<b><i>Summary</i></b><i>:  The so-called &quot;Fairness&quot; Doctrine again looms to take away conservatives' access to talk radio</i> <p><b>Editors Note: This <a href="http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=29696" title="Free Speech Alliance | Media Research Center" target="_blank">originally appeared in Human Events</a> on December 1, 2008.  </b><b><a href="http://www.mrcaction.org/517/petition.asp?PID=18840310" title="Free Speech Alliance | Media Research Center" target="_blank">Click here to sign the Free Speech Alliance petition</a>, and stand at the ready for whenever any liberal again threatens the First Amendment with talk of reinstating the Censorship Doctrine.</b>   </p><table width="140" align="right" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2"><tbody><tr align="center"><td valign="undefined"><a href="http://www.mrcaction.org/517/petition.asp?PID=18840310"><img src="http://media.eyeblast.org/newsbusters/static/2008/12/Liberty_Red_Tape.jpg" alt="Free Speech Alliance | Media Research Center" width="113" border="0" height="170" /></a></td></tr><tr align="center"><td valign="undefined"><p><b><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">The Government Regulating Radio &quot;Fairness&quot;</font></b></p></td></tr></tbody></table>Liberals - now controlling both the White House and Congress - are ready to revive the so-called &quot;Fairness&quot; Doctrine to destroy conservative talk radio.  The Media Research Center has formed a new <a href="http://www.mrcaction.org/517/petition.asp?PID=18840310" title="Free Speech Alliance | Media Research Center" target="_blank">&quot;Free Speech Alliance&quot;</a> to defend conservatives' most effective political weapon against the return of what should be called the &quot;Censorship Doctrine.&quot; <p>The GOP is nearly leaderless, self-shredded by its steady diet of &quot;Me Too&quot; bipartisan liberalism.  </p> <p>Conservatives were active, agitating against these capitulations of principle.  But too regularly, in the end Congressional Republicans ignored them and enabled Democrats and their allies, the &quot;compassionate conservatives&quot; - aka big government Republicans --  to grow government big enough to squeeze themselves out as the majority Party.</p>

Media Research Center Director of Communications and NewsBusters.org Contributing Editor Seton Motley appeared on today's Your World with Neil Cavuto on the Fox News Channel to discuss radical leftist Henry Rivera, President-elect Barack Obama's appointee to oversee the Administration's Federal Communications Commission (FCC) transition process, and its implications for the future of free speech in America.

Many members of the Democratic Party, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have stated their desire for a return of the so-called Fairness Doctrine, more rightly called the Censorship Doctrine for it would force conservative talk radio hosts off the air. 

But no Congressional action is required to bring back the Fairness Doctrine. All the Obama Administration has to do is make one appointment to the FCC, turning a 3-2 Republican FCC majority into a 3-2 Democratic one, and it can again be reinstated.  Republican Robert McDowell's term ends in June 2009.

Matthew Vadum (Right) Speaking Truth to Flower Power

NewsBusters.org Contributor, the estimable Matthew Vadum of the Capital Research Center, made an October 30th appearance on Comedy Central's The Daily Show, during which he discussed the many illegal activities of the community organizing group Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and their long relationship with the media's all-time favorite candidate: Illinois Democratic Senator and Presidential candidate Barack Obama.  Soon thereafter, Mr. Vadum changed his Facebook Profile photograph to one of him hamming it up with his Daily Show interlocutor John Oliver. 

This was all too much for New York Times reporter Dan Mitchell.  Mitchell sent Mr. Vadum a poison Halloween Facebook email, which is hostile from start to finish and in which he calls Mr. Vadum the aforementioned body part.

The Mitchell email in its entirety, with the one word redacted so as to maintain our G-rating:

Spreading the Word

Media Research Center Founder and President L. Brent Bozell, III today demanded the press report on damning new evidence of Illinois Democratic Senator and Presidential nominee Barack Obama's radical views on how we need to "break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution" because it "doesn't say what the federal government or state government must do on your behalf."  In tearing away from the Constitution, Sen. Obama says he seeks to achieve "social justice" through "redistributive change."

In the 2001 Chicago Public Radio interview, the audio of which has just surfaced, Sen. Obama laments that "the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth, and of more basic issues such as political and economic justice in society."

The media have refused to report on or obfuscated what has now become a series of comments from Sen. Obama that indicate a radical outlook on America, wealth redistribution and the courts.  He famously told "Joe the Plumber" (Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher) that we need to "spread the wealth around."  On his nominees for the courts, he said "We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom.  The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that's the criteria by which I'm going to be selecting my judges."

Brent Bozell:

Spreading the Word

It has been a horrendous year for the media's credibility, and Hastings's statements only make it worse.  "If (it) sounds like I had some trouble being ‘objective,' I did. Objectivity is a fallacy. In campaign reporting more than any other kind of press coverage, reporters aren't just covering a story, they're a part of it-influencing outcomes, setting expectations, framing candidates-and despite what they tell themselves, it's impossible to both be a part of the action and report on it objectively."  

Hastings is utterly derisive of both former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Arizona Senator and Presidential nominee John McCain, both of whom he covered during the Republican primary.  He in fact dreamed repeatedly of doing Giuliani harm as some sort of warped civic duty.

We are almost at halftime of Round Three of the MRC's Sweet-On-Obama Sixteen Media Bias Tournament.

Only the Infatuated Four remain. If you haven't yet voted, by all means do so now.

And if you have, check back often to see how your selections are faring.

And as biased as they all are, much like the 1980's cinematic classic says, "There can be only one."

No, not that one.

And then there were four -- the Infatuated Four.

Of the sixteen most pro-Obama journalists, you have determined the four that have been the sweetest on him. 

Your righteous indignation, and your votes, have solidified the Sweet-On-Obama Sixteen's Infatuated Four.

So check the results, and vote again to pare the four down to two.  All on the way to determining the Media's Most Valuable Partisan (MVP).  

The media have shown Obama their love.  Now's your chance to show what you think of them.

Spreading the Word

Excerpted Sen. Obama quotes from the Times Sunday Magazine: "I am convinced that if there were no Fox News, I might be two or three points higher in the polls.... If I were watching Fox News, I wouldn't vote for me, right? ... Because the way I'm portrayed 24/7 is as a freak. I am the latte-sipping, New York Times-reading, Volvo-driving, no-gun-owning, effete, politically correct, arrogant liberal. Who wants somebody like that?"

MRC President and Newsbusters.org Publisher L. Brent Bozell, III issued the following statement in response:

Round One of the MRC's Sweet-On-Obama Sixteen is complete. Voting for Round Two -- The Enamored Eight -- has begun in earnest.

Eight competitors, though highly biased in their own right, were simply unable to overcome the Obama-Love of their opponents, and were pushed by all of you to the partisan wayside.

There were three upsets, including the downing of a #1 Seed.

So while we know nearly every member of the press is neck-deep in the tank for the Illinois Senator, it is anyone's guess -- and your voting decision -- who will end up being being named the Media's Most Valuable Partisan for the Man of Hope and Change.

So, let the deciding recommence.