Government Mandated 'Air America'

What political party has the reputation (deserved or not) for supporting the 1st Amendment right to free speech? What political party works to stifle the free speech rights of the opposition?

The fundamental purpose of the guaranteed freedom of speech is to allow us to freely speak out against the government. Some in Congress are obviously growing tired of being spoken out against and are talking about reinstituting the unconstitutional "fairness doctrine." In short, the fairness doctrine requires radio stations to give equal time to people with opposing viewpoints. For example, a radio station would be required by law to balance a 30 minute discussion opposing illegal immigration by airing a 30 minute discussion favoring illegal immigration.

On the whole, conservative talk dominates liberal talk on the radio, while liberal talk programs dominate conservative talk programs on television. Although both mediums, radio and television, use the public airwaves, the fairness doctrine only applies to radio.

The fairness doctrine is nothing less than an unconstitutional effort by liberals to limit the influence and free speech rights of conservatives who speak out against those liberals and their policies. If there were only one radio station in this country, one could argue that every view point should have a turn to talk. But there are dozens of radio stations all across this country and their content is dictated by the free market. Not long ago, liberal leaning people funded and launched "Air America," a liberal talk station broadcasting in many markets across the nation. In almost every market, Air America has failed because radio listeners don't listen to it in sufficient numbers for it to make advertising money. Since Americans wouldn't voluntarily listen to it, some in Congress want to force it upon us. If reinstituted, the ultimate effect on talk radio will mirror the effect Title IX has had on college athletics.

Title IX requires colleges to offer as many athletic scholarships to women as it does to men. Because of economics, colleges did not respond by adding women's scholarships until they matched the current number of men's scholarships--colleges cut men's scholarships and men's sports teams. Even men's sports with a great tradition at a given college have been cut in an effort to equalize men's and women's scholarships. In college sports, men's football and men's basketball are the money makers. The profits from those two sports subsidize all the other sports programs.

Under the fairness doctrine, radio stations would not simply add liberal talk programs; they would be forced to cut conservative talk programs as well, even if the conservative talk program was more popular and thus made more money than the liberal talk program. The profits from the top money making conservative talk programs, like the Rush Limbaugh show, would be funneled to support the liberal talk programs. This is a violation of the 1st amendment and an improper intrusion of government into the affairs of private businesses.

President Bush gave a speech yesterday on his plan to veto any proposed fairness doctrine legislation. His speech provides some additional excellent points on this issue. Story

Congress should not violate the Constitution and limit our freedom to speak out against the government and especially against government officials who work against that right.