Battleground: Radio

With television and all the instant news on the internet, who wouldv'e thought that in the 21st century some of the hottest debates over free speech and the media revolve around the radio?  Shortly after Obama was elected, and after the assassination attempt on Gabbrielle Giffords (which was blamed on the radical right wing) liberals have been calling for reinstatement of the Fairness doctrine which expired under President Truman.  Conservatives have called it a blatant attempt to silence right-wing talk show hosts who have dominated talk radio in the past 15 years.  Legistlation was introuduced by congressmen Mike Pence and Greg Walden pre-emptively to prevent the FCC from forcing talk shows from giving equal time to opposing views on issues.  Meanwhile on the otherside of the aisle, the new budget revealed no funding for National Public Radio angering Liberals.  This story should be closely followed because assuming there is no Fairness Doctrine and NPR goes off the air, Conservatives would have an even larger monopoly on talk radio.  But of course there is always the chance that momentum swings the other way and somehow the FD gets passed and NPR stays on the air, it would cause a stalemate on the radio waves giving Liberals a huge media advantage since they dominate TV, internet, and newspapers.