Fairness Doctrine

Lefty Professor: Conservatives ‘Make War On the Media Because It Sheds Daylight On Their Machinations’
By Tom Johnson | November 1, 2015 | 2:16 PM EST

In the week when a new James Bond film is coming out, it’s fitting that two lefty writers are both shaken and stirred by recent Republican blasts at media bias. In a Sunday article for Salon, Boston College history professor Heather Cox Richardson charged that “since the 1950s, Movement Conservatives have fought the fair examination of their ideas. They embrace a worldview in which a few wealthy men control the economy and dominate society. This idea repels most Americans…Movement Conservatives have gained power only by obfuscating reality. They make war on the media because it sheds daylight on their machinations. Transparency threatens their power.”

Also on Sunday, Washington Monthly blogger David Atkins declared that the MSM are “facing an existential threat” and urged them to not give in: "Republicans [are] increasingly unashamed to tell grandiose lies and respond to any press criticism with derogatory insults and whines about media bias as well as blackmail threats to cancel appearances if the questions are too tough…If the press chooses to assuage and give comfort to the GOP, it will lose what little credibility it has left."

Daily Beast Hails Doc on How Fox News, Limbaugh Made Woman's Loving Father a Racist Republican Pig
By Clay Waters | August 1, 2015 | 8:14 PM EDT

"How Fox News Made My Dad Crazy" is how The Daily Beast introduced Jen Yamato's profile of Jen Senko's left-wing documentary The Brainwashing Of My Dad, and that's not just headline hyperbole but an accurate summary of a truly wacky documentary. Used her dad as a political prop, Senko's Brainwashing doc purports to show how her loving, "goofy," popular dad became a racist homophobic Republican pig thanks to radio hosts Bob Grant and Rush Limbaugh.

NYT's Jackie Calmes Unloads 16,000-Word Harvard Report on 'Conservative Media' Leading GOP to 'Far Right' Extremes (Part 1)
By Clay Waters | July 30, 2015 | 8:59 AM EDT

New York Times national reporter Jackie Calmes spent a semester at the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University studying "conservative media," and this week issued an exhaustive 16,000-word report with the oh-so-objective title, "'They Don't Give a Damn about Governing' -- Conservative Media’s Influence on the Republican Party," blaming the "far right" for killing the moderate, pragmatic GOP, while dismissing the very idea of a liberal mainstream media.

'Avengers' Director: Censor Those Who 'Deny Basic Scientific Truth' of Climate Change
By Matthew Balan | April 22, 2015 | 2:18 PM EDT

Joss Whedon, the director of the blockbuster comic book movie, The Avengers, revealed the extreme extent of his left-wing politics in a Wednesday post on Twitter. After asserting that "the climate IS changing - if we can't, that makes us dumber than weather #ClimateChangeIsReal," Whedon called for spiteful and heavy-handed measures against his ideological opponents on that issue: "Policy makers who deny basic scientific truth should also be denied penicillin, horseless carriages, air time on the magic box of shadows".

The New York Times Has Zero Idea How the Internet Works - Or Is Lying Its Masthead Off
By Seton Motley | August 18, 2014 | 8:52 AM EDT

It takes a special man to cram so much wrong into a mere 342 words.  Or an Old Grey Lady.

The New York Times’ utterly ridiculous Editorial Board recently as one addressed Title II Internet regulatory Reclassification and Network Neutrality - and they did so in utterly ridiculous fashion. 

They either have absolutely no idea what any of this is - or they are lying through their printing presses.

Joe Scarborough Shouts Down Pro-Israel Guest
By Laura Flint | August 5, 2014 | 5:00 PM EDT

Joe Scarborough today continued his new Morning Joe routine of making anti-Israel remarks and then shouting down anyone who disagrees. Unlike the previous editions of the MSNBC morning show in which the former congressman focused on insulting his critics in the media, on the July 5th edition, Scarborough opted to attack a recurring guest at the program’s roundtable discussions, Donny Deutsch, no conservative stalwart he.

The liberal advertising executive had the tenacity to disagree with the MSNBC host about his characterizations of Israel. After Scarborough invited Andrea Mitchell and Chuck Todd onto the show to emphasize the “deep dismay from the White House and the State Department toward what Israel has done” and how “you get the sense that Israel really listened” to their critiques, Deutsch commented “let’s just not forgot that Hamas is a terrorist organization and Israel is a democracy.” The former Florida Republican immediately became defensive, demanding “Who disagrees with that?” [See video below. Click here for MP3 audio]

CNN Reassigns Reporter Who Called Group of Israelis 'Scum' on Twitter
By Laura Flint | July 18, 2014 | 3:10 PM EDT

The liberal media is hemorrhaging foreign correspondents from Israel and the Gaza Strip. Only one day after NBC suddenly pulled anti-Israel Ayman Mohyeldin from Gaza citing security concerns, CNN was forced to relocate journalist Diana Magnay from Israel. Both correspondents struggled to keep their reporting and social media presence neutral in tone.

Magnay reported during The Situation Room from a hill in Israel where citizens were “cheering”while watching the “astonishing” and “awful” launch of missiles into the Gaza. The CNN correspondent, normally based in Berlin, followed the segment with a tweet calling the celebrating Israelis “scum.”

Stephen Colbert Gives Platform To NYC Mayor Pushing Liberal Economic Policy
By Laura Flint | July 17, 2014 | 5:00 PM EDT

Keeping in tradition of Comedy Central talk-show hosts giving Democratic politicians softball interviews, Stephen Colbert treated New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to one on the July 16 edition of The Colbert Report.

Colbert could have used some of his interview to make his subject uncomfortable, by say challenging the left-wing populist on his controversial efforts targeting popular and successful charter schools or making him squirm over his puzzling crusade against Central Park’s world-famous horse-drawn carriage industry – something opposed by roughly 2/3rds of New Yorkers. Instead, Colbert gave the mayor a platform to further his left-wing views on the “vast income inequality” of America today. [See video below. Click here for MP3 audio]

MNSBC's Newest Host Devotes Show To Pushing Liberal Immigration Agenda
By Laura Flint | July 16, 2014 | 12:55 PM EDT

On the third day of José Díaz-Balart, the latest program to enter the Lean Forward network’s lineup, the former Telemundo host began the July 16 edition with a 9 minute discussion of the immigration crisis. Díaz-Balart, who in a TVNewser blog claimed that his show was “about opening up lines of dialogue, opening up to other communities, opening up to other thoughts across the board,” gave 6 minutes and 43 seconds of air time to liberal immigration advocates.

Of the 9 minutes and 33 seconds of discussion, 15 seconds were given to the opposing point of view by two random protesters in Oracle, Arizona. [See video below. Click here for MP3 audio]

Gay Rights Activist On 'MSNBC Live': 'Republican Party Is Teetering...On Brink Of Not Being Relevant'
By Laura Flint | June 26, 2014 | 12:50 PM EDT

During MSNBC Live’s coverage on Thursday of the newest circuit and appeal court decisions to overrule bans on same sex marriage in Utah and Indiana, former CBS This Morning correspondent Betty Nguyen gave platform to Democratic strategist and chair of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund Steven Elmendorf and  Aisha Moodie-Mills, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. No conservative voices were heard.

Instead, the two guests spent over four  minutes discussing how “Republicans are too busy playing politics with people's lives” and are “on this, kind of, brink of not being relevant.” [See video below. Click here for MP3 audio]

As Government’s Power Grabs Grow, Media’s Coverage Diminishes
By Seton Motley | July 1, 2013 | 9:11 AM EDT

The Barack Obama Administration has been on a five-plus-year-long Collect-As-Much-Information-On-Us-As-Possible spree.

With Tens of Millions of Phone Records Grabbed – It’s the Government, Stupid

‘Thousands of NSA Analysts Can Listen to Domestic Phone Calls,’ Read Emails, Texts, IMs

Latest Big Government Data Grab: Justice Sues to Get It Without a Warrant

IRS Tea Party Scandal Shows Government Should Be Kept Away From Our Data

IRS-Conservatives, Justice-AP, Benghazi, Fast and Furious, HHS, EPA – This is Big Government

These incredible, all-encompassing violations of our Constitutional rights actually drew (shocker) some negative coverage from the usually sycophantic White House Stenographer (Press) Pool. 

Bozell: FCC Needs to Ensure 'Fairness Doctrine' Stays Dead
By Brent Bozell | August 23, 2011 | 3:15 PM EDT

Editor's Note: What follows is a statement Mr. Bozell released earlier today regarding the FCC's decision yesterday to remove the so-called Fairness Doctrine from the regulation books.

The FCC deserves a one-handed round of applause for this move. Years ago, striking the Censorship Doctrine – and that's exactly what the Fairness Doctrine was – would have actually meant something.

But since the FCC started playing with policies of ‘localism,’ ‘media diversity’ and a nebulous requirement to ‘serve the public interest,’ with yet another unelected and unconfirmed "Diversity Czar" to implement these proposed regulations, the spirit of the Censorship Doctrine has remained very much alive. The path to censor radio airwaves is being paved through the back door.