Media Research Center Director of Communications and NewsBusters.org Contributing Editor Seton Motley appeared on today's Your World with Neil Cavuto on the Fox News Channel to discuss radical leftist Henry Rivera, President-elect Barack Obama's appointee to oversee the Administration's Federal Communications Commission (FCC) transition process, and its implications for the future of free speech in America.
Many members of the Democratic Party, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have stated their desire for a return of the so-called Fairness Doctrine, more rightly called the Censorship Doctrine for it would force conservative talk radio hosts off the air.
But no Congressional action is required to bring back the Fairness Doctrine. All the Obama Administration has to do is make one appointment to the FCC, turning a 3-2 Republican FCC majority into a 3-2 Democratic one, and it can again be reinstated. Republican Robert McDowell's term ends in June 2009.
Rivera is a former FCC Commissioner; he resigned in 1985. Then President Ronald Reagan replaced him with Commissioner Patricia Diaz Dennis, who in 1987 voted with the 3-2 FCC majority to rescind the so-called Fairness Doctrine. Since then, conservative talk radio has flourished and many attempts by the Left to compete in the arena have failed miserably (Air Amerca, anyone)?
So the Left has decided if you can't beat them, censor them. Hence their desire to bring back the Doctrine.
