The universal sentiment on DKos is that these two "news" organizations, along with pretty much the rest of corporate MSM, are infuriating, intolerable, and actually dangerous.
We all agree that something needs to be done, and are working our arses off to do something really significant on November 4th.
Read below the jump on what to do starting November 5th.
One of the things we should all look forward to under an Obama presidency and Democrat supermajority is the restoration of the 1949 Fairness Doctrine (or Rep. Slaughter's [NY-28] Media Act), which Ronald Ray-gun vetoed in 1987 when it was voted as law by a Congress unable to override the veto (the Congressional Vote was supported by J. Helms and N. Gingrich, so it "weren't just no Republican thingy! Also.").
Thank you, Sarah Palin, for that straight talkin' "plain speech"...but I digress!
The Fairness Doctrine corrects three things we at DKos have noted continually:
- Because broadcast licenses cost significant money, conglomerates are currently the only organizations that can buy airtime. They then put up the Michael "Autism Racket" Savages, Rush "Teen Sex" Limbaughs, and Ann "Harpies" Coulters of the world as their preferred opinion voices. These conglomerates are the ones who then give us the lie that "no one wants to buy airtime for center-left voices," but think about it: if the only talk radio and cable stations we can access are controlled by these conglomerates, and in turn these are the only places advertisers can go, then there is no alternative for them. The Fairness Doctrine/Media Act will demand equal time for the public airwaves, and thus, equal opportunity for advertisers/viewpoints.
- To see what political advertising looked like under the Fairness Doctrine, take a look at the the political ads from 1960 (the race closest, IMHO, to 2008) on this site. Five minute ads? Actual comparisons of policy? You must be kidding, right?
- Far from limiting free speech, this actually would has the effect of moving discourse back into the public arena, where it can become civilized once it moves from "entertainment" (Limbaugh, Coulter, O'Reilly, and other non-serious commentators) to opinions vying for serious consideration (we all saw how childish and churlish McSame looked while "debating" a more serous Obama, who had the facts, and we need more of the same). As Rep. Slaughter put it in her interview with Bill Moyers, "If they [the conglomerates] owned the airwaves, then I'd probably have no complaint. But they don't. It belongs to us. Part of our democracy. It's part of the ability that we have to contact our citizens. It's a way that we want our children to grow up with some understanding of what this country is about and what it's based on and what their choices are."
Rep. Slaughter has been a voice in the wilderness for too long, and she needs some "Real Americans" to join her. We've always said we hated the coarse, juvenile, Rovian sound bite crap that we all despise every four years (and on the news every night); now is our chance to do something about it!
This is one of the many things I'm going to be fighting for come Nov.5th. What about you?