Rush Limbaugh on Infrastructure
Broadcast’s “Fairness Doctrine” breaches First Amendment
The American model of democracy was firmly grounded on the imperative of free speech-and an absolute rejection of licensing or regulating the press. But absurd as it may seem, these bedrock rights and freedoms do not necessarily apply to
broadcasting. The US has freedom of the press. until we get to the electronic press. The American Revolution has not yet spread to the nation’s airwaves. Radio & television broadcasters must be licensed by the federal government-and there lies a
slippery slope. To beg any government’s permission to speak is to ask for trouble. That kind of government shackling of freedom of speech-in defiance of the First Amendment-is precisely what we will have in store if the Fairness Doctrine is
re-enacted. As we go to press, “fairness” legislation is popping up [in several bills].
Would somebody please find “fairness” for me in the Constitution? You can’t. Yet somehow we have gotten this notion that fairness is a guiding principle.
Source: See, I Told You So, p.361-64
Jul 2, 1993
Talk Radio threatens liberals because they can’t control it
The profound anger and distrust of our political institutions felt by so many Americans now includes The Media as well. The Media is now considered just another part of the arrogant, condescending, elite, and out-of-touch political structure which has
ignored the people and their concerns and interests. People are beginning to view the media not as a watchdog against governmental abuses of power but as an institution which is itself engaging in the abuse of power. Studies in 1992 examined
the “threat to an informed public” posed by Talk Radio and its “irresponsible” hosts. The Media skewers the Talk Radio branch of The Media, saying that its audience is composed of ignorant, easily misguided suckers who are constantly worked up into a
lather by reactionary, uninformed hosts.
In all other cases, they would champion the involvement of other branches of The Media. Why? Because they control those branches, and the people themselves have far less interactive involvement.
Source: The Way Things Ought To Be, p.268-70
Jul 2, 1992