Thursday, July 26, 2007

The Fairness Doctrine

We have two radio stations in our listening area that have 24 hours a day of Republican sponsored programming that ranges from obnoxious and misinformed to hate-filled invectives against the Democratic party and any viewpoint other their own. Anyone who disagrees is generally shouted down or ridiculed, with no effort to have a meaningful exchange of ideas.

I listen to those radio stations, and take note of sponsors so I can choose not to patronize them. My eye doctor was advertising on one particularly awful program, so I changed doctors. That's the only fairness I can derive from this hi-jacking of the air waves by right-wing loud mouths.

When people are unwilling to listen to each other and attempt to reach a middle ground, then the democratic process goes by the wayside. When one side has carte blanche to denigrate the other and present only their own viewpoint, no one is benefited.

I know most of the media people are not in favor of the Fairness Doctrine because they have to work harder to be inclusive of all view points. It's a "free speech" issue, they say. When one political party commandeers the airwaves, it would seem to me that the rights of the other party to speak are disregarded.

Some version of the Fairness Doctrine could help to remedy this situation.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think you're exactly right. Listening this morning to a commentary about Cindy Sheehan's run against Pelosi I thought about how obvious now -- but still how underappreciated -- is individual action. Though not particularly a fan of Sheehan, I'd say she's another Dem showing the way to many of us who have taken our political and civil rights for granted. Sheesh! We've assumed things would go along just fine without us. Now we know what happens when we let others take care of democracy for us!