During the election season there was no mention in the mainstream media of an outdated policy called the “Fairness Doctrine”, yet it was on the minds of many conservatives. The Fairness Doctrine existed in this country at one time. The basic premise was that if a media outlet presented one point of view, equal time had to be given to the opposing view point. However, under President Reagan the FCC in the 1980’s did away with the “Fairness Doctrine” because it is blatant violation of the First Amendment. One reason this doctrine fell out of favor was because in 1978 NBC did a show on the Holocaust, and they were sued because a group wanted equal time to talk about how the Holocaust was a myth.

Now one might ask why this is an issue if the FCC did away with this policy in the 1980’s? The reason is because there are many in the House and Senate who would like to revive this vile piece of legislation and Senator Chuck Schumer is leading the charge. Many on the left despise the likes of Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Laura Ingram, and other right/independent radio talk show hosts, simply because they are successful and Left Wing Talk Radio (Air America) is not.

So one might ask: ok fair is good right? In this case the answer is a resounding NO. First of all, privately owned radio stations, that do not receive public money, air Rush, Sean, Bill, and others. The way a radio station makes money is through its advertisers and advertisers buy time for shows that have a popular draw. Again these are privately owned entities, which are not beholden to the Federal Government, therefore radio stations would be bankrupted should they have to air liberal talk show hosts. Advertisers do not buy time for shows that do not have mass appeal. But it is not only right leaning talk shows that would be put out of business; it is also Christian Radio as well. Remember, the Fairness Doctrine states that if you present one point of view, equal time must be given to an opposing point of view. So for example: if a Christian station did a show any Biblical Principal equal time would need to be given to someone who is a Satanist.

So maybe you are asking yourself: why on earth would the House and Senate, led by Sen. Chuck Schumer adopt such a stance and why would a President Obama sign such a blatant First Amendment squashing bill? The answer is because they wish to silence their critics. Talk Radio has given Conservatives a voice and the Left hates that. Without the voice of people like Rush, Sean, Mark Levine, and Laura Ingram it is likely much of what was learned about Sen. Obama would not have been without much digging. Simply because the main stream media was in the tank for Obama during the election cycle and they did not vet him.

The other issue with regards to the Fairness Doctrine, that has not been discussed as much, is the fact that it will not require an act of Congress to be enacted. Remember it was a FCC regulation, and the FCC is run by 5 people, 2 Republicans, 2 Democrats and the 5th person is appointed at the pleasure of the President. In June 2009, the now Presidential appointee will step down because his term is up and President Obama will appoint the 5th person, thus giving the liberals the tie breaking vote. Senator Obama is beholden to the far left of the Democratic Party, as well as Moveon.org, who would like nothing more than to silence any critic of the left. Additionally, Senator Obama wishes to increase the “Hate Crimes” statues to include speech as well. Hate speech, while evil, is also subjective to the one who defines it.

So what do we do? This is a huge one; this will take a mass effort of contacting Senators and House Members, the FCC itself, and President-elect Obama to keep this from being reenacted. To reenact the Fairness Doctrine is to silence the critics of the upcoming administration and to remove voices of dissent. This is completely un-American and again falls under Marxism. One reason our Nation has withstood the test of time is because no one gets so much power as to silence the dissenting voices. One only needs to look at countries like the former Soviet Union, North Korea, China, and Cuba to see the evil that permeates when people cannot speak out. Every free society needs gadflies, it does not matter which political party is in the majority to continue being free. A current example of silencing free speech by government mandate that happened just this week took place in Iran. President Ahmadinejad became angry at an Iranian Newspaper because the headline stated; “Why Doesn’t Iran Have an Obama?” For that the newspaper was closed (see story here: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,449945,00.html ).

There is a small amount of good news to this attempted revival of the Fairness Doctrine; there are many moderate and conservative Democrats who do not believe in it, as well as some members of the liberal media. I believe they know that if any group in our society is silenced, it won’t be long before they are next. However, we must remember that the movement is afoot to silence the dissenters and this can happen without Congress’ action. First radio, then television, then the internet, our churches, and our homes, many times we sit back and say this or that can’t happen this is America, but to believe that is deceiving. People in Nazi Germany, in the former Soviet Union, in Cuba, and China believed that at one time too. Many people in the incoming administration do not hold the view that a free society is a good thing. They believe that the government knows best and they will do all they can to take our liberties away one at a time, if we are not prayerfully vigilant and aware.