Bring on the Fairness Doctrine fight

Last week, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi reaffirmed her commitment to re-establishing the Fairness Doctrine against "right-wing hate radio." I feel the fury of Pelosi's wrath, and I welcome the battle that's coming. Nothing could be more enlightening and entertaining than watching liberals try to silence critics and stifle free speech in the name of "fairness."

I've been a radio talk-show host for more than 22 years. I filled in for Rush Limbaugh for a dozen of those years, and, in addition to my daily KOGO (San Diego) show, I host a nationally syndicated show on Saturdays. My No. 1 rated show audience tunes in voluntarily; I receive no government grant or subsidy.

When I started, there were about 75 of us on largely ignored AM radio stations. Today, there are more than 1,500 radio talk hosts – most, but not all of them, conservative.

Many hosts, including myself, do very well because of the size of the audience we attract. It is now widely known that Rush makes more than all the TV nightly news anchors put together.

The Fairness Doctrine, requiring that broadcasters offer contrary opinions whenever controversial political opinions were expressed on the air, dates back to the 1930s. Any such requirement would violate the First Amendment guarantee of free speech if applied to, say, a newspaper. But it was thought legal because the broadcast spectrum was public property, and the few stations then could be dominated by one point of view if "fairness" was not a government mandate.

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In practice, the Fairness Doctrine had a chilling effect on all political talk on the radio (and later on TV) because owners were reluctant to put their broadcast licenses in jeopardy by not being "fair" to one person whose complaint to the FCC could cause that license to be revoked.

After Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon sought to silence critics in the electronic media by using the Fairness Doctrine and threatened the revocation of licenses, public opinion, the growing political and economic clout of radio and TV, and, finally, the principled leadership of President Reagan led to the FCC abandoning the Fairness Doctrine in the 1980s. Reagan thereafter vetoed the Democrat's attempt to reinstate the doctrine.

The Fairness Doctrine and its twin doctrine, Equal Time, had stifled free speech for decades, stunting political discourse and making our democratic institutions weaker for it. Conservative talk blossomed when free speech returned to radio. With most of the rest of the media being liberal, talk radio became the real "fairness" – the real "balance."

Today, the battle lines are getting clearer. President Bush's nominations to the FCC are stalled by the congressional Democrat majority awaiting an Obama victory. Legislation to permanently repeal the Fairness Doctrine authored by Rep. Mike Pence (himself a former radio talk host) is bottled up in committee with Speaker Pelosi promising it will never see a floor vote.

Sen. Obama supported the Fairness Doctrine in the primaries, then in June told broadcasters he opposed it – repeating for this issue a pattern the senator has established of being firmly on both sides of every important issue. Sen. McCain opposes the Fairness Doctrine.

What about you? Ultimately, this issue will be decided by you. Your defense of free speech and the balance talk radio brings to the national debate can be expressed by e-mail, phone call or letter to your Congress member (A petition to "Stop the Fairness Doctrine").

In the meantime, I'll keep talking if you'll keep listening. And we'll all be entertained watching the liberals who dominate the rest of the print and broadcast media trash free speech because they can't stand to hear their critics in talk radio.