talk show but could find no host able to fill that role?  Would the conservative have to go off the air for lack of a counterpart?  Is that really “fairness?”

Given how polarized our nation is politically, and how many people are spouting off about politics on the radio waves and internet tubes as it is, there’s no doubt that free speech is alive and well in this country and that there’s little need for the fairness doctrine.