FCC finally makes it official - Fairness Doctrine is killed

In a move that struck no-one as either surprising or very shocking the chairman of the FCC officially announced the death of the Fairness Doctrine this week. For those of you that are too young (or foreign) to know what that is (and why would you, I mean how the fuck would that hate-filled nest of right-wing propagandist vipers known as Fox News exist in a world that required fairness as a reality, rather than part of a bullshit slogan?), it was a Federal regulation that required broadcasters to present opposing views of controversial issues.

You know, exactly the way Fox News doesn't.

The rule came into existence in 1949 but the FCC ceased enforcing it in 1987 under Ronnie Raygun (big fucking surprise there, I know) and this week's action (at the request of yes, you guessed it, the republicans) merely made official what has been long known by all and sundry, namely that the right-wing is scared shitless of opposing views to their radical agenda being broadcast over the airwaves.

Personally I feel rather ho-hum about this. Not because I don't care that it moves us ever-closer to the totalitarian abyss that is Total Message Control by the Corporate Media Machine, but more because it hasn't been enforced in an age and it was therefore essentially dead anyway. But what I do find discouraging, and really quite disheartening, is the Orwell-speak used by the FCC chairman in his justification for stabbing Fairness in the heart. In the letter he wrote back to his repulican masters confirming his fulfillment of their wishes, he said that the rule "holds the potential to chill free speech and the free flow of ideas, and accordingly, was properly abandoned". Excuse me? On what fucking planet does the requirement to show opposing views of an issue either "chill free speech" or restrict the "free flow of ideas"? Look buddy, no-one tried to stop you as you did the dastardly deed, but was it really necessary for you to tea-bag it afterwards as well?

All I can say is thank (god/allah/buddha/flying-spaghetti-monster - delete as appropriate) that the FCC doesn't regulate the internet...otherwise we would ALL be well and truly fucked..