Debating The Fairness Doctrine

Or, how liberals (including former President Bill Clinton) can't stand the preferences exercised by the public in the free market of ideas on the radio, and must force their rhetorical nonsense on others in the name of "fairness":

"Well, you either ought to have the Fairness Doctrine or we ought to have more balance on the other side," Clinton said, "because essentially there's always been a lot of big money to support the right wing talk shows and let face it, you know, Rush Limbaugh is fairly entertaining even when he is saying things that I think are ridiculous...."

The second half of Bill Clinton's quote hits the nail on the head--Rush is entertaining. Disagree or not, Rush has built a brand that has a rather hefty following, and has been rewarded with an enormous audience and a similar amount of compensation. Liberals have tried, and failed, to duplicate conservative talk radio's success. It is clear that there is a market for liberal ideas given that Barack Obama was just elected President. That the moonbats at Air America were unable to capitalize on the resentment of President Bush in a way that lefty bloggers were indicates that there is either a format issue (liberals not as interested in radio) or that the product is simply awful. Either way, the government should have no role in deciding who is and who is not on the radio, nor should it determine the length or availability of response time in the interest of "fairness."

Sen. James Inhofe agrees:

But Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe said radio programming should be based on what brings in listeners and advertisers.

"I can't think of anything worse than to have government in a position to dictate the content of information going over public radio," said Inhofe, a Republican. "The whole idea is that it has to be market driven. We have a lot of progressive or liberal radio shows but nobody listens to them and every time one tries to get on, they are not successful."

Local AM talk show hosts have debated the need and also the imminent prospect of a return of the "Fairness Doctrine"--not surprisingly, they disagree, with conservatives blasting the concept on principle, and liberals supporting the idea as a way to promote "balance" on the airwaves.

"Fairness Doctrine"? Why don't they just try it the old-fashioned way--entertaining radio talent with some semblance of coherence that people, even those who disagree, might be inclined to listen to?

For liberals, if you don't like outcome, don't approach the battlefield of ideas differently, simply change the rules of the game.

Rocky Mountain News Inquiry Prompts Clinton Campaign To Remove "Bill In Blackface" Event From Web Site

"We've hired some high-end comedic talent to ease the way into Primary Day! Want to see HRC in cat-scratch mode? Bill in blackface? How about Mark Penn doling out pizza crusts and doughnut holes to the volunteers? We've got it all!"--Cleveland campaign event for Hillary Clinton

Wayward supporter or Obama's revenge for those photos?



From the Rocky:

Inquiries from the Rocky Mountain News prompted Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign to remove a supporter's "Bill in blackface?" event announcement from Clinton's official campaign Web site.

The notice appeared in an "action center" section of www.hillaryclinton.com where average supporters are allowed to publicize local events that are not necessarily sanctioned by the campaign.

In this case, the notice promised "Laughter at NAFTA Rally!" on Monday in downtown Cleveland.

The description:

"We've hired some high-end comedic talent to ease the way into Primary Day! Want to see HRC in cat-scratch mode? Bill in blackface? How about Mark Penn doling out pizza crusts and doughnut holes to the volunteers? We've got it all!"

The event was listed at:

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/actioncenter/event/view/?id=10076

An archived version of the announcement is available HERE.

Clinton spokesman Mo Elleithee called the language of the announcement "inappropriate and offensive."

"Any one of our supporters can host an event using the action network on our Web site and post it up there," Elleithee said. "If we ever find anything objectionable and it doesn't reflect what our campaign is about, we remove it, as we did in this case."

Whoops! A little too late in this case--not what Hillary needed at this moment.

Campaigns in the digital age will be forced to scrutinize all content provided through open-forum, user-generated sources. Great for organizing grass-roots supporters, but subject to the potential for misguided supporters inadvertently damaging their own candidate, or hacking by the opposition.

Posted by Republican Princess.

Hillary, Bill Clinton In Colorado

Today's funny lede:

Sen. Hillary Clinton and former President Clinton will be in Aspen this weekend, although for different reasons.

Ya think?