I’m telling!
The first invocation of the “Fairness Doctrine” by some crybaby politician:
Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner lashed back at the backers of a recall effort Monday, accusing them of seeking to gain more power and wealth, but of not having Toledo’s best interests at heart
The mayor said most of the people involved in Take Back Toledo are not Toledo residents.
The mayor attacked Perrysburg developer Brian McMahon, WSPD General Manager Andy Stuart, and Sylvania Township developer Tom Schlachter over their business activities.
“Mr. Schlachter lives in Sylvania Township. Yet this man who has never lived in Toledo wants to take back Toledo,” Mr. Finkbeiner said. “Not on my watch.”
Mr. Finkbeiner accused WSPD-AM, 1370, of violating the Fairness Doctrine in not allowing him to respond to what he said were “vicious, one-sided diatribes” over the last three years, and said he would ask Congress to investigate WSPD.
Program Director Brian Wilson said the Fairness Doctrine doesn’t exist anymore, having been abolished by President Reagan. He said Mr. Finkbeiner would be invited back if he apologizes for having accused the station in the past of airing falsehoods.
…
The mayor made his statement in Toledo City Council chambers, packed with his city directors and commissioners, as well as political supporters. There were also supporters of the recall effort in the group.
(emphasis added)
UPDATE: From a post on Swapbubbles, here is the audio of Mayor Finkbeiner’s rant. I’ve created a transcript of it here:
The Fairness Doctrine principle is violated by WSPD everyday.
WSPD’s vicious, one side diatribes go back years. Today, it is non-stop.
I will be requesting Congressman Henry Waxman of California to have the Energy and Commerce Committee he chairs hold hearings on the radio industry’s abuses of the fairness principle with Toledo’s WSPD being a prime example of such abuse.
I will ask Congressman Waxman and the new Congress to investigate all tapes of WSPD during the past three years during which time I have been and members of the city administration have been denied air time to rebut the falsehoods and glaring misstatements of WSPD radio.
The Fairness Doctrine should be reinstated and practiced in Toledo and across the nation.
So, the mayor won’t sue them for slander or libel (I’m guessing that’s because truth is an absolute defense to those charges), so he’s going to go crying to Washington about some local radio station that has issues with him. Boo hoo. Ever hear of public access TV, other radio stations, blogging, podcasts?
And isn’t it ironic that he chose to use a news conference to whine about someone else’s opinions? Isn’t that a chance to rebut?
But of course, “no one” wants to bring back the Fairness Doctrine, say the liberals.
Heritage has a solid rebuttal to critics who claim “no one” is pushing for the Fairness Doctrine. My list of censorship supporters is here, BTW.
Perhaps related? The House Energy & Commerce Committee is preparing to release its report critical of how FCC Chairman Kevin Martin runs the show.
In other free speech news, Tony Blankley and Sen. John Kyl take their shots against the “Fairness Doctrine”.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute also takes on Obama’s planned media diversity reform: “The reason we aren’t seeing more of the programming that media reformistas desire is not because there’s a paucity of small and distressed station owners, but because most television viewers simply don’t care for the same kind of content as the folks at the Media Access Project.”