Radio Free America

First Amendment: Sen. Dianne Feinstein and the liberal left have a problem with unfettered free speech on talk radio and are calling for government regulation. Is it because in the marketplace of ideas they're bankrupt?

The question about conservative domination of talk radio was initially directed at Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., on "Fox News Sunday." Host Chris Wallace inquired about a Lott remark in the context of the immigration-reform debate, "Talk radio is running America; we have to deal with that problem."

Lott went on to say that "the onus is not on them, it's on us to do a better job of communicating what we're trying to do." He pointedly rejected the resurrection of the Fairness Doctrine suggested by fellow guest Feinstein, saying: "I don't think this Fairness Doctrine that would try to require that there be X amount on both sides is fair."

Feinstein whined that "talk radio tends to be one-sided," that it "tends also to be dwelling in hyperbole, and pushes people to, I think, extreme views without a lot of information." You know, like any given commentary by Rosie O'Donnell on "The View."

When Wallace asked her if she would revive the Fairness Doctrine, a First Amendment infringement justifiably killed by the Reagan administration's FCC in 1987, she said, "I'm looking at it."

Feinstein fondly remembered that "when there was a Fairness Doctrine, I think there was much more serious correct reporting to people."

What there was, in fact, was a group of speech commissars deciding who got to say what and when. It was the doctrine's repeal that restored the intent of the First Amendment and gave rise to talk radio which, with the liberal left's domination of Hollywood, national newspapers and the three major networks, was the only alternative outlet at the time.

Since then, we've seen the advent of the Internet, the blogosphere and 24-hour cable news. The anti-free-speech crowd has put one finger in the dike with that repeal of the First Amendment known as McCain-Feingold. It is supported by those who think citizens banding together in a democracy to try to influence an election and legislation is somehow corrupting. But talk radio remains unshackled.

Earlier this year, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, head of the new House domestic policy subcommittee, appeared at the National Conference for Media Reform, held in Memphis, Tenn., where he committed himself to reviving the Fairness Doctrine.

Last Thursday, a group calling itself the Center for American Progress issued a report titled "The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio" and complaining that of the top 257 news/talk radio stations, 91% of the programming was on the right.

It's OK, of course, if nearly nine of 10 media people contribute to Democratic political candidates, as an MSNBC investigative report recently showed, or that a 2004 Pew Research Center survey showed that five times as many national journalists called themselves liberal versus conservative. No Fairness Doctrine needed when the liberals are dominant.

There's a reason people like Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, Michael Medved, Larry Elder and others rule talk radio while liberal attempts at coherence like Air America, heard only by the station's janitorial staff and a few others, go bankrupt. People like their opinions and their facts. Talk radio is a business, after all. But we forget -- liberals hate capitalism as much as they hate free speech.

The liberal mantra seems to be: We disagree with what you say and will defend to the death our right to restrict it.