Conservatives are terrified that the Democrats will reimpose some form of the Fairness Doctrine, which would shut down right-wing talk radio. I’m pretty libertarian when it comes to free speech, although I have no problem regulating the use of public airwaves. I’m not sure what it would even mean to impose a Fairness Doctrine on the public airwaves in a world that has the internet, satellite radio, and cable television. It doesn’t strike me as having the same onerous effect on free speech that it had in the 1980’s. But I’d have to look deeper into this issue to really understand how a modern-day Fairness Doctrine might be implemented and how it would limit free-speech. I will say this, however. I think there should be a greater space for balanced debate, like you see on British television and throughout Europe. Could we insist that the public airwaves have balanced debate, while allowing for anything-goes in the rest of the media landscape? Would this force Right-Wing talk radio onto satellite radio? Would it have any impact at all on cable news? It depends on how you define public airwaves, I guess.
In other words, I think Rush Limbaugh should be able to spout off on the radio, but I’m not sure he should be able to do it on the publicly-owned spectrum. If that makes sense. Does it?
