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February 13, 2009

Conservatives and Corporatism, via the Fairness Doctrine

(editor's note: My cyber-friend Tom has been blogging in opposition to any reintroduction of the fairness doctrine. Yesterday it was a post about Camille Paglia's February column on Slate.com in which she makes the following assertion:

Speaking of talk radio (which I listen to constantly), I remain incredulous that any Democrat who professes liberal values would give a moment’s thought to supporting a return of the Fairness Doctrine to muzzle conservative shows.

And as sometimes happens, in the process of writing up a comment it occurs to me that the comment would make a good post.)

Forgive me for asking an inconvenient but salient question... but how would the fairness doctrine, which would apply to stations rather than to individual shows, "muzzle conservative shows" as Paglia alleges?

It seems to me that what Paglia and like-minded conservatives are really objecting to is the "public interest" obligation which has always been a the very heart of federal regulation of radio and TV stations. Furthermore, it seems to me that by challenging the fairness doctrine these conservatives are revealing their hand.

As The Museum of Broadcast Communications puts it:

The obligation to serve the public interest is integral to the "trusteeship" model of broadcasting--the philosophical foundation upon which broadcasters are expected to operate. The trusteeship paradigm is used to justify government regulation of broadcasting. It maintains that the electromagnetic spectrum is a limited resource belonging to the public, and only those most capable of serving the public interest are entrusted with a broadcast license.

There is a common thread here which weaves this issue fairness doctrine thing in with a wide range of long-standing right-wing complaints. And that common thread is a general rejection of the principle of public ownership for the public good.

At the center of a wide variety of conservative complaints is the desire to enable corporations to profit from publically held resources with little to no accoutability. Whether that be the electromagnetic spectrum, or timber in state and federal forests, or rivers and streams into which toxic waste could profitably be dumped, or mineral resources on or in publically owned lands, or tax dollars being funneled to mega-corporations like Haliburton and Blackwater where truly massive amounts of taxpayer dollars seem to just vanish. The list goes on and on.

The common threads are corporatism and conservatives.

It would be nice if conservatives would just be honest about it, but as a former conservative I know better than to hold my breath waiting for something which will never come.

Posted by Kevin at February 13, 2009 02:26 PM