The senior U.S. senator from the Empire State has added his voice to a growing chorus of Democratic lawmakers seeking to bring back the policy ironically referred to as the "Fairness Doctrine."
During an Election Day interview on Fox News, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-New York) took a jab at critics of the Fairness Doctrine, and suggested radio stations should be required to be "fair and balanced." "The very same people who don't want the Fairness Doctrine want the FCC to limit pornography on the air," Schumer stated. "I am for that. I think pornography should be limited. But you can't say 'government hands off' in one area to a commercial enterprise, but 'you're allowed to intervene' in another. That's not consistent." Brian Anderson is editor of the magazine City Journal and co-author of A Manifesto for Media Freedom (Encounter Books, Sept. 2008). He says Schumer and other top Democratic leaders -- Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Al Gore, and John Kerry among them -- are sympathetic to the idea of reducing or completely eliminating the conservative presence on broadcast radio. "What was kind of surprising in Schumer's argument was the contention that talk radio and porn are basically on the same level -- so that if you seek to regulate pornography in some way, that legitimizes the regulation of political speech," Anderson observes. "Now this is an inversion of any kind of understanding of the First Amendment on the part of the Founders. They'd be rolling in their graves right now." Anderson expects a push by the Democratic-led Congress to restore the Fairness Doctrine even though president-elect Barack Obama says he does not support the effort. However, the journalist believes the Obama administration will seek a host of other regulations that are similar to the Fairness Doctrine.
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