MoveOn.org Laments Absence of Doctrine that would Kill Conservative Talk

WASHINGTON - MoveOn.org, an ultra-liberal group that recently made headlines for advertisements on its website comparing President Bush to Adolf Hitler, published an opinion piece in today's Los Angeles Times criticizing CBS for not running its anti-Bush ads during the Super Bowl this Sunday. Near the end, MoveOn.org national campaigns director Eli Pariser complains "with 'fairness' doctrines no longer governing the airwaves and the media more concentrated each day, it's getting harder and harder to engage regular people in political discourse."

Last year, amidst the battle over the Bush FCC's modernizing of obsolete, anti-free market media ownership rules, liberal Reps. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) and Bernie Sanders (Socialist-VT) called for a return to the Fairness Doctrine, a rule abandoned in 1987 that required broadcasters to give equal time to opposing points of view. In the days of this tremendous regulatory burden, many broadcasters chose not to run political talk at all, for fear of running afoul of FCC bureaucrats in Washington . Experts fear that a return to the Fairness Doctrine now would have the effect of killing the conservative talk that has exploded in prominence and popularity since 1987.

"After we flooded Congress with more than 50,000 e-mails and countless phonecalls, the liberals claimed that they had no desire to return to the Fairness Doctrine," said taxpayer advocate Grover Norquist. "But most of us knew better. MoveOn.org's commentary today just offers one more clue as to what they're really up to."

Last week, Rep. Hinchey reaffirmed his intention to introduce legislation this year calling for a complete re-regulation of media ownership rules and a return to the Fairness Doctrine.