Well, it seems that they're at it again.

As is my custom on days when I'm not in a classroom, nor when checking the stock, I listen to talk radio. Doesn't matter which show, just so long as the content is intelligent. This morning I was listening to Laura Ingraham (intelligent and hot...great combination) and she mentioned that Representative Dennis Kucinich (Communist-Ohio) wants to pass legislation to reinstitute the "fairness doctrine" in American broadcasting.

Lovely.

Why is it what when liberals/leftists can't convince people of the validity of their positions they have to silence those who oppose them? I'll answer my own question by saying it's because they know their positions are both invalid and indefensible. Fairness, to them, means that they get a hearing and that's the end of that.

In the marketplace of ideas liberalism has failed. The Air America radio "network" (what was it? All of three stations in New York, Los Angeles and San Fransicko?) is a prime example. Between the stultifyingly un-funny Al Franken and the homicidally obsessed Randi Rhodes, there was no substance to their programming. Oh, they may have given leftist/freak-monger Jerry Springer a show, but dime museum ten-in-ones don't translate well to radio...and how much political content can you get out of brothers and sisters marrying? Air America was a product no one wanted to buy and it died a quick death.

An argument can be made that a free society needs all viewpoints to be heard, and that's a good point except that all viewpoints are NOT heard.

The three broadcast networks skew heavily leftward in more than just news reporting. Look at some of the situation comedies that have been aired in recent years. Will and Grace? Yes, let's hack on heterosexuality and make homosexuality appear normal. Law and Order? (Yes, I know it's not a sitcom) This series has taken advocacy positions on non-crime issues ranging from gun control to spousal abuse. While I don't favor spousal abuse, I do believe the laws need to apply equally to men and women...I don't accept Hollywood's attitude that men are beasts and women are always victims. Where's the fairness doctrine on that score? Where's a series showing a man being threatened by a crazed female? Nowhere. It's not PC, therefor, it won't be filmed.

Okay, I digressed.

Conservatism has had to develop an intellectual arsenal in order to compete with the prevailing liberal power structure in Washington. As a result, Conservatives have become quite skilled at deconstructing and analyzing liberal policy proposals, and Conservative entertainers (what few there are) have found plenty of liberals to skewer and make sport of.

And the liberals don't like it.

They don't enjoy having their flaws pointed out. They don't like being the butt of the joke. It just isn't right!!! WE'RE supposed to be making fun of THEM!!! That's the whine coming from the left and guess what? WE DON'T CARE WHAT YOU LIKE!!! We've been painted as humorless stick in the muds for years, and now that you're the ones who are shown as being hidebound and a bit dim (c'mon...Ted Kennedy isn't precisely a genius, and Joe Biden is as bright as a two watt lightbulb), you can't stand it.

Thus, to stop all the unfair picking on them the Democrats want to reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine.

The Fairness Doctrine would silence Conservative talk radio, silence Conservative blog sites, and be used to take cable channels that allow Conservative voices on them down the path of bland liberal sameness. In other words, we'd be back in those halcyon days of the 1970s, just without the fashion sense.

Frankly, I doubt it would silence Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity. Those two have somewhere in the neighborhood of 40,000,000 listeners between them, but smaller audience shows, such as Dennis Prager or Laura Ingraham would end up going the way of the Smilodon. To balance out powerhouses such as Limbaugh, we'd probably end up with someone like Franken or *gad* Alan Colmes on a national basis. Colmes' idiocy is bad enough on Fox News, but the thought of that moron having a national show that would actually have listeners (his current radio show is not exactly a ratings winner, as I am led to believe) makes me want to puke. I have no problem with thinking liberals, fellas like Juan Williams, but the reflexive idiots like Colmes or the drug-addled Communists like Franken are a bit much.

Let's hope that Kucinich's plan falls by the wayside...if for no other reason than to keep radio interesting.

(hat tip to Laura Ingraham)