Betty Freauf -- Fairness Doctrine: Americans Love a Fair Fight

FAIRNESS DOCTRINE: AMERICANS LOVE A FAIR FIGHT

By Betty Freauf

November 9, 2007

NewsWithViews.com

Congressman Mike Pence (R-Indiana) with an 80% Constitutional voting record [1], and a former talk show host himself has introduced the Broadcaster Freedom Act, which would essentially protect talk radio from the Fairness Doctrine forever. However, with the Democrats in control, it seems House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi is refusing to allow his bill out of a committee for a full House up or down vote. Therefore, Pence is now endeavoring to do an end-run on Ms. Pelosi by gathering signatures on a Petition to force a full House vote.

He had 190 signatures as of November 1, 2007 but needs 218 sponsors. He believes it will pass because every time the Freedom of Speech comes up for an up or down vote on the House floor, he says �Freedom wins.� He�s worried if his Broadcaster Freedom Act doesn�t get passed before the next president is elected, that the Fairness Doctrine will once again raise its ugly head and will be used to clobber the right-wingers.

Even liberal talk show host, Bernie Ward on KGO in San Francisco thinks if Hillary Clinton gets elected, �It will come back to bite us in the butt.� Bernie hates Bush and friends, which would include the neo-con talk shows and in spite of his �God Talk� Sunday morning show on KGO, he said, perhaps with tongue in cheek, on 10/16/2007 a �law should be passed making Christianity a felony.� He once worked in Washington, D.C. for Senator Barbara Boxer.

Pence indicated it has been like submarine warfare by the Democrats � running silently and running deeply but Americans love a fair fight so Pence wants people to call their Representatives to help him get the signatures on his Petition for a floor vote on his Broadcaster Freedom Act. Senator Norm Colman (R-Minnesota) with a 60% Constitutional voting record [1] is promoting it in his chamber and President Bush says he�ll sign it. More than three hundred Congressmen this summer voted for a one-year moratorium on the Fairness Doctrine.

Initially the Fairness Doctrine was believed to protect the First Amendment rights of ordinary citizens but the way our vocabulary has been put on its head since the sixties, it becomes common knowledge that if something is �Fair�, it probably isn�t and probably never was.

We can examine the entire Constitution, the entire Declaration of Independence and every amendment to the Constitution, and never find the word FAIR. But we will find the word FREE repeatedly but over the years the role of government shifted from freedom toward fairness. Freedom of speech was a farce in this country up until the 1980s simply because the conservative voices were kept silent by the left. In the 45 declared goals for the Communist takeover of America, number 20 is to �infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions,� with number 21 being �gain control of key positions in radio, TV and motion pictures.�

I remember when I began monitoring our Oregon legislature in the early 1980s in Salem, the hand-picked testimonies favoring certain legislation would be first on the agenda in the committees while the TV cameras were rolling and then they�d be rushing back to the station in Portland, Oregon before the opposition was allowed to testify. Those in favor would be on the evening news while the testimony of those opposed would find their efforts were in vain. Of course, I was a political neophyte at the time but I soon caught on what was happening and how the masses are programmed to believe just about anything. I soon discovered if I phoned my Portland, Oregon well-informed Eagle Forum friends, they would call the station and demand equal time and the station had to send someone to their place of business or to their home for an opposition interview. But currently, whether you love talk radio or hate it, it is serving a good purpose and giving we, the people, wake up calls in advance of legislation.

It was at the behest of President Ronald Reagan that Oregon�s Republican Senator Bob Packwood led the deregulation effort in 1984 in the Commerce Committee he chaired. Packwood told the National Association of Broadcaster on April 13, 1983 he was working on a bill that would �remove the equal-time and Fairness Doctrine laws� from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). This would mean broadcasters could use the public airwaves with no legal obligation to present both sides; however, as explained above as only one example, often both sides were not being given equal time anyway. Media owners and managers had always objected to the restraints imposed by the Fairness Doctrine and eliminating the Fairness Doctrine gave these owners the best chance in more than 30 years to remove Fairness restraints.

Pence said Reagan got rid of the Fairness Doctrine by Executive Order so maybe Packwood failed in his efforts but once the Fairness Doctrine was eliminated, conservative radio talk shows began to spring up all across the U.S. and we began to believe at that time the air waves were more fair and balanced and we began listening to the person who best represented our personal ideology. We could listen to them or turn the dial. We were given a choice.

I quit listening to Rush Limbaugh when he was promoting the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA). I never heard him repent. Jerome Corsi in his book Late Great USA writes since the signing of NAFTA in 1994 approximately one million Mexicans have moved from central and southern Mexico to work in the sweatshop maquiladora factories just south of the border. And who is responsible? Fox�s regular political analyst, Newt Gingrich controlled the House GOP who put NAFTA on fast track. The GOP also controlled the Senate and globalist President Bill Clinton was more than happy to bless the legislation with his signature.

I understand one of the shysters behind the scenes was father of NAFTA, Robert Pastor. In the book Nicaragua Betrayed the author writes that Pastor acted as President Carter�s �agent� to set the stage for the Sandanista takeover of Nicaragua. The revolt against President Somoza was a communist assault. Is this the same Robert Pastor who points out that even a $5-per-day wage at these factories still pays three times the Mexican minimum wage? Corsi adds that Pastor fails to realize the $400 billion needed to build a transportation infrastructure in Mexico might benefit the drug cartels whose bribes dominate Mexico�s widespread system of political graft. A few privileged families control the fast majority of the country�s wealth, while the masses live in abject poverty. Robert Pastor is also the chief architect of the new agency, Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) signed by the leaders of Canada, Mexico and the U.S. on March 23, 2005 with little to no media oversight. Our Congress passed no law and the Senate ratified no treaty. One of the biggest threats to our freedoms is the suppression of the truth by the American media or deliberate distorting it.

Brigitte Gabriel in her book Because They Hate writes about the foreign press in Israel. She says they fly in, all expenses paid; live in first-class lifestyle, with a nice hotel and expense account; report what was happening for a week or a couple of months; then leave. She says they come with preconceived ideas.

In the spring of 2002, the CIA sought further advice on what methods could legally be used to interrogate prisoners at Abu Ghraib. A new policy was issued in December 2004 but by then the damage had been done. CIA officers had been told their backs were covered and they were operating legally.[3] Then we saw over and over again the picture of Lynndie England with the naked prisoners and a cigarette in her mouth. The media portrayed her as not being the brightest bulb in the package but the military did accept her and it is my opinion because the Muslim men hate women in authority over them, she was put in charge of humiliating them.

Bill O�Reilly kept railing on Lynndie so I sent him a pithy e-mail: What Lynndie did was stupid but for a guy like yourself who has never given one day of military service to his country, to berate her like you�re doing is yellow journalism. I�m glad you are so perfect.� I rather expected my e-mail might get his blood boiling and I was right. On the air the next day I had the video rolling. He replied: �You know, you are sadly misguided Ms. Freauf. You have no idea what I�ve done for this country at any level. You (angrily pointing his finger at me into the camera) who use personal attacks when they disagree with someone lowers the discourse. Think about it.� I guess challenging him about his lack of military service was a personal attack. Ironically, before I even read Brigitte�s book, I�d felt he might have had some journalism assignments into possible war zones where he reported from a safe distance from some hotel balcony.

These are only a few examples of many I could offer about how biased our media is in factual reporting. In the sixties, Senator Joseph McCarthy said the public would be shocked to know how much it is taken for granted by most journalists that communism is not a serious problem. The media pretty much labeled McCarthy a �kook� but he was right. Communist infiltrators now hold high offices in our government and the journalists on the most part are very quiet about the United Nations globalists one-world agenda.

The Bush Administration and its defenders claim that the SPP agenda falls within the authority already provided by NAFTA, which a GOP Congress and Senate approved.

One government study after another has warned our own infrastructure is crumbling and in need of hundreds of billions of dollars for repairs to our highways and construction of new bridges so while our own infrastructure is falling apart, chief architect, Robert Pastor, says one of the major objectives of the SPP is to transfer $100-$200 billion from the U.S. to Mexico for infrastructure, education and economic development.[2]

Lately I�ve been listening to both the progressive and the conservative talk shows if I want to be better informed and there is quite a battle going on between the two alleged enemies but I wonder if they aren�t like wrestlers beating each other up in the ring as the crowd roars for more violence and then they later meet at the local watering hole for a drink, laugh at how stupid people are to pay for this type of mindless entertainment and then debate what they are going to do with Presidential candidate Ron Paul who is gaining in popularity without their help. Is it simply a diversionary tactic to keep us from knowing what the globalists really going on behind the scenes?

The big stations may be able to abide by the �restraints� of the Fairness Doctrine by hiring lawyers and extra staff to make sure they obey the law but it would be difficult for the smaller stations to comply. One complaint to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) would require an investigation at great costs. The Fairness Doctrine could be used as a form of harassment of radio stations and its commentators. Christian stations could be deeply affected. If they had someone on their stations speaking against the homosexual lifestyle, the Fairness Doctrine would require they have someone on the show with an opposite view and would have to give them equal time. It could be a regulatory nightmare.

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And last but not least, many employees in the radio talk industry would be on the unemployment line. So if you are addicted to talk shows, you�d best call your Representative and Senators and encourage them to sign the Pence petition. Newspapers are losing readership and we need to hear all sides on the radio and television and then use some common sense to come to our own conclusions.

Footnotes:

1, New American July 2007
2, New American October 15, 2007
3, Book: Ghost Plane by Stephen Grey �2006

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Betty is a former Oregon Republican party activist having served as state party secretary, county chairman, 5th congressional vice chairman and then elected chairman, and a precinct worker for many years but Betty gave up on the two-party system in 2004 and joined the Constitutional Party.

Betty is a researcher specializing in education, a freelance journalist and a regular contributor to www.NewsWithViews.com

E-Mail: bettyboot@wvi.com

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