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Despite the absence of any action pending to re-enact the so-called "Fairness Doctrine," congressional Republicans have nonetheless introduced legislation to prevent its passage, insisting that Democrats are advancing a quiet agenda to silence conservative talk radio.Whether Americans realize it or not, say Republican lawmakers, "Free speech is under attack."For their part, several Democrats have denied there's any attempt underway to reestablish the "Fairness Doctine," insisting the GOP is trumping up paranoia that amounts to "much ado about nothing."So which is it?In 1949 the Federal Communications Commission adopted a policy that required broadcasters to devote airtime to the public interest and to air opposing viewpoints when discussing controversial and political issues. The FCC abandoned the policy in 1987, paving the way for talk radio to explode from fewer than 150 stations nationwide to more than 3,000.The majority of the country's talk radio programs are politically conservative, prompting some, as WND has reported, to long for a more "balanced" menu."For many, many years, we operated under a Fairness Doctrine in this country," Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., told Albuquerque radio station KKOB last year. "I think the country was well-served. I think the public discussion was at a higher level and more intelligent in those days than it has become since."Former broadcaster Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., however, sees the policy as an attack on First Amendment rights. "Bringing back the Fairness Doctrine would amount to government control over political views expressed on the public airwaves," Pence has said in opposition to the policy. "It is a dangerous proposal to suggest the government should be in the business of rationing free speech."Now Pence is one of 200 Republican legislators to have co-sponsored the Broadcaster Freedom Act of 2009, denoted as H.R. 226 in the House of Representatives and S. 34 in the Senate, which seeks to permanently ban the federal government from reinstating the "Fairness Doctrine."It's not the first time Pence has rallied Congress to his cause. In 2007, Pence sponsored an amendment in the U.S. House, which passed by a wide margin and placed a one-year ban on the "Fairness Doctrine."At the time, however, many Democrats, led by Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., denied any interest in resurrecting the policy and accused Republicans of using the issue as a publicity stunt.Obey called Pence's amendment "much ado about nothing" and "sound and fury, signifying nothing.""That's a completely made-up issue," the press secretary to Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., recently told Marin Cogan of the New Republic, stressing that Durbin has "no plans, no language, no nothing" to bring the FCC policy back.Recent developments, however, have led congressional Republicans to believe that Democrats have already begun stealthily slipping the "Fairness Doctrine" back onto the table....By Drew Zahn
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