The Fairness Doctrine
Help me find support for the claim that there is currently legislation before the Congress to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. Sarah Palin gave a speech on Greta van Susteren's show in which she claimed that a strategy of instituting the Fairness Doctrine to prevent questioning of the stimulus package was afoot: "it's these attempts in Congress that are being discussed at this point to shut down voices that are asking the tough questions [...] you guys are asking tough questions about what's in this [stimulus] package, and about what government's doing. And if there's any attempt to quash any of these voices, that's a scary thing for our democracy, for our country. So we have to keep our eyes and open, and our ears open also for that kind of discussion."
Here's the link to the video of the interview in which Palin makes the above claim. It's the second video down (the one below the interview with Governor Palin's daughter), and the relevant part begins with 40 seconds remaining:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/16/bristol-palin-interview-t_n_167409.html
Here's the only mention I can find of legislation to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, and it's from the first Clinton term:
http://www.heritage.org/research/regulation/em368.cfm
My theory is that Republicans of this Palin-stripe are ginning up support by portraying themselves as victims persecuted by Democrats eager to muzzle Republicans using the Orwellianly-named Fairness Doctrine. This doctrine is allegedly one that unfairly restrains debate of public policy by requiring equal time to be given on the airwaves to any political faction that opposes an issue.
To the best of my knowledge, there has been no attempt to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, nor is there currently such an attempt before the Congress. If I'm wrong, I'd like to know.
If I'm not wrong, then this ploy has wasted my time and yours, and we've talked about a non-issue, and we've chased down this red herring.
Here's the link to the video of the interview in which Palin makes the above claim. It's the second video down (the one below the interview with Governor Palin's daughter), and the relevant part begins with 40 seconds remaining:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/16/bristol-palin-interview-t_n_167409.html
Here's the only mention I can find of legislation to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, and it's from the first Clinton term:
http://www.heritage.org/research/regulation/em368.cfm
My theory is that Republicans of this Palin-stripe are ginning up support by portraying themselves as victims persecuted by Democrats eager to muzzle Republicans using the Orwellianly-named Fairness Doctrine. This doctrine is allegedly one that unfairly restrains debate of public policy by requiring equal time to be given on the airwaves to any political faction that opposes an issue.
To the best of my knowledge, there has been no attempt to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, nor is there currently such an attempt before the Congress. If I'm wrong, I'd like to know.
If I'm not wrong, then this ploy has wasted my time and yours, and we've talked about a non-issue, and we've chased down this red herring.