Marathon Pundit: Leftist congresswoman wants to reinstate "Fairness Doctrine"

The Chicago area has six daily newspapers, the Chicago Tribune, the Sun-Times, the Defender, the Daily Herald, the Daily Southtown, and Northwest Indiana's Post-Tribune. Most metro areas get by with just one or two dailies.

However, from anywhere in the Chicago area, a listener can easily tune into at least a couple of dozen radio stations. Some are talk stations, some just play music, some are foreign language outlets. There are no shortage of options on the AM or FM dials.
If you hear something you don't like, you move on, or turn off the radio.

Unless you're a leftist Democrat like Jan Schakowsky, who represents me, sort of, in Congress. Then you propose legislation to permanently silence voices you don't agree with.

What Schakowsky wants to do is to bring back what was became known as "The Fairness Doctrine" to broadcast media. Always controversial, the "doctrine," in short, stipulated that TV and radio stations should allocate equal time to opposing points of view in regards to major issues and public policy. The FCC repealed the Fairness Doctrine in 1987 for a variety of reasons, among them was that the doctrine may not have survived a court challenge--Anyone heard of the First Amendment?

Once the Fairness Doctrine was gone, it allowed for the growth of talk radio, dominated by conservatives such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. AM stations, considered dinosaurs in the 1980s, now had something besides sports play-by-play to attract listeners to its less-than-perfect frequencies.

Of course, liberals got into the act, but with almost no success. (Could it be that their ideas stink?)

Schakowsky doesn't see it that way, telling CBS 2 Chicago:

Look, we want to make sure that all positions are represented and we feel that there is an overwhelming bias right now.

Is there bias on NPR, Jan?

In Chicago, many of the conservative talkers broadcast on WLS-AM. Roe Conn, who hosts a popular issues-of-the day show each weekday afternoon, isn't happy about enacting what I call the "Unfairness Doctrine," telling the same CBS 2 reporter:

There's bias in everything.There's bias in government. I mean everybody has a point of view and perspective. Shouldn't the consumer decide what's right and what's wrong?

Makes sense to me. And he elaborates:

You gonna tell Rush all of a sudden he's got to have Hillary Clinton on to counterbalance him every step of the way?

Chicago has an Air America outlet, and its general manager is against the "Unfairness Doctrine" too.

What do you think of that, Jan?

And yes Schakowsky, an Evanston Democrat, is a committed leftist. The independent political site GovTrack produced a graphic that puts her on the extreme left end of the congressional dial, along with better known lefties such as Dennis Kucinich, "Baghdad Jim" McDermott, Lynn Woolsey, and Henry Waxman.
The left loves diversity of opinion. Along as they agree with it.

Related posts:

Cong. Schakowsky's husband enters federal prison

Chicago Tribune's John Kass on Schakowsky and Creamer

Cong. Schakowsky: Choosing her "anti-semitism" battles

Obama and Schakowsky: Sometimes no picture is best

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