Well sort of.Unable to achieve success in talkradio via the free market, liberals now plan to use government intervention to achieve their goals of more "liberal voices" on the air. Senators Hillary Clinton and Barbara Boxer want to bring back the so-called "fairness doctrine" and other regulations to "balance" programming. Its not just the liberals who are after talkradio but Republicans such as Trent Lott upset that their "free ride" on many conservative programs is over.
As reported by The National Review, longtime Clinton crony John Podesta has authored a treatise on what has to be done about the "problem" of conservative talkradio.
What's next? Are they going to outlaw blogs?
See the problem for you liberals is you might be able to try to outlaw the speech you don't like. However, the dangerous precedent you set will eventually come back to harm you when your opponents are in charge.
If it were up to some of the members of the City Council and the Mayor, laws might be passed that would impose government control on radio programs such as that of Doug McIntyre (pictured above) or blogs like this.
And even if the liberals get their laws, its likely they won't have the intended goals. Should stations be able to air unfettered and wildly profitable conservative talkradio programs, they will drop the format and political coverage altogether in favor of talk programming similar to Howard Stern or Tom Leykis or even other formats such as sports, music or foreign language broadcasts. And even if the government mandates certain types of programming be covered (such as they once did with community affairs programming) the broadcasters will find ways around those rules, such as airing the programs at 7:00 a.m. on a Sunday (as many still do voluntarily).
The best bet is to let everyone express their views and then let them be judged in the marketplace of ideas. But do liberals get that? I imagine some do but their numbers are shrinking everyday.
