Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota is fighting the reimposition of the so-called "Fairness Doctrine" in which the federal government forces it broadcast license holders (namely radio and broadcast TV) to give "equal time" to all sides. This is widely perceived to be an attack on conservative talk radio, which has flourished since the abolition of the fairness doctrine in the late 1980s. Coleman is getting help from John Thune.
Senate Democrats on Friday blocked an amendment by Sen. Norm Coleman that would have prevented the return of the Fairness Doctrine, a federal rule which required broadcasters to air opposing views on issues.
(snip)Coleman said he thought it was "very dangerous for government to be in the position of deciding what's fair and balanced."
Coleman has been pushing his legislation along with several other Republicans, including John Thune of South Dakota.
"Having the bureaucrats dictate the content of the airwaves," Thune said, "isn't much different from what we are seeing in places like Iran and Russia where they are rolling back freedom of the press."
While Thune may exaggerate a bit, one takes his point that government deciding who gets to say what and when is not exactly the definition of freedom. What do the proponents of the Fairness Doctrine have to say on their behalf? Here's Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL):
"The airwaves belong to the American people," Durbin said. "Those who profit from them do by permission of the people through their government." He said that broadcasters should provide both points of view on an issue.
Sen. Durbin is channeling Jean Jacques Rousseau. Apparently Durbin believes that there is a "people" who have certain demands of their broadcasters, and the "general will" of the people is to be translated by regulators into policy. But how do we know what "the people" want? "The people" want different things. Evidently a lot of people want conservative talk radio. Some people want NPR (which, admittedly, is a government run radio station that likely could not survive without public subsidies). Some people want rock music, others country music. Some people want the farm report. Some people wanted Al Franken, but not enough to keep him on the air. If "the people" want to listen to a particular program, that program will attract advertisers, and it will be a successful program. If it does not attract advertisers because of low audience, then it will go away. That is another way of figuring out what "the people" want.
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