Fairness for what and whom

The Fairness Doctrine is back in the air, most recently inspired by the ever-witty John “El Ponderoso“Kerry as well as Mesdames Clinton, Boxer and Feinstein. They all seem concerned by the preponderance of conservative voices on talk radio. A lot of this stems from the embarrassing failure of Air America. (Note to “liberals” – why would you expect Air America to succeed? There already was a liberal station on the air whose quality is and was about a thousand times better than Air America. It’s called NPR. Why would anyone waste a second listening to Air America?)

But leaving that aside, what exactly is “fairness” and to whom do we give this coveted “equal time?” Anarcho-syndicalists? Royalists? Members of Opus Dei? Jihadists? Scientologists? Retired Mugwumps? Or do we just give equal time to Sean Hannity and Al Gore? (who already have their voices drilled so deeply in our brains we’ll never get them out)

Sorry, John, Hillary, Barbara and Dianne, last I checked this is a democracy. A Fairness Doctrine means fairness for you. It’s no more than a scam. And it’s deeply reactionary.