Monday, July 16, 2007

Fairness Doctrine: The Revolution Starts Now

In 2004, country rocker Steve Earle released the album, The Revolution Starts Now.The title track is overtly political, something Earle admitted during an interview with the Boston Globe:

I had two songs I wanted heard -- `Rich Man's War' and `The Revolution Starts Now' -- and I wanted to get the album out before the election. So as soon as we got back from touring Australia in April, we went straight into the studio the first week of May. But I don't ever want to make a record like that again. It was real immediate, and I think it shows up on tape how immediate the process was.

That song, along with John Fogerty's anti-war Deja Vu All Over Again, also released just before the presidential election, were put on heavy rotation on the rock station I usually listen to, Chicago's WXRT-FM.

But if the so-called "Fairness Doctrine" were to be put into law, as many Democrats want, would those types of songs, particularly Earle's, be banned from radio station during campaign season?

Or better yet, perhaps that would give me the opportunity to appear on WXRT's airwaves, and tell its listeners--under a new Fairness Doctrine's equal time provision--that alternative views are available on my fabulous blog, Marathon Pundit.

Oh, and please patronize the advertisers.

Leftists: Be careful what you wish for. Yes, strident political songs populated the airwaves in the late 1960s, but conservatives weren't motivated to do much about it.

To quote from Steve Earle's Amerika v. 6.0 (The Best We Can Do):

Nowadays it's letters to the editor and cheatin' on our taxes
Is the best that we can do

But since the 2000 Sore Loserman backlash, conservatives have been loud and active.

Times have changed.

And no, I don't cheat on my taxes.

The Fairness Doctrine is just another bad idea that comes from Liberal America. Unless it gets me on the radio, of course.

Related post: Puke of Earle: Lefty rocker Steve Earle sells out

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