House Moves to Prohibit Return of Broadcast 'Fairness Doctrine

[Richard Tafoya]

NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/cq/2007/06/29/cq_2998.html

The extreme right wing of the Republican party can't function without one fear campaign or another to whip themselves into a frenzy. And another fear campaign gets exposed for the fraud it is.

The House voted Thursday to bar the Federal Communications Commission from reinstating the broadcast “fairness doctrine” even though there are no legislative or regulatory proposals to bring back the rule.

...

During floor debate on the spending bill, José E. Serrano, D-N.Y., chairman of the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee, quickly agreed to accept the amendment. But that didn’t stop Republicans from taking to the floor to warn of a free-speech threat on the airwaves.

In recent days, conservative talk show hosts, including Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, have cited public comments by Democratic Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts, Dianne Feinstein of California and Richard J. Durbin of Illinois as evidence that Democrats are trying to bring back the fairness doctrine.

...

House Appropriations Chairman David R. Obey, D-Wis., called the concerns an “effort by right-wing radio to gin up a fight that doesn’t exist.”


“I would not for a minute want to see Rush Limbaugh or good old Sean moderate,” Obey said. “I want to see the raw Rush. I want him and folks like him to be fully exposed to the American people, in all of their bloviating glory.”

[Regis Philbin]

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_062907/content/01125108.guest.html

OBEY: The right-wing radio today looks at those airwaves as being their own private preserve, and they're not going to give 'em up at all. But don't worry. I would not for a second want to see Rush Limbaugh moderate. I want to see the real, raw Rush. I want him and folks like him to be thoroughly and fully exposed to the American listening audience, in all of their bloviating glory. I want to let Rush be Rush, and that isn't going to bother me if he goes on for hours and hours with his one-sided diatribes. Everybody knows he's plugged directly into Republican national headquarters, and so in my view, he's virtually discredited, and I'd like to keep it that way.

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OBEY: I think we ought to let right-wing talk radio go on just as they do now. Rush and Sean are just about as important in the scheme of things, as Paris Hilton. I would hate to see them gain an ounce of credibility by being forced by a government agency or anybody else to moderate their views, and also that they just might become modestly influential or respectable.

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PENCE: The bipartisan vote that I expect will be recorded today will be an encouragement to people on the right, to people on the left, and people in the center; people in front of microphones and people listening to those people on microphones, because this House will say what some in the other body are not saying, and is that is, "We believe in freedom on the airwaves. We reject the archaic doctrines of the past that would have this federal government manage political speech on the public airwaves." It is time that we come together as a nation; we move past the archaic rules of broadcasting fashioned for a Depression-era America, and he embrace the dynamic national conversation that is the American media today.

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OBEY: There is no prospect of any serious effort to revive the Fairness Doctrine, either the legislatively or legally --

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OBEY: -- and so this has really been another political exercise. I've almost given up in expecting that substance will dominate legislative debate. I don't really expect, on issues like this, uh, to have much, uh, common sense in the House. Uh, you get six like-minded people in this institution, they talk to each other in the cloakroom, and they think they've conducted a public opinion poll. So all I would say is, I fundamentally disagree with the gentleman who indicated that, uh, this is a highly important vote.

[Regis Philbin]

Everybody knows he's plugged directly into Republican national headquarters, and so in my view, he's virtually discredited, and I'd like to keep it that way.

Yes, that's why he went against the GOP on the amnesty bill.

Rush and Sean are just about as important in the scheme of things, as Paris Hilton.

If they're so irrelevant, why do you libs get so worked up over them? Rush and Hannity combined have between 31 million and 43 million listeners. Paris Hilton would love those numbers for her show, I'm sure.

[Richard Tafoya]

Actually, they have the same listeners, so it's not cumulative. Limbaugh's weekly cume is 13.5MM and Hannity's is 12.5MM.

Combined, they reach around 13.5MM people weekly.

[pinky]

You'll have to forgive Regis, Richard. He was too old to attend Math class.

[Richard Tafoya]

Jeepers, Regis. Watch some adult education classes on UEN or something.