Fairness doctorine push could end blogs as we know them

A very big part of what makes Third Pipe different from most of the net centric blogs in the ether is the Jeffersonian viewpoint of our team. We one of the few in the blogosphere that openly reports from this viewpoint while those who report from a left leaning elite viewpoint deny their slant.  Put simply, we believe in a free and open net without any government “management”, and a market that is open to many competing access providers as opposed the the regulated few we have today. Our tiny but important platform would be shuttered if we were forced to seek out and pay for content that provides an opposing view simply because we really don’t make any money here to begin with. The reinstatement of the incorrectly named “fairness doctorine” could very easily silence us and many more like us.

The commissioner, a 2006 President Bush appointee, told the Business & Media Institute the Fairness Doctrine could be intertwined with the net neutrality battle. The result might end with the government regulating content on the Web, he warned. McDowell, who was against reprimanding Comcast, said the net neutrality effort could win the support of “a few isolated conservatives” who may not fully realize the long-term effects of government regulation.

 

     “I think the fear is that somehow large corporations will censor their content, their points of view, right,” McDowell said. “I think the bigger concern for them should be if you have government dictating content policy, which by the way would have a big First Amendment problem.”

 

     “Then, whoever is in charge of government is going to determine what is fair, under a so-called ‘Fairness Doctrine,’ which won’t be called that – it’ll be called something else,” McDowell said. “So, will Web sites, will bloggers have to give equal time or equal space on their Web site to opposing views rather than letting the marketplace of ideas determine that?” (Business & Media Institute)

Before you convince yourself that Speaker Pelosi and her gang of elitists are only targeting bid media types like talk radio, consider this: Elites have never been interested in freedom of speech when it involves an agenda and viewpoint that is different from their own. Those who beleive that a reinstated “fairness doctorine” will not effect the internet may very well find their own voices permanently silenced as well. Please consider this before you vote in November.