February 26th 2009
A Stake Through The Heart … But Is It An Ash Stake?
V
ampire fiction fans know that it’s not enough to put just any stake through the heart of a vampire; it had better be a stake made of ash wood; otherwise, to borrow the Billy Crystal/Miracle Max line from Princess Bride, the vampire may be just mostly dead. (Hawthorn wood is acceptable in Serbia, oak in Silesia.)
Such is the case with the Fairness Doctrine, which got some kind of stake through its heart today when the Senate voted 87-11 in favor of an amendment to the DC voting-rights bill that would prohibit the FCC from reinstating the Fairness Doctrine. (What does the Fairness Doctrine have to do with DC voting, you ask? C’mon, this is Congress we’re talking about here.)
Michelle Malkin reports, though:
The DeMint amendment passes 87-11, but as Sen. DeMint Tweets: “Our ban on Fairness Doctrine passes 87-11. But fight not over, Dems have attacked from back door on media ownership, localism.”
That back door would be Turban Durbin’s amendment, which DeMint says …
… would achieve the same goals of the Fairness Doctrine through backdoor FCC regulations. His legislation forces the FCC to “take actions to encourage and promote diversity in communication media ownership,” an attempt to dismantle successful syndicated radio programs. The Durbin amendment would hurt small, local radio stations who depend on popular syndicated programming for listeners and revenue.
Whoa, hold on here Dickie. When the FCC dropped the Fairness Doctrine over 20 years ago it was because the agency found it no longer served a purpose since the public had a wide array of political news sources to choose from. In the mid-1980s! That was before cable, the Internet, blogs, Twitter and all the rest.
There is no rationale to bring it back – so be careful! That means irrational Dems are hard at work.
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