Explorations

Steve Green (Vodkapundit) and I have amazingly similar politics; I’m not sure which of us that should worry more. In any case, though, he posted something yesterday that I think is important.

Steve feels that if Obama really does win — and I don’t consider that a done deal, even with National Review having the vapors about it — that the Democrats will move fairly immediately to re-impose the old Fairness Doctrine, and to extend it to the Internet, using “net neutrality” as a cover.

I don’t know that I necessarily agree with him that I think it’s likely, but I certainly think it’s possible. But then, another friend reminds me of the “jack story” beloved of therapists world wide:

A guy has a flat, and when he starts to change the tire, discovers that his jack is missing. It’s late and he’s well out in the country, and this is the days before cell phones, so he’s kind of stuck. But there’s a house about two miles away, so he starts walking toward it. At first he’s thinking “maybe they’ll let me borrow a jack.” Then he thinks “Why would they trust me with a jack. But maybe I can use the phone.” But he started out irritable, and it just gets worse, as he thinks of reasons they might not help — until when he gets to the door, rings the bell, the porch light comes on, the homeowner opens the door, and he shouts, in a rage “Goddamnit, if you won’t let me borrow a jack, then at least let me call for help, you sonuvabitch!”.

The moral, of course, is to not get too worked up about problems in the future; it can keep you from getting what you want.

The thing is, I think both of these people are smart. I think Steve’s fears are not unfounded; as Michael Barone pointed out in his column on “the Coming Obama Thugocracy”, Obama’s campaign has taken the attempt to silence opponents, overtly and covertly, to levels unknown since probably Woodrow Wilson. There seems to me to be little reason to imagine they will suddenly turn to Jeffersonian free-speech libertarians if they get power, and in any case we already know that others, like Nancy Pelosi, have already made it clear that they think reimposing the Fairness Doctrine would be a good thing.

But then I think the other friend’s point is well taken. An attempt to reimpose the Fairness Doctrine would certainly be fought, and hard, by all the people who stand to lose from it, Fox News and Rush Limbaugh not the least of them, with an audience of millions behind them and hundreds of millions of dollars in potential revenue loss to focus the minds of the radio stations and the networks.

So I’m going to take a position firmly straddling the two. On the one hand, I agree with Steve: should the next Administration (Republican or Democrat, McCain is only relatively the better on this) attempt to impose content restrictions on the media, or on the Internet, I “aim to misbehave.” I shan’t be slilenced, and what the hell, I don’t have anything to lose except my ability to write and think as I please.

I hope, and don’t think, it will come to that, but at the same time I think even the current McCain-Feingold restrictions on speech are unacceptable; I think it’s time we started to push back on speech restrictions in general.

There will be more to come on this topic soon. I registered the unfairdoctrine.org domain yesterday, and there is a brewing mailing list as well. So watch this space.

While you can.