California Conservative

Another liberal ‘Guardian of Free Speech’ is considering how to restrict people’s First Amendment rights. It isn’t surprising that that liberal is Dianne Feinstein. Here’s what she said on her appearance on FNS this morning:

WALLACE: Let me bring in Senator Feinstein.

Oklahoma Senator Inhofe says that he overheard Barbara Boxer and Hillary Clinton three years ago complaining about talk radio and saying that there should be a legislative fix. Both of them deny it ever happened. But let me ask you about yourself. Do you have a problem with talk radio, and would you consider reviving the fairness doctrine, which would require broadcasters to put on opposing points of view?

FEINSTEIN: Well, in my view, talk radio tends to be one-sided. It also tends to be dwelling in hyperbole. It’s explosive. It pushes people to, I think, extreme views without a lot of information. This is a very complicated bill. It’s seven titles. Most people don’t know what’s in this bill. Therefore, to just have one or two things dramatized and taken out of context, such as the word amnesty — we have a silent amnesty right now, but nobody goes into that. Nobody goes into the flaws of our broken system.

This bill fixes those flaws. Do I think there should be an opportunity on talk radio to present that point of view? Yes, I do, particularly about the critical issues of the day.

WALLACE: So would you revive the fairness doctrine?

FEINSTEIN: Well, I’m looking at it, as a matter of fact, Chris, because I think there ought to be an opportunity to present the other side. And unfortunately, talk radio is overwhelmingly one way.

Sen. Feinstein isn’t about providing balance. You’ll notice that the Fairness Doctrine only targets conservative talk radio because, in Sen. Feinstein’s opinion, “it pushes people to…extreme views without a lot of information.” Let Sen. Feinstein explain why the Fairness Doctrine shouldn’t apply to newspapers and magazines. Let her explain why the NY Times shouldn’t be obligated to giving equal time to a thoughtful conservative columnist for every Bush-hating diatribe column that Paul Krugman writes. Let her coherently explain why the Fairness Doctrine doesn’t apply to balancing out the shrill diatribes written by syndicated columnist Mark Shields, Newsweek’s Ellen Goodman and Eleanor Clift or Bloomberg’s Al Hunt and Maggie Carlson?

I’d also demand that Sen. Feinstein explain her position without arguing that the aforementioned columnists are protected by the First Amendment. I’d reject that argument because opinionists should be protected whether they’re giving their opinion on the airwaves or if they’re opinions are seen on the NY Times opinion page.

Furthermore, I’d state that talk radio hosts like Rush, Hugh Hewitt and Glenn Beck know more about the specifics of legislation than do the BDS-afflicted diatribists of the NY Times. If anything, there’s a greater need for the Fairness Doctrine in newspapers than with talk radio.

The NY Times talks proudly about the diversity within their newsroom. Unfortunately, the most prominent displays of diversity are about which columnist can sound the shrillest in criticizing President Bush. (People in the real world don’t think that that’s diversity but the hyperventilating partisans that write that crap do.)

The other rip I’d take at Sen. Feinstein’s incompetent defense of the Fairness Doctrine is her citing the use of the word amnesty as used by radio talk show hosts. If I had a dollar for every time I heard bloviating columnists or ‘reporters’ incorrectly using the terms ‘domestic wiretapping’ in the NSA story or the phrase “outing covert CIA operative Valerie Plame” but had to pay her two dollars for every time the term amnesty was incorrectly used, I’d come out ahead.

Sen. Feinstein’s agenda is exposed because she doesn’t like her ox getting gored but she’s ok with her political opponents’ oxes getting gored. That’s a typical liberal double standard and it should be immediately rejected.

Technorati Tags: Dianne Feinstein, Fairness Doctrine, First Amendment, Paul Krugman, Eleanor Clift, Ellen Goodman, Rush Limbaugh, Hugh Hewitt, Glenn Beck

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 24th, 2007 at 4:05 pm and is filed under 1st Amendment, Author: Gary Gross, Feinstein, Immigration, Liberals, Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.