Are you in favor of the Fairness Doctrine?

[GarbagemanLB]

Poll question: Are you in favor of the Fairness Doctrine?

Some congressmen have brought up this idea and I for one think it will only provide Republicans ammunition during the next election. What say you?

The government has a right to regulate the public airwaves. I think that is something we can all agree on. However, I think some people aren't realizing the silver platter the Democrats would be handing the Republicans if any serious push was to be had for this legislation.

[Thrill]

1. I don't think it matters. Republicans still own all the radio and TV stations

[ClassWarrior]

18. That was EXACTLY the point of last year's report. It's much more important...

...to promote diverse local station ownership. It was written by FreePress and the Center for American Progress: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/06/pdf/talk_radio.pdf

NGU.

[PBS Poll-435]

2. I think it would be too difficult to police, so no I am not in favor

I am more interested in regulating media ownership.

Do that and the fairness will follow.


ETA that I voted "other"

[BOSSHOG]

3. Yes, in some form

Yes it will allow morons on right wing hate radio to stimulate morons who listen to them to oppose something they have already been trained to oppose. A thoughtful discussion of the subject matter would, in my oh so humble opinion, drown any conservative opposition to the concept in a very small tub; regardless of who owns the broadcast outlets.

[Uzybone]

4. No

[jefferson_dem]

5. Fuck no.

I shudder at the idea of governmental regulation of media content. Period.

Stricter ownership rules are something I could live with, however.

[leftstreet]

6. If M$M outlets actually had to be competitive, it wouldn't matter

If they didn't own fucking everything and had to face competition for viewers/ratings, the stories/news people want would make regulation irrelevant.

[dem629]

7. No. n/t

[lob1]

8. Yes, and break up the media monopolies, too.

[high density]

9. No

What is this, China?

[RepublicanElephant]

10. at least they'd have to report the story fairly, which is the point. nt

[totodeinhere]

11. No. The next time a GOP administration gets in power they could turn it against us. n/t

[rollingrock]

12. How so?

[totodeinhere]

13. By forcing networks like Air America to put the likes of Limbaugh on.

And KO might be forced to make O'Reilly his co-host.

[rollingrock]

14. LOL

I doubt that tub of lard would have the guts to go on Air America.

I don't think he has ever debated a bona fide liberal in his life.

[ej510]

15. It is not constitutional.

[rollingrock]

17. I think its against the 1st amendment

to allow the corporate point of view to dominate the airwaves, while shutting out other voices.

[jesus_of_suburbia]

16. Not at all.

[Peace Patriot]

19. The most important part of the Fairness Doctrine is anti-monopoly policies.

You can do "equal time" or not--or handle that issue some other way--but the main thing wrong with the use of our public airwaves right now is that they, and all other news/opinion media (except the internet) are controlled by six fatcat, fascist billionaire CEOs. And what we get in all news/opinion are THEIR views shoved down our throats, 24/7. It makes for a SICK democracy, and that's what we are, and it aims at the END of democracy, which is where we're headed.

We have got to change this. I don't know if we can, given that all of our election results (except NY's*) are now controlled by basically 3 rightwing, Bushite corporations, who own the 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, in all the voting machines and central tabulators, with virtually no audit/recount controls, and they won't let the public review the code, even in close or questionable elections.

Combined with other things--like the filthy money in our campaign system--this means that we cannot elect a Congress that truly represents us, and that even someone whom we can be fairly sure WAS elected--Barack Obama, for instance--can only be elected by the acquiescence of corpo/fascists and multinational corporations.

Busting up the corporate 'news' monopolies--and also getting rid of the 'TRADE SECRET' code in our voting systems--are things they will fight tooth and claw. We need the second thing--vote counting that everyone can see and understand--in order to elect people with the balls to bust up the 'news' monopolies. This can still be done at the state/local level, where ordinary people still have some influence, but probably not at the federal level (--and do beware of Congress' solutions; they sold us down the river on our right to vote, in the first place).

-------

*(For some reason, the Bushwhacks didn't pressure NY to give up their old, reliable lever machines at first; but then they went after NY and tried to force them into "TRADE SECRET' vote counting. That battle is on-going. In the rest of the country, half the voting systems are completely non-transparent and unverifiable--no paper trail at all--and the rest may have a ballot, but they do only a 1% audit, which is not nearly sufficient in a 'TRADE SECRET' code system. The minimum needed is 10%. Venezuela does a whopping 55%, and they use OPEN SOURCE code--code anyone can review. Our election system was essentially destroyed when these 'TRADE SECRET' voting systems were fast-tracked all over the country, during the 2002 to 2004 period, to insure Bush-Cheney's tr-election, continuance of the Forever War, and the Financial 9/11 they pulled off in September.)

[Peace Patriot]

20. The most important part of the Fairness Doctrine is anti-monopoly policies.

You can do "equal time" or not--or handle that issue some other way--but the main thing wrong with the use of our public airwaves right now is that they, and all other news/opinion media (except the internet) are controlled by six fatcat, fascist billionaire CEOs. And what we get in all news/opinion are THEIR views shoved down our throats, 24/7. It makes for a SICK democracy, and that's what we are, and it aims at the END of democracy, which is where we're headed.

We have got to change this. I don't know if we can, given that all of our election results (except NY's*) are now controlled by basically 3 rightwing, Bushite corporations, who own the 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, in all the voting machines and central tabulators, with virtually no audit/recount controls, and they won't let the public review the code, even in close or questionable elections.

Combined with other things--like the filthy money in our campaign system--this means that we cannot elect a Congress that truly represents us, and that even someone whom we can be fairly sure WAS elected--Barack Obama, for instance--can only be elected by the acquiescence of corpo/fascists and multinational corporations.

Busting up the corporate 'news' monopolies--and also getting rid of the 'TRADE SECRET' code in our voting systems--are things they will fight tooth and claw. We need the second thing--vote counting that everyone can see and understand--in order to elect people with the balls to bust up the 'news' monopolies. This can still be done at the state/local level, where ordinary people still have some influence, but probably not at the federal level (--and do beware of Congress' solutions; they sold us down the river on our right to vote, in the first place).

-------

*(For some reason, the Bushwhacks didn't pressure NY to give up their old, reliable lever machines at first; but then they went after NY and tried to force them into "TRADE SECRET' vote counting. That battle is on-going. In the rest of the country, half the voting systems are completely non-transparent and unverifiable--no paper trail at all--and the rest may have a ballot, but they do only a 1% audit, which is not nearly sufficient in a 'TRADE SECRET' code system. The minimum needed is 10%. Venezuela does a whopping 55%, and they use OPEN SOURCE code--code anyone can review. Our election system was essentially destroyed when these 'TRADE SECRET' voting systems were fast-tracked all over the country, during the 2002 to 2004 period, to insure Bush-Cheney's tr-election, continuance of the Forever War, and the Financial 9/11 they pulled off in September.)

[Mr. Sparkle]

21. Hell Yes. The American Taliban/Gop own the airwaves thanks to Regan.

They said a free market will help diversify the airwaves. My ass!
It can't come back soon enough.

[Doremus]

22. YES! And restrict media ownership too. nt

[camera obscura]

23. Absolutely not.

[blaze]

24. Not sure how to vote

I think the most critical issue is to break up the current monopoly. Is that part of the fairness doctrine?