It's not a threat. It's a promise.

If Democrats retain control of both houses of Congress and capture the presidency in 2008, the Fairness Doctrine will be back – this time as the law of the land – as surely as you are reading this column.

It's not a prediction. It's a guarantee.

What we witnessed earlier this year was a flurry of calls for reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine by prominent Democrat politicians from Dianne Feinstein to John Kerry to Dick Durbin.

Consider that the trial balloon.

The real thing – the nuclear-powered zeppelin – will be soaring in 2009 if and when Democrats regain full control of the federal government, as they believe is their birthright.

Immediately, they will begin protecting their re-election bids in 2010 and 2012. One of the most important steps will be passage of a legislative version of the Fairness Doctrine, formerly only a rule of the Federal Communications Commission until 1987.

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As I pointed out earlier this week, it was 20 years ago today President Reagan taught the AM band to play.

You absolutely must read the August issue of Whistleblower magazine to full comprehend how the free flow of information we take for granted today will come to an abrupt end less than three years from now if Democrats have their way.

Anyone opposed to their official censorship, their intolerant and heavy-handed control of broadcasting, will simply be characterized as unfair. It's happening already.

Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., sponsor of the MEDIA Act, an Orwellian acronym for "Meaningful Expression of Democracy in America," explains it this way: "Fairness isn't going to hurt anybody. I just can't imagine these people who want to fight against fairness."

You see, it's all about "fairness" – that's what the Fairness Doctrine is all about, to these insidious speech police.

The First Amendment? Never heard of it.

Freedom of the press? What's that?

Freedom of speech – especially political speech? Well, you can still put on a sandwich board and parade up and down Main Street. Maybe.

And I've got news for you.

Electing Republicans is no guarantee you won't see this frontal assault on free expression on the airwaves return.

Should you elect shortsighted, corrupt Republicans committed only to their own empowerment and who fear accountability when they blow it, we'll see a new dark age of fear and self-censorship and an end to talk radio as we know it today.

I'm talking about people like the thin-skinned and thick-skulled George Voinovich of Ohio.

I'm talking about people like Trent Lott of Mississippi, who favored the Fairness Doctrine in 1987 and who warned earlier this year that something needed to be done about talk radio.

Yes, I'm even talking about people like Newt Gingrich, who famously championed legislating the Fairness Doctrine after the FCC recognized the unconstitutionality of it between 1985 and 1987.

There simply may be no Ronald Reagan around to protect us from official government censorship as there was 20 years ago. In fact, I can promise you there won't be a Ronald Reagan on the American political scene in 2009.

We don't have to imagine what our media world will be like with the federal government in charge. Just listen to National Public Radio. Just watch PBS.

And don't think these zealots will stop after they successfully regulate the so-called "public" airwaves. They will then set their sights on other bastions of free expression – the Internet, satellite radio and, yes, even print.

Mark my words. Remember where you heard it. Because you may find it difficult to hear and read such messages in 2009.

For the complete story on how Reagan launched the New Media Revolution, be sure to get the August issue of Whistleblower magazine, "THE WAR ON TALK RADIO."

Order Farah's brand new book, "Stop the Presses: The Inside Story of the New Media Revolution"