AGK: America’s Gotta Know

This Newsmax.com article is being reprinted in its entirety and unedited, as follows…

It’s been reported that Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow wants hearings on “accountability” in radio, suggesting Democrats are eyeing a return of the Fairness Doctrine.

What’s not been widely reported is that the Michigan lawmaker is married to a media executive with ties to left-wing radio.

During a recent interview with syndicated radio-host Bill Press, Stabenow said: “I think it’s absolutely time to pass a standard. Now, whether it’s called the ‘fairness standard,’ whether it’s called something else — I absolutely think it’s time to be bringing accountability to the airwaves.”

She didn’t mention that her husband Tom Athans is the co-founder and former CEO of Democracy Radio, which supported “progressive” talk radio, and was executive vice president for programming at left-wing Air America.

Columnist Camille Paglia recently wrote: “Debbie Stabenow, who has been in the aggressive forefront of the campaign to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, is married to Tom Athans, who works extensively with left-wing radio organizations and was once the executive vice-president of Air America, the liberal radio syndicate that, despite massive publicity from major media, has failed miserably to win a national audience.

“Stabenow’s outrageous conflict of interest has of course been largely ignored by the prestige press, which should have been demanding that she recuse herself from all political involvement with this issue.”

Originally instituted in 1949 by the FCC, the Fairness Doctrine required broadcasters using the public airwaves to give equal time to opposing political views. The FCC repealed the measure in 1987.

Since talk radio is overwhelmingly dominated by conservative hosts, and liberal talk radio draws few listeners, the “equal time” provision would likely force many radio stations to pull popular conservative hosts from the air rather than air low-rated liberal hosts.

“I remain incredulous that any Democrat who professes liberal values would give a moment’s thought to supporting a return of the Fairness Doctrine to muzzle conservative shows,” Paglia opined.

“Government surveillance of the ideological content of talk radio is a shocking first step toward totalitarianism.”

Liberal Senators aren’t content to enjoy a virtual propaganda monopoly on every media outlet. They want to mandate “fairness” or equal time on talk radio, too, despite the fact that it would be economically unviable for radio stations to do so because it’s been proven that virtually no one listens. Why would they, when they can get their fill of liberalism and socialism on ABC, CBS, NBC, most cable news and prevalently on the Internet.

Listen to the ridiculous arguments that these Senators have in support of the “Fairness Doctrine” and, conversely, the intelligent arguments opposed to the equivalent of government censorship, in this WND article…
http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=88603

Liberal Democrats and Republicans are at it again with their interest to undermine freedom of speech and the free market by reinstituting a federal mandate to be placed upon media outlets that would dictate their commentary programming despite the economic viability of such programming. “The policy of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that became known as the ‘Fairness Doctrine’ is an attempt to ensure that all coverage of controversial issues by a broadcast station be balanced and fair”. Here’s a link to more information on the “Fairness Doctrine”…
http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/F/htmlF/fairnessdoct/fairnessdoct.htm

This FCC policy which was instituted in 1949 was eliminated early in the Reagan Administration and there have been several attempts by Congress to put it into law, however, it has always met with Presidential veto.

It seems, despite President Obama’s statement during the campaign to not be interested in revisiting this because diversity is something to be encouraged on the airwaves, he has recently been quite vocal about his opinion of talk radio by making statements like “You can’t just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done.” His position and proposals presented on the the White House website mirror those of a liberal think tank report published by John Podesta in June, 2007 called “The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio”. Now, many in Congress appear to be lining up to pen legistation to this effect, which will certainly get rubber stamp approval by Obama. Here’s the full WND article…
http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=88113

As we all know, the reality is that the only way there can be any “fairness” in broadcasting today is for freedom of speech to prevail and for the free market to dictate what programmers will air. Liberals have tried many times to create liberal commentary shows like Air America, however, they never last because nobody listens to and/or watches them. Thinking and intuitive people, those who subscribe to the values and beliefs of our founding fathers and know that adhering to this is what made America the great nation it is today, naturally gravitate to conservatism and that’s the reason for the resounding success of conservative talk radio and cable shows. The mainstream media is on longer a news outlet, but is predominantly a commentary and advertising conduit for liberal policies and proposals. Conservative talk radio and television is required so the American people have an opportunity to understand the other side to that which they are bombarded via the mainstream media. If it is gone, there is nothing to fuel and inform those of us who are interested in taking action to counteract the socialist assault which is currently being perpetrated upon our great nation by the mainstream media, the Obama administration and Congress.

This CANNOT happen. Please contact your Congressmen to let them know how you feel about this. You can, also, sign and forward to others, WND’s petition which will be presented to Congress…
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=87882