Venezuela: A test run of "fairness doctrine"

[rbell]

For everyone who opposes freedom of speech (that is, favors the "fairness doctrine"):

Obama South (that is, Hugo Chavez), has figured out a way to deal with the pesky problem of radio stations that often times disagree with him.

He's closing them.

Oh, not the direct route...that might raise eyebrows. Rather, he's using feelgood rhetoric that will sound vaguely familiar:

He calls it "democratization." He says that these stations now "belong to the people and not the bourgeoisie." Chavez' attorney general, Luisa Ortega, probably said it better: "Freedom of expression," she said, "must be limited."

Is it any wonder that Obama would marry this guy if Chavez would move to Washington and be a community organizer?


I guess the statists among us will take notes, and see how this goes. With a few lucky breaks, they can break the backs of some of their peskiest opposition, and urinate on the First Amendment in the process. It's heaven for them.

More: http://boortz.com/nealz_nuze/2009/08/the-left-is-green-with-envy.html

This quote calls the leftists on their next step:

Well .. take heart my statist friends. Don't think for a moment that your champions in Washington aren't working as hard as they can to rein in these evil conservative talk shows in the U.S. The so-called Fairness Doctrine is, for now, a dead issue. It's just a bit too transparent, and there's the courts to worry about. So the left has come up with a nifty new idea: Community advisory boards.

The idea here is to institute some new FCC regulations requiring radio stations to appoint community advisory boards in the markets they serve. You can rest assured that the left will create regulations that will guarantee that these advisory boards will be left-leaning. I can envision requirements to make sure that each board is represented by labor leaders, members of government employee unions, civil rights activists and assorted advocates for various grievance-based community factions.

The Democrats will also pass some new regulations shortening the term of a radio station license to three years, and requiring an affirmative response from that particular station's community advisory board before the license is renewed. A bad report card from the advisory board would, at worst, result in the denial of a license renewal; and, at best, the imposition of a fine...the proceeds of which would go to National Public Radio. This, of course, will cause the radio stations to pander to the advisory boards...