At a June 11 press conference on Capitol Hill,
alongside nationally syndicated radio host Laura Ingraham,
House Minority Leader John Boehner, House
Minority Whip Roy Blunt, Representative Mike Pence, Americans for
Tax Reform President Grover Norquist and others, Media Research
Center President L. Brent Bozell III delivered the following
statement:
The peril in question is the innocuously but
ill-named Fairness Doctrine. The Founding Fathers deemed free speech first
among our rights to be listed in the Constitution. What they
envisioned and guaranteed with the First Amendment was a national
dialogue teeming with as many voices and with as many opinions as
could be raised. The First Amendment granted all an entry into the
arena of ideas, and each individual, each voice, was free to
compete, and rise or fall based on the merits of what he or she had
to say. For four decades, the Fairness Doctrine shut down
free speech in the arena of radio. Thankfully, Ronald Reagan removed
the Doctrine in 1987, and we have subsequently been witness to one
of the greatest growth spurts in media history. The radio airwaves
are now teeming with intellectual life, offering a vibrant
alternative to the lethargy of a traditional media that a great many
Americans find lacking in truth and objectivity. Liberals once exercised a virtual monopoly in the
media, controlling every major network, news magazine, wire service
and major newspaper in America. But with the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine,
conservatives finally found a home in the broadcast world. Liberals
tried to compete in this arena but have failed, miserably, time and
again. Their leftist ideas just don't have a market. So now they have a new plan: If you can't beat 'em,
censor 'em. And that is precisely what the Fairness Doctrine is: A
form of government control of ideas only the Soviet Union could
love. But we are not here today to ask liberals to cast
a vote for free speech and against the Fairness Doctrine. We are
simply asking that a vote be allowed to occur. Give every member of
Congress the opportunity to go on the record: either for free
speech, or for the Fairness Doctrine. Make no mistake about this. The radical left wants
the Laura Ingrahams, the Rush Limbaughs, the Sean Hannitys and the
Mark Levins banished from the airwaves. We will not stand by and allow this assault on
free speech to occur. I am joining with my friends here today in
this D.C. heat, to demand permanent radio independence from the
chilling effect of the return of the Fairness Doctrine LINKS:
To schedule an interview with MRC President
Brent Bozell or another MRC spokesperson,
please contact Tim Scheiderer (x. 126) or Colleen O'Boyle (x.
122) at (703) 683-5004.
We are gathered here today to discuss a very
serious and very real threat to free speech in America. This menace
served for four decades to chill into silence an entire wing of the
broadcast industry. When its onerous
restrictions
were finally lifted, we witnessed an explosion in the number of
voices engaged in the discussions that matter, that affect the
future of our nation and the world.
Brent Bozell
Declares Radio Independence Day
Press Conference audio
here
To contact Congress and tell them to sign the
petition for Broadcaster Freedom click
here.
CMI Special
Report: Unmasking the Myths Behind the Fairness Doctrine