Bring Back The Fairness Doctrine!

As a liberal living in a VERY conservative part of the country (Southeast Texas) it can be very difficult and frustrating at times.  Conversations with friends and coworkers inevitibly end with my issuing of the following statement:  If you dont stop getting your 'facts' from right wing talk radio and Fox News we can't have a logical debate.   And here is the deal: talk radio down here consists of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Medved (who accused liberals of being Nazis and wanting to round up all the conservatives!), Dr. Laura and Mike Berry (out of Houston).  For a very long time I would listen to these shows because I had no other option.  I debated with the radio everyday castigating the lies and spin at the top of my lungs.  This was exhilarating at times I admit, but inevitable became exhausting.  I searched and searched the radio dial for ANY moderate let alone liberal viewpoints.  There were none.  Not one.  And this is how it went every morning on the way to work and on the way home from work. 

At the end of October last year I purchased a new vehicle.  One of my main requirements was satellite radio (and a navigation system...but I digress).  The car came with XM radio free for three months.  I left the car lot with American Left on the radio and have been happy ever since.  I paid for one year service one week after I got the car.

I am fortunate enough to be able to pay for this, but what about people who can't?  How can it be 'fair' to ONLY air one point of view?  Can you say monopoly?  Yesterday I heard on MSNBC someone saying that the calls coming into the Senate against the stimulus bill were 100 to 1 against the stimulus.  And why is that?  I'll tell you why, because the brainwashed 'ditto' heads have been instructed to do so.  Just as they were instructed to go and vote for Hilary in the Democratic primaries.  I know so many people here in my office alone who went out and voted for Hilary!  They hated Hilary, but Rush told them to because if Hilary were the Democratic nominee he felt that the Republicans would beat her in the general election.  People in the office were reminding each other not to forget to vote for Hilary.  Unbelievable.  They could not be reasoned with.  I also noticed a certain meaness in their demeanor.  It was hatred as it turned out.

The Fairness Doctrine, or something akin to it must be reinstated.  This does not mean that conservative radio is over, it only means that other viewpoints are accessible.  I am not saying that all of sudden people in Southeast Texas will see the light, but a few might.  In the words of Obama: "One voice can change a room, and if one voice can change a room, ... it can change a state, and if it change a state, it can change a nation, ...

Why are Rush and Sean so afraid of that?  LOL!