r.i.p. first amendment
(posted 10/14/07)
I'm in another one of my self-imposed, random news blackouts this weekend. I'm house and pet sitting for someone, and I'm really enjoying the solitude of no paper, television, or even radio news. It's a false serenity, for I know that the United States Congress is in session.
There is a gnawing concern in the back of my mind that won't allow a more complete peace today. A powerful cabal in the House and Senate is scheming covertly and overtly to shut down talk radio as we know it. Putative Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, in an effort to mask the utter ineptitude and failure of her 'historic' tenure as Speaker, seeks to re-enact the failed "Fairness Doctrine," which presumably would equalize access to federally regulated radio airwaves for a more 'balanced' political dialogue. While we're at it, the word 'fair' is perhaps one of the most maligned and misused words in our English language. It's been abused by self-righteous egalitarians for decades to make themselves sound more caring, more understanding of 'little people.' Look for our Founding Fathers' discussion of fairness in matters of self-government. Keep looking. They sought to guarantee political equality for all men, period. The incantation of fairness in the modern liberal lexicon is synonymous with redistribution. Take from those who have, through any coercive means available, and give it to those who don't have. More specifically, take from those who have earned, and give to those who haven't.
Marginal comedian and self-imagined political intellectual Al Franken has given his best shot at the growing and vibrant talk radio market. Propped up with mysterious and unethical funding, his Air America network has failed. It failed not because of a "right-wing conspiracy" or a lack of "fair play" in the halls of radio broadcast power -- it failed because the market didn't want it. It's no more complicated than that. The few 'blue state' markets on which it may remain are marginal. Even they are subject to wither on the vine. Don't feel bad, Al. The same has happened to the best of liberal stalwarts. Mario Cuomo, Michael Jackson, Alec Baldwin, et al. have come and gone with the same aplomb for failure. The lesson of the story is, and always will be, that it is the message -- not the messenger. Well, maybe it's the messenger, too.
I am making a tremendous assumption, though. I am assuming that Americans still care about things like free markets. The better angels of my nature still believe they do. But I wonder when recent polling suggests that 55 percent of my countrymen believe a federally mandated and administered national health care plan is the right thing to do. This disturbing statistic is the fodder of another posting, but I use it to focus on the efficacy of free markets. One simple way of putting it, a free market allows free people to decide with their money what they will or will not consume. It is glaringly evident that the free market of talk radio has overwhelmingly chosen in favor of conservative broadcasters. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levine, G. Gordon Liddy, Neal Boortz, Michael Savage, Michael Reagan, Colonel Oliver North... the list goes on. They dominate AM radio because they have the message, and yes, the packaging, that the people who listen to talk radio want to hear. It's no more complicated than that. Not content with their dominant (albeit ebbing) control of television news media and newspapers, Pelosi and her minions want to seize (with seize as the operative word) control over the last electronic media realm that defies them. A resurrection of the so-called Fairness Doctrine would do just that. By mandating that radio show producers provide equal amounts of airtime for opposing or divergent points of view, the Doctrine would effectively emasculate the medium of talk radio as we know it.
Talk radio today is highly successful and it is lucrative for radio station owners. Because conservative talk radio hosts develop, and keep, tremendous numbers of loyal listeners, station owners are able to charge premium rates for advertisements broadcast on those stations. It's a beautiful example of how a free market works. Forcing owners to inject liberal programming is akin to telling him to throw away their business. The liberals have the same access to talk radio as everyone else. That's what we call fair. Just because they fail, and fail miserably every time they try, is no one's fault but their own. Is it the responsibility of a radio station owner to ensure that a liberal talk show survives when no one listens to it? The question is rhetorical, but that is exactly what Peolsi's cabal expects.
She, in league with Senator Harry Reid, has made it a quixotic quest to defang talk radio. They're not alone. George Soros and Ms. Hillary 'Rodham' Clinton with their slate of non-profit media interest groups are pouring veritable millions of dollars into an aggressive campaign to shut down conservative points of view in radio. The recent disingenuous attack on Rush Limbaugh is one of the most startling and embarrassing salvoes launched by the Left in their effort to squelch freedom of expression. The letter of condemnation drafted by Reid against Limbaugh for his alleged rebuke of U.S. soldiers in Iraq was surreal in its shamefully embarrassing use of the hallowed halls of the world's greatest legislative body. Reid, and everyone allied with him, knew full and well that Limbaugh's critique of "phony soldiers" had nothing to do with criticizing patriotic soldiers who had honest differences with the conduct of America's war effort. Reid and company knew Rush really had maligned (rightfully) those few malcontents who had blatantly lied about their own service records in an effort to afford themselves a measure of credibility. Rush called them out for what they were -- cowards for hiding behind ficticious military service (sound familiar, Senator Kerry?) while denigrating our brave servicemen. If anything, Rush was too easy on them. But Reid insisted on proceeding with his action plan anyway. Two possibilities exist here. Either Reid and his staff were too lazy and incompetent to get the facts straight before he shot his mouth off; or, he is so disingenuously opportunistic that he would take a lie and run with it anyway (sound familiar, Dan Rather?). Either scenario does not bode well for the health of our Congress or our Republic. A real, honest man would have retracted his onerous gaff the moment he was presented facts that refuted his assertion. Reid did no such thing. Surprised?
This attack was premeditated in spirit, if not in form. Why? Because conservative talk radio gets results. Middle America has looked to the medium as a last bastion of sensible news and political discussion with which we can identify. The Left would like nothing more than to obliterate their medium -- the First Amendment be damned. You on the Left had better not be so comfortable and self-righteous with your knee-jerk support of the Fairness Doctrine effort, either. Once Pelosi, Soros, and Clinton get their way, they'll come after you, too. The MoveOn.org base of the Democratic Party will not be safe from their tyrannical ire either. For those of you who are disgusted with Clinton's (imagined) tilt to the right, she will use her new-found communications regulation to come after you and your internet blogging. Don't believe she won't. Her ruthlessness makes Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong-il look like girl scouts. You, who purport to be for "The Little People" and democracy had better wake up and smell the tyranny. Your fight should be our fight. One of the great features of our beloved Republic is the right to openly discuss, debate, and yes, even argue about the way we believe we should govern ourselves. Our Nation was forged in the taverns and town halls of New England with loud, raucous debates about notions of liberty and independence. Don't lose that ability now. An imagined political victory today will mean despotism tomorrow. Nothing less than the survival of the Constitution is at stake. That is, assuming you still care about the Constitution.
