Freedom of Speech

I almost never listen to talk radio. I am too easily given to anger and hate. And talk radio is too full of both for me to venture there without upsetting my serenity. I have listened to Rush Limbaugh from time to time and have always felt that he calculatedly sets out to rile his listeners up with anger and fear. This is a luxury that some can handle. My soul and disposition are too markedly affected by them. Because of the nature of my personality, I experience more than enough anger and fear in the normal course of things.
But I think that talk radio has been good for America. It has gotten points of view expressed that would not otherwise have been expressed. If we had stuck with the MSM we would not even be aware that people would think or say such things. Talk radio and, now, the internet have freed America from the grip of an oppressive censorship that was only growing worse as college faculties have increasingly frozen out divergent voices. There is some irony that the law, English and political science departments of Harvard have competed with the Jesuits of the counter-Reformation in stifling opposing points of view. (My source for the info in this paragraph is David Horowitz.)
And now there is talk that the Democrats in Congress want to stifle free speech in America by reinstituting the so-called fairness doctrine. I'm old enough to remember when the fairness doctrine was in effect. Stations would present two sides of an issue. But some issues have 5 or more sides. And the 'opposing' view was usually represented by a few of the usual boring suspects that made it plain that the whole thing was a charade. It was a ritual bow to the alter of freedom of speech that lacked all respect for that freedom.
Let us be honest. We all know that few in congress care anything for freedom of speech. They are, with all due respect, a bunch of bribe taking time servers. Everyone knows that the Democrats only want the fairness doctrine reinstituted so that they can shut up some people who disagree with them. I would not be surprised if they follow this up with some measure that will price the internet out of the reach of many people. While talking about freedom of speech they will quiet as many voices as they can.