The socialists tested the “fairness doctrine” and found people don’t like it.  So the socialist Democrats did as they so often do, they are relabeling the same bad idea with a different name.  Then they let Obama insolate himself from it by him publicly stating he opposes the fairness doctrine.  The next day legislation is introduced in Congress doing what Obama says he opposes and it’s introduced by his socialist Democrat allies.

In a straight party-line vote, Democrats chose to adopt Senator Durbin’s amendment 591, which calls on the FCC to ‘encourage and promote diversity in communication media ownership and to ensure that broadcast station licenses are used in the public interest,’ and essentially makes an end-run around the fairness doctrine.   The socialist Democrats are corrupt and want NO one else to be able to oppose them.

Sen. Inhofe (R-OK) said, “This legislation is so incredibly vague and so potentially far-reaching that I can’t say with any certainty what the end result will be. This is not good governance and it is not good legislative practice to cede such authority to any agency of our government, especially when the right to speak freely over the airwaves will most certainly be impacted.

“Not only do I continue stand firm in my opposition to the fairness doctrine, but I am adamantly opposed to any attempt aimed at regulating the airwaves, such as broadcast localism, more stringent licensing requirements, and vague diversity regulations aimed at an industry whose authorizing authority is the First Amendment to the Constitution. I intend to fight against the regulation of free speech, not just the Fairness Doctrine, but in all its various forms. Let this be a warning, just as the Fairness Doctrine has always been a loser for the left, so too will any infringement upon the free speech of the American people.”

So we’ve potentially taken away the threat of the fairness doctrine, which requires broadcasters to “present controversial issues of public importance in an equitable and balanced manner,” and replaced it with “encouraging and promoting diversity in communication media ownership.” At least with the fairness doctrine, broadcasters had an initial choice of how to interpret “controversial issues of public importance” before answering to the FCC, but this new authority gives all the power to a government agency and none to the people of the broadcast industry. One thing that I know, when you take choice out of the market, and when you impose government’s will on an industry, that market and that industry will suffer, and that is exactly what Senator Durbin’s legislation attempts to accomplish. What was once the Fairness Doctrine has now become the Durbin Doctrine.

What, I ask, does “encourage and promote diversity in communication media ownership” even mean?  If I were an FCC commissioner, I wouldn’t know what to do with this language, and in any other line of work I’d send it directly back with a little note attached asking to please be more specific. But federal agencies love this kind of language because it gives them greater leeway to interpret it however they like and impose their will upon the industry that they regulate. The socialist democrats who promoted this amendment like this type of language because it (1) means that they don’t have to spend the time drafting quality legislation aimed at solving a specific problem, and (2) means that they can disavow their true intention of having greater government regulation of the airwaves.

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