Chuck Schumer Talks Fairness Doctrine On Fox News

If the Democrats get the victory they seem headed toward today, there will be many things that are likely to happen that should concern libertarians.

One of those is the effort to revive the so-called Fairness Doctrine, which New York Senator Chuck Schumer talked about this morning on Fox News:

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday defended the so-called Fairness Doctrine in an interview on Fox News, saying, “I think we should all be fair and balanced, don’t you?”

Schumer’s comments echo other Democrats’ views on reviving the Fairness Doctrine, which would require radio stations to balance conservative hosts with liberal ones.

Asked if he is a supporter of telling radio stations what content they should have, Schumer used the fair and balanced line, claiming that critics of the Fairness Doctrine are being inconsistent.

“The very same people who don’t want the Fairness Doctrine want the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] to limit pornography on the air and online so that websites like porn7 won’t be available anymore. I am for that… But you can’t say government hands off in one area to a commercial enterprise but you are allowed to intervene in another. That’s not consistent.”

Schumer obviously brought pornography up because was on Fox News and he wanted to tweak conservatives, but he makes a point, although I’m sure it’s an inadvertent one. Although not many admit it, almost everyone watches pornography, especially now there are adult virtual reality sites that make it seem so real, and this should not be a decisive issue. However, few people will openly defend porn sites on television because they don’t want to be embarrassed.

When it comes to issues like the Fairness Doctrine, conservatives are arguing from a position of weakness because they have already conceded the basic idea that the Federal Communications Commission, or any government entity for that matter, should have the authority to regulate content on television and radio. Once you concede that basic point, deciding what the extent of the content regulation should be is really just a matter of who wins or loses an election.

Here’s the video of Schumer’s interview: