Beck's politeness, Smerconish's endorsement

[Scott Fybush]

Bob Nelson wrote:
>>> There's certainly some chatter about a return of the Fairness
> Doctrine on the lefty blogs I visit, but it's certainly not a 
> high-profile cause of most of the liberals I know, at least not to 
> the extent that the righty talk hosts seem to be imagining it to be.
> 
> On the conservative Radio Equalizer blog, Brian Maloney says that
> Henry Rivera, "a longtime radical leftist, lawyer and former FCC
> commissioner, is expected to lead the push to dismantle commercial
> talk radio that is favored by a number of Democratic Party senators".
> Maloney says that Rivera's exit from the FCC helped in repealing the
> Doctrine, thus leading to talk radio as we know it today, and he says
> that in June of 2009, Pres. Obama could appoint a pro-Fairness
> Doctrine commissioner in place of a Republican currently in there.
> 
> http://radioequalizer.blogspot.com
> 
> Agreed with your opinion on Fairness Doctrine.
> 

Maloney is certainly the first place I turn for accurate, unbiased
information about what's happening on the DC regulatory scene.

Snark aside, I doubt a commissioner who last served in 1985 will have 
much pull with today's FCC on his own. And "radical leftist" Rivera 
seems to have no problem working for one of corporate DC's biggest law 
firms:

http://www.wileyrein.com/directory.cfm?attorney_ID=1083

Will there be talk of reinstating the FD? Yes, of course...but you'll 
forgive me, I hope, if I wait for someone other than Maloney and the 
posters at Radio-Info to start taking it seriously before I do the same. 
I don't blame Brian for pushing the story - it's red meat for his 
audience, after all - but I think it's more hot air and smoke than 
anything else at this point.

s