The recent hubbub about how unfair this Fairness Doctrine is has got me thinking. Not only is it a good thing that this ridiculous legislation has been stopped, but also what is already in place should be. It is already the case that radio and TV broadcasters must broadcast particular opinions whether they like it or not. This forcing of opinions comes in the form legislation that requires broadcasters to accept commercials for political campaigns.Here are two examples:
A Christian radio station in Cincinnati, WAKW, was forced run ads for a very liberal candidate (Victoria Wulsun) for Congress who believes that “marriage is a wonderful document that should be available to two people of the same sex”. The radio station got plenty of calls from angry listeners, despite the fact that DJs repeatedly said that the radio station did not endorse this candidate and that they were being forced to play the ads. The ads did not say anything about Ms. Wulsun’s liberal positions, but only vague statements about believing in God, peace, love, and trying to get along with everyone.
A secular radio station was forced to run ads for another congressional candidate (Jim Condit, Jr.) from Ohio’s second district. Mr. Condit’s ad proclaimed that the Jews were responsible for happened on September 11th. (He says that they used remote controls.) Mr. Condit also believes that the Halocaust never really happened.
Why should anyone be forced to promote such views? It is unfair to the other candidates to give every candidate an automatic ticket to whatever advertising venue they want. It is also unfair to radio, TV, and other advertisers to be forced to promote a view that would damage its reputation with its particular audience. For the same reason, no taxpayer’s money should be used to pay for political campaigns either.
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