That appears to be Howard Fineman’s contention in his latest column. Here’s a sampling of Fineman’s twisted logic:

Capitol Hill Democrats are planning a new drive for access elsewhere, on talk radio and local broadcast TV. The goal? To level the media playing field in time for the 2008 election.

Talk radio has long been a crucial power base for conservatives and Republicans; local TV stations are not.

They shy away from public-affairs programming altogether, and yet they rake in ever-larger wads of cash on political advertising.

Democrats have two media-access goals.

One is to prod local broadcast television and radio stations to renew their atrophied commitment to producing and airing their own public-affairs programming—shows that Democrats think would at least give them a chance to be heard. Some Democrats want to require stations to give free time for campaign debates, and even free campaign advertising as part of the stations’ “public-service” licensing requirement.

Frankly, liberals’ attempts to get this passed will jumpstart the libertarian movement within the GOP. They’ll rightly see this as another liberal attempt to gut the First Amendment. Another hidden consequence of this is that it’ll remind conservatives just how important it is to put strict constructionist judges on the bench at all levels. Clearly, that wouldn’t happen with a Hillary or a Obama administration.

There’s something even more laughable in this. Since the biggest media outlets are undeniably liberal why would liberals still need to “balance the playing field”? Liberals like Dennis Kucinich are implicitly saying that Rush Limbaugh, Hugh Hewitt, FNC & NRO are powerful because the ideas espoused on those media outlets are powerful.

But some senior House Democrats are interested, I am told, and Kucinich himself is planning to hold hearings on the question of whether the broadcasters are properly fulfilling their public-service obligations under federal communications law.

On the Senate side, Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota has quietly been urging the party leadership to take up the same question.

I pray that somebody writes ‘Fairness Doctrine’ legislation and that it’s given high profile public hearings. If that happens, I’ll be the happiest camper around. Please, please, please let that happen.

The Democrats just want to sound some alarms themselves. Former talk show host Al Franken, now running for the U.S. Senate in his home state of Minnesota, has his own suggestion for reform.

“You shouldn’t be able to lie on the air,” he told me. “You can’t utter obscenities in a broadcast, so why should you be able to lie? You should be fined for lying.”

Now that Franken’s off the air, he wants restrictions on what can be said? Since when did Franken ever put a priority on the truth? Furthermore, I don’t recall him railing against Air America when they said utterly hateful things about President Bush. This is a blatant display of Franken’s hypocrisy & his utter disregard for the First Amendment.

He should be ashamed of himself. Then again, shame and Franken aren’t two words that fit well together.

Technorati Tags: Fairness Doctrine, First Amendment, Dennis Kucinich, Censorship, Democrats, Rush Limbaugh, Hugh Hewitt, NRO

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

1. […] Cross-posted at California Conservative Categories: First Amendment, Media, SCOTUS, Judiciary, Democrats, Media Bias, Liberalism, Subversives, Special Interests, Election 2008 | […]

   Pingback by Let Freedom Ring » Blog Archive » Fairness Doctrine Will Level Playing Field? — May 16, 2007 @ 11:25 am

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   Pingback by politicalpartypoop.com » Blog Archive » Fairness Doctrine Will Level Playing Field? — May 16, 2007 @ 2:48 pm

1. The issue isn’t equal time but the fact that far right GOP dirty tricksters pirated the entire AM talk radio dial and installed agitprop disinformation that would make Goebbels blush. All the Dems have to do is air this in public hearings and the public will suddenly realize where all the nastiness and falsity in their politics came from: Chief witness Kathleen Hall Jamison of the prestigious Annenberg School of Communication (funded by conservative TV Guide fortune) at Penn can detail a dozen years of research showing that 50 million talk radio listeners have “false certainty” on nearly every issue and have swung the past 5 of 6 elections. The falsity led directly to lying us into Iraq which has destroyed the U.S. reputation in the world permanently. Only by restoring balance to the AM dial can the damage begin to be undone. And yes, to start off the left side will have to fight with knives too. We’re not coming to your hideous lie-arama, populated by drug addicts and chickenhawks, carrying only the truth. We will fight for our airwaves to the death.

   Comment by gregrocker — May 16, 2007 @ 12:50 pm

2. Like a lot of other words the libs have highjacked the meaning of, “fairness” now means the libs get to rule the airwaves without the controls placed upon conservatives.

   Kinda like “tolerance.”

   Comment by Carlos — May 16, 2007 @ 1:38 pm

3. Gregrocker, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Equal Time and the Fairness Doctrine are two completely separate issues.

   Conservative talk dominates the airwaves, not because of conspiratorial piracy, but because people like Rush Limbaugh are good broadcasters. Al Franken is not, which is a major reason why Air America is a commercial failure.

   Comment by Kip Allen — May 16, 2007 @ 2:02 pm

4. You libs & moonbats want someone on the airwaves? Find some nutcase that is informative, educational and entertaining, and can meet the language restrictions of AM/FM radio.

   Oh, you say you have no one like that? Sorry, that’s what draws listeners, especially the ones who work enough to buy the products of the advertisers.

   Decide whether you want a market-driven economy or a government-plugged economy. And if you decide on the guv’mint plugging it all up, expect a fight from those of us who think the collective wisdom of people is greater than the stupidity of any bureaucrat at any level, from local planner to the prez. It’s time for we, the people, to take our government back from the socialists.

   Vipers.

   Comment by Carlos — May 16, 2007 @ 3:49 pm

5. Gregrocker is high on purple cool aid.

   The Dems are the champions of free speech and fairness, as long as it is theirs.

   Comment by SactoDan — May 16, 2007 @ 4:37 pm

6. “far right GOP dirty tricksters”

   (yawn) why bother responding…

   Greg’s clearly off his rocker.

   Comment by California Conservative — May 16, 2007 @ 6:36 pm

7. Comment by gregrocker — May 16, 2007 @ 12:50 pm

   Sory Gregrocker, I don’t speak Pabst Blue Ribbonese, but please keep parroting your nonsense as it further illustrates the left as aspiring Stalinists. You want our freedom of speach, come try and take boy.

   Comment by Nat McLaughlin — May 17, 2007 @ 1:18 pm