Why the right fears the Fairness Doctrine
Republicans Seek Specifics From FCC on Fairness Doctrine Departure
Top House Energy & Commerce Committee Republicans thanked FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski Wednesday for saying he planned to strike the Fairness Doctrine from the Code of Federal Regulations, but said they wanted more info on when and how he was going to do that, as well as on other regs that could be ripe for repeal.
Among the questions they want answered: “When precisely will you eliminate the Fairness Doctrine and related regulations,” what is involved, do the other commissioners support it and how long it will take.
The doctrine required TV stations to air controversial issues of public importance and seek out opposing viewpoints. Also still on the books are corollaries to the doctrine providing for free response time for personal attacks and providing equal time for other candidates if a station endorsed a candidate in an editorial. The corollaries were repealed by the FCC in 2000 but the legislators want those deep-sixed as well, which Genachowski said he expected would happen.</em>
Now, right off the bat, let me say I find the Fairness Doctrine- which is basically just the state telling us what can or cannot be said in public- to be profoundly unconstitutional. So before my libertarian friends heads explode, I have no desire to see it return, purely on constitutional grounds.
I only wish the right felt the same way. See, conservatives have no problem limiting free speech, be it that of a doctor in Florida asking about guns in the home to new parents, or potential protesters at their debates, but the notion that their ability to spew nonsense 24/7 on cable news without debate could be challenged by an alternative viewpoint, well, that’s just a bridge too far for these fair weather defenders of freedom.
To some, this would appear to be yet another example of GOP hypocrisy in action, and to some extent it is. But beyond that, and far more chilling, is what this disconnect really points to- the actual motivation behind all right wing actions for at least the last thirty years- winning. The right has adopted Lombardi’s “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” as their motto, and its their guiding principle on everything. Free speech requires debate- it can’t be called “free speech” if only one side gets to talk- and in the process of debating someone, you are forced to not only discuss their side of an issue, you’re forced to defend your own.
And therein lies the rub. I recently read Hofstadter’s Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, and while I had been aware of the notion before, his 1964 examination of the topic really drove the point home, that rather than being a by-product of conservative belief systems, it was the underlying foundation of them all. Conservatives tend to be more of the “true believer” type than liberals; its been this way since church leaders railed against education in our early days, because they knew that an inquiring mind may well one day discover fault in their previously held notions and abandon them, thus diminishing the power of the church, or the state- or the GOP. Much of the true believer mentality is rooted in religious faith, and since the bedrock tenet of faith- “a belief in things unseen”- means it cannot be proven, its understandable that any group vested in this belief would not welcome debate, for it would ultimately lose. This is the reason the right fears the Fairness Doctrine- not out of some liberty loving Constitutional fervor, but rather the fear that honest open debate would leave them on the losing side, and that would mean that not only their ideas, but they themselves would be forced to change, and for many, that is a terrifying notion. A popular bumper sticker states “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it”. That is the belief system of a closed mind, fearful of debate.
And when the true believers are forced to defend their beliefs and lose, then suddenly debate is vital. Take the fraudulent “teach the controversy” movement among creationists. There is no debate over evolution, the science of the issue has been repeatedly tested, thousands of times. And the faithful know this, it is why they have to rely on the power of the state to force people to hear their erroneous notion of the origins of life. Same with climate change, peak oil, WMDs, and the “choice” of homosexuality. These topics have been debated, tested, and conclusions reached. Just because a small, yet very vocal minority of people don’t happen to like the answers, doesn’t mean the debate is still open- it just means their viewpoint, after examination, was found to be false.
So when Rush Limbaugh begins yet another harangue about the perils of liberals forcing the Fairness Doctrine back into law- as he sees it, a part of a master plan to kill conservative speech- take it for what it is. It’s just fear of being shown to be wrong. As the saying goes, “Any belief worth having must survive doubt”. So the next time you hear some right wing blowhard clutching their prayer beads and bemoaning “fairness”, understand its just fear talking, and take pity on them. Because to live your life by principles and beliefs you know in your heart you cannot defend, that must be a scary life indeed.
