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Swamp Stomper Alert: Fairness Doctrine Not Just for Talk Radio

From the Business and Media institute: [1]

There’s a huge concern among conservative talk radio hosts that reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine would all-but destroy the industry due to equal time constraints. But speech limits might not stop at radio. They could even be extended to include the Internet and “government dictating content policy.”

FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell raised that as a possibility after talking with bloggers at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. McDowell spoke about a recent FCC vote to bar Comcast from engaging in certain Internet practices – expanding the federal agency’s oversight of Internet networks.

The commissioner, a 2006 President Bush appointee, told the Business & Media Institute the Fairness Doctrine could be intertwined with the net neutrality battle. The result might end with the government regulating content on the Web, he warned. McDowell, who was against reprimanding Comcast, said the net neutrality effort could win the support of “a few isolated conservatives” who may not fully realize the long-term effects of government regulation.

“I think the fear is that somehow large corporations will censor their content, their points of view, right,” McDowell said. “I think the bigger concern for them should be if you have government dictating content policy, which by the way would have a big First Amendment problem.”

If there’s anything that’s at all shocking about this, it’s that this particular red flag has not been raised before. The leftards figure that the government will silence the right and leave them to do their thing.

As VodkaPundit observes… [2]

Not that any sane person needs a scare tactic to despise the “fairness” doctrine. And, let’s be honest, a web-controlling FD would hurt the Netroots far more than the libertarian-right where I make my home.

Snce when, however did sanity per se have anytthing to do with the left?  Silly little minions; they actually trust government not to grow into THEIR territory.

Time to raise the black flag, folks. Actually, as someone who still has some roots in the broadcast industry, I’ll say it past time, rather.

Parting shot: Does anyone doubt that if the Democrats maintain their hold on Congress, and/or if Obama gets to the White House, this thing will not become law before the echo dies?