Repeat Performance

"Welcome back my friends, to the show that never ends..." So begins the famous song Karn 9 Evil by Emerson, Lake and Palmer. For some, the show that never ends is the continuing assault on free speech all in the name of fairness.

The leftist dream to reassert the Fairness Doctrine on the media continues to percolate among the left because conservative shows dominate the airwaves of talk radio. They would love to get their grubbies on all forms of media, in the claims that some groups - those they oppose - have a better ability to find an audience than their own point of view.

To them, the market forces be damned. The concept of the Fairness Doctrine cuts hard against the heart of capitalism and free speech. It determines who can say what and in what forums and the government gets to arbiter the content, instead of the free market. It would save progressive radio stations like Air America from oblivion, while limiting successful right wing talk radio/syndicated shows out of "fairness."

That's neither fair nor a legitimate use of government power to save leftists from their own failures to capture audience on talk radio.