Dennis to Seek Fairness and Neutraility on Subcommittee

The Presidential candidate said that the committee would be holding "hearings to push media reform right at the center of Washington.” The Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the House Government Reform Committee was to be officially announced this week in Washington, D.C., but Kucinich opted to make the news public early.

In addition to media ownership, the committee is expected to focus its attention on issues such as net neutrality and major telecommunications mergers. Also in consideration is the "Fairness Doctrine," which required broadcasters to present controversial topics in a fair and honest manner. It was enforced until it was eliminated in 1987.

Well this ought to be fun. I'd like to point out that "net neutrality" is something to monitor, and it will be interesting to hear what this means to Kucinich. IMO, it means the government ought to take a hands off approach and not leglislate what people say and do online.

The "Fairness Doctrine," on the other hand, is quite obviously a wolf in sheep's clothing. In fact, on many television programs the quest for "fairness" leads to an endless jousting of talking heads representing extreme sides of an issue, and no one ever wins. Ever. That does no one any good, and probably dumbs down all debate in this country.

It also presents serious First Amendment problems because a person ought to have a right to watch Keith Olberman go off the rails or listen to Michael Savage spout off if that's the sort of thing a person likes.

A far better approach is for consumers of information to be smarter, to be better processors of information, and to be able to make judgements on their own. Create better consumers and you'll get an audience for better media programming. Create a smarter public and they will be more demanding and discerning. Because, after all, someday there might not be trustworthy politicians around to tell us what is fair -- we'll have to decide for ourselves. In fact, I'd argue that this is the state America has been in for quite a long time.