LA Times James Rainy Has Been Sleeping Too Much

Los Angeles Times media critic, James Rainy is obviosly had his head in the sand, claiming that "nobody is asking for the fairness doctrine." Either that, or he's just a plain ol' liar and/or incompetent as a journalist.

Maybe he missed these few gems from the Democrat side of the isle:

First from "Project 21"

Unmasking the Myths Behind the Fairness Doctrine from the Media Research Center and Culture and media Institute-PDF format.

From Stop the ACLU-The Fairness Doctrine...What You May Not Know

From the Heritage Foundation

And to be (somewhat) fair, here is a convincing, yet rediculoustake on the fairness doctrine from CommonDreams.org

And how about some direct quotes from Democrat supports of this farce?

John Kerry,
"I think the Fairness Doctrine ought to be there, and I also think equal time doctrine ought to come back," he said on the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC. "These are the people that wiped out ... one of the most profound changes in the balance of the media is when the conservatives got rid of the equal time requirements and the result is that they have been able to squeeze down and squeeze out opinion of opposing views and I think its been a very important transition in the imbalance of our public eye."

Federal Communications Commissioner, Robert M. McDowell,
"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. Then, whoever is in charge of government is going to determine what is fair, under a so-called ‘Fairness Doctrine,’ which won’t be called that – it’ll be called something else,” McDowell said. “So, will Web sites, will bloggers have to give equal time or equal space on their Web site to opposing views rather than letting the marketplace of ideas determine that?"

Hillary Clinton,
"We have got to do something about this, these are nothing but far-right wing extremists. We’ve got to have a balance, there’s got to be a legislative fix to this."

Nancy Pelosi, from Accuracy in Media

Louis Slaughter in an interview with Bill Moyers,
BILL MOYERS: Well, you know some serious people, including some liberals have said that one reason Rush Limbaugh has succeeded is because he is good entertainment.

LOUISE SLAUGHTER: Exactly. He doesn't make any pretense of being a news person or even telling you the truth. He says he's an entertainer.

BILL MOYERS: And you're saying that kind of discourse is dominating America right now.

LOUISE SLAUGHTER: Dominating America and a waste of good broadcast time and a waste of our airwaves.

BILL MOYERS: Not to the people who agree with him.

LOUISE SLAUGHTER: Well, they don't hear anything else. Why would they disagree with him?

They don't hear anything else? Really? Then what is NPR and Air America, I mean before it failed miserably and went bankrupt?

Dennis Kucinich on CNN's Lou Dobbs,




Dianne Feinstein,
"In my view, talk radio tends to be one-sided. It also tends to be dwelling in hyperbole," she said. "It's explosive. It pushes people to, I think, extreme views without a lot of information."
And,
"I believe very strongly that the airwaves are public and people use these airwaves for profit. But there is a responsibility to see that both sides and not just one side of the big public questions of debate of the day are aired and are aired with some modicum of fairness."

Here's Feinstein on Hannity & Colmes along with the always "controversial" (only because she's conservative, Ann Coulter:



Chuck Schumer,
"The very same people who don’t want the Fairness Doctrine want the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] to limit pornography on the air. I am for that… But you can’t say government hands off in one area to a commercial enterprise but you are allowed to intervene in another. That’s not consistent."





Comparing political free speech to pornography?
Again these hypocrites see no "equal time" in letting conservative views be heard in Hollywood, mainstream magazines, major universities, major news broadcasts, etc.

Remember the First Amendment’s guarantee that "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press."
Just par for the course in Liberal Land.
Did I say Rainy had his head in the sand? Clearly I should have said it's up his tucus!

Furtermore, if there's any doubt to the Democrats plan to destroy conservative radio, check out this comment from Bill Ruder, Democratic campaign consultant and Assistant Secretary of Commerce, Kennedy Administration,
"Our massive strategy was to use the Fairness Doctrine to challenge and harass right-wing broadcasters and hope the challenges would be so costly to them that they would be inhibited and decide it was too expensive to continue."

And as far as the liberals presidential hero, JFK goes, he said himself:
"We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people." That is precisely why the Fairness Doctrine is on the rise again - liberal elements of our government fear an informed electorate.

The more things change, the more they stay the same I guess.