Sunday, March 08, 2009

Durbin Amendment the New Fairness Doctrine?

Unless, I'm missing something, Kathleen Parker is off base here. See the video below. Reinstating the Fairness Doctrine (would require equal time for conservative and liberal voices on the airwaves) was voted down in the Senate by a fairly large margin.

I can't imagine that Obama in any way would want to suppress conservative talk radio. That seems so petty and cynical because it assumes that Americans are mindless and would somehow be brainwashed by radio jocks. 

Sure, the democrats have had fun with Rush over the past couple of weeks and have used him as a tool to make a point, but no one in greater America thinks of Limbaugh as a leader, only the people who listen to him and the apologizers. 

There is, however, the Durbin amendment (Illinois Senator Dick Durbin) that the conservatives are now shivering about. Conservatives thrive on conspiracy. The Durbin amendment was voted up and conservatives call it the new Fairness Doctrine, but it doesn't say anything about taking any of their dear leaders off the airwaves. The statement of its purpose:
To encourage and promote diversity in communication media ownership, and to ensure that the public airwaves are used in the public interest.
That says to me that the FCC would be more interested making sure that Rupert Murdoch doesn't own all the media (although he owns a pretty good chunk now, including Fox and the WSJ). Obama's not about limiting free speech as far as I can tell. If he was, he ought to start with the skinheads. 

Conservatives are a jittery bunch and I'm beginning to understand why they carry guns. They tend to think everyone is after them. I wonder if that's genetic or if it relates to being brought up in certain parts of the country. They're intent on seeing Obama as the ideological left as Bush was the ideological right. But it just ain't so.