John Armor Article in Human Events

Local author, raconteur, and former primary candidate in the GOP NC-11 race, has an article on Human Events entitled, "Anybody Remember The Red Lion Case?" and here is a snippet to whet your appetite for more:

...What Justice White does not include in his opinion is the relative availability of media when he was writing his opinion. There were slightly more than 4,000 daily newspapers in the United States, then. Most major cities had competing dailies. Some cities like Chicago and New York, had more than six competing newspapers.

At the same time, in 1969, the number of TV licenses were in the hundreds, and there were fewer radio licenses than newspapers.

Today, all of those figures are reversed. The number of daily newspapers is down to about 2,000 and declining. The number of TV stations are above 10,000, and the number of radio stations about five times as many. Given cable and satellite technologies, the average American household now has access to at least 100 TV channels, plus dozens of specialized radio stations. That average household has access to less than two daily newspapers.

It was this change in the facts which led the FCC to end the Fairness Doctrine almost thirty years ago. The disparity, with print media declining and electronic media growing, has continued apace since then. This huge advantage in favor of individual access to broadcast channels that offer what they want, is increased by orders of magnitude when the Internet, plus pod casting, are added to the mix.

Those who are arguing for reestablishment of the Fairness Doctrine have not done their homework....

Source: Human Events

Commentary

You can bet everything you own that the Democrats will get a new Fairness Doctrine in place if Barack Obama is elected President, and that will mean the end of AM Radio.

Fortunately for us, the Internet will be here for the conservative commentators to utilize to side step the ban on conservative talk. That will be good for people who have access to DSL or faster Internet connections, but not for the millions who are on dial up, or listen while on the road, or away from computers.

Will wireless carriers be able to stream Internet radio? Or will people employ a work around like I did while WZNN/WZGM was offering talk radio programming? (I used a transmitter to take the audio from an AM Radio and transmit it on FM so I could hear the faint 1350 kHz signal on my Walkman on an empty slot on the FM Dial, usually 87.9 MHz, up to a mile from my pickup).

I am firm in my belief that if the Fairness Doctrine is passed, we will find a way around it...for the Neo-Stalinist Democrats do not understand the power of freedom, and the utility of Free Markets...that is one reason lefty talk never took hold. They just don't get it, and never will.